Climbing Update - Now Officially in the 5.10 Range

          Hey folks, this is the follow up to my post earlier this week.  Just a quick recap:  I started climbing regularly in mid-October of last year.  My first outdoor climbing trip was over Thanksgiving break.  My indoor limit was a 5.9 / 5.9+ and outdoor was 5.8+.  Our rock wall was closed over December.  I started climbing again in January.  A BJJ club opened in town in February, and I restricted my climbing to the weekends.  Last weekend I cleanly climbed an (indoor) 5.9+ that had been giving me problems; and on Wednesday tried a few 5.10s (indoor) with only a few falls each.
          There were two of the 5.10 routes I tried on Wednesday which I had only fallen once on.  My goal for this weekend was to climb both of them cleanly.  Yesterday I did one of them perfectly.  It was a 5.8 route normally, but has special instructions to only use "natural" hands thus making it a 5.10.  Feeling good, I moved on to the next route.  I don't know if I was burned out from the first or what, but I kept slipping and pumping out much sooner than usual.  I decided that one was a good benchmark for the day and finished with some bouldering.  I'll touch back on bouldering in a bit.
          Today I went back to the wall and was ready for business.  I tried the route I had been eyeing and fell about where I normally do, I went ahead and finished the route anyway.  Later that session I went ahead and tried it again.  This time I fell fairly early and asked my belayer to lower me down so I could start the route fresh.  I tried again, and fell at the same spot.  I was done for that attempt.  Later in the evening I decided to give it one more shot.  I made it through the moves where I had fallen earlier that session but while changing grips, moving up a chimney, my hand slipped.  Fortunately my face smacked the other side of the chimney, creating a "smear" hold and kept me from falling.  It actually wasn't to painful but I was glad I have a solid chin!  As I moved to where I had fallen on my first few attempts I got a handful of a fairly juggy hold which (having done the route before) signaled to me that I was through the hard part(s).  I was going to do this.  I took a moment to collect myself on the nice hold and climbed on with a great deal of excitement.  My first two 5.10 routes were in the books!  One might have been a fluke or a mis-graded route, but two (in my  mind) declares that I'm now out of that "beginner" realm and moving on to some "not you're average" routes.  I topped off the session with some bouldering and "playing" on a 5.10+.
          Back to bouldering.  With my short and stocky build you'd think that I was cut from the mold for boulderings few (in quantity) powerful and difficult moves.  I have been onto this idea for quite a while.  However, I knew that the skill level required would be higher.  On a whim I jumped on a V3 boulder problem, fell on the first few attempts, but eventually got it.  In retrospect, I remember telling myself that I would not start integrating bouldering into my routine until I could climb a 5.10.  Coincidentally, that is EXACTLY how it worked out!
          Climbing a V3 and a 5.10 is nothing special in the climbing world.  There are tons of climbers out there climbing 5.12s and and the best in the world projecting 5.15s.  However, I'm taking pride in this accomplishment.  Jiu Jitsu is where my heart is.  I'm a grappler who climbs in his spare time.  But notching my first 5.10s signifies that I am not your average "athletic" built "Mr. Muscles" walking into a climbing gym off the street.  As I stated in the last post, I'm not writing this to brag.  I'm writing it as a doctrine of my accomplishments.  I'm writing in the spirit of (as the title of this blog suggests) being an "open source" athlete.

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