Indoor Climbing

After my amazing experience with outdoor climbing I was pretty anxious to get back to the climbing gym and do some more training. Indoor climbing and outdoor climbing are completely different animals – there really is no comparison, but climbing indoors is a great way to build up strength and endurance and to practice tecnicque and body positioning. Before I got started I was curious about how it would feel to be back on the wall. Before climbing outside I was scared of small holds and would avoid them at all costs. After hanging out on a cliff with little tiny holds I wasn’t quite so nervous about them!

I started my night on a 5-8 for a warm-up and then went over to a 10c that I had been working on (and only able to do 3/4 of the way previously). I was feeling pretty good at that point and made it up to the top without too much difficulty. I worked up a good sweat but didn’t take any falls. Next up was a 10d. I won’t pretend I wasn’t rather intimidated by that! My friend pushed me to try it – basically I have trouble with overhangs. It takes a LOT to get me over an overhang, by far my weakest point. This 10d was a flat wall, no overhang – bonus! So up I went and to my surprise it wasn’t that bad! There were a few moments were I had to sit back and take a break and I took one fall and had to work myself back up but I got to the top! There was one hold at the top that I “cheated” on. My arms were pumped and I was sooo close, I grabbed it and finished the climb (it wasn’t on my route). But to that point it was all 10d.

So I’m feeling pretty good about myself and decide to try a tough looking 10c. No problem right? I just finished a d after all. Not so much! I got MAYBE a third of the way up – fell. Got back on the wall and tried again. Fell. Tried a third time. Fell. One last time and while I got a couple of moves higher I was DONE. So then it was over to my favourite wall (favourite because I have yet to be able to complete a climb on it due to the big overhang at the start and it’s a great challenge). I tried another 10c route on that wall, sadly I couldn’t do that one either. Barely got off the ground. After 3 attempts on that route and another 2 attempts on a 10b on the same wall I was done. My fingers had packed it in and my new callouses were protesting. It was time to burn it out on the bouldering wall and call it a night. At least I have a nice challenge for the next time I go – and a projec – get over that overhang!!

The lesson of the night? You can’t have an ego with climbing. Each and every route has it’s own challenges and while you might be able to finish a 10d one minute, a 10b will give you problems the next. So keep training and enjoy it – no matter what the numbers and letters on the tape at the bottom say.