The first day I went to Sportrock I noticed the chart of the climbing grade system on the wall that shows what difficulty you should be climbing between bouldering problems and top rope routes. Bouldering problems are rated in the Vermin scale (hence the V[number] marking), and top rope routes are marked in the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) scale. According to the chart, somebody consistently climbing V3 bouldering problems should also be climbing about a 5.11 top rope route. At the time, I had a hard time believing it.

Yesterday, my feelings changed about that chart. My brother and I spent the first two and a half hours climbing all the 5.9 routes we could find. However, I knew that I was a little behind my skill level because I was flashing them with little difficulty. I had tried a 5.10 the other day (on the auto belay system), and didn’t make it, but decided I should try another 5.10 route (especially since my brother could belay for me now).

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As I mentioned a week or two ago, there was a double heel-hooking, slightly inverted V4 in the far corner of the bouldering area at Sportrock that was giving me a lot of trouble – I simply couldn’t figure out the second to last move before topping out.

I’d been running over the problem in my head ever since the first evening I attempted it, mentally trying to work out the issues I was having. As I was in the shower this morning, thinking about rock climbing and that V4 (it’s odd I know, but most of my great ideas come to me in the shower), I came up with another potential solution to completing the V4.

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Today marked the first day since I joined Sportrock that there were 100% new bouldering routes available to climb, as a result of the Friction Bouldering Series Finale on Saturday the 13th. I’d been looking forward to today for the last couple of weeks, and especially this last week since the entire bouldering section was roped off for the staff to set new routes and to keep people off the new routes prior to the competition.

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I hadn’t been to Sportrock since my FF1 class last Wednesday (*tisk tisk*, I know). I had planned to go on Friday, but hadn’t taken into account my 6:00 PM call time in McLean for my MSVA performance (oops). Decided I would go on Saturday, but ended up not feeling very well in the hours preceding the Reston Chorale performance that evening.

I finally made it over to Sportrock for about an hour and a half this afternoon before joining my parents for dinner and then heading off to my 5 PM call for MSVA performance #2. I made sure to take care of my FF1 homework – 5 wall traverses focusing on wall contact and sequencing. In reality, it’s not a difficult task, so I decided to step it up a bit and do all five wall traverses consecutively, without taking breaks in between. THAT was a great workout. I ended up doing 6 wall traverses, because I felt I still had some in me.

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Had a great two hours at Sportrock this evening.  Met up with my buddy Corey, who is a better climber than I am which really helps me reach further and hold on longer in an attempt to keep up.  There is a V5 marked by teal-colored tape in the near corner of the bouldering area that I had been working for about a week now, but kept getting stuck on the fourth move over and over again.  The hold itself wasn’t bad, as you can get all four fingers planted to the first joint, which is plenty to hold on with.  Turned out I was shifting my weight incorrectly to stick the fourth move.  After watching Corey do it effortlessly, I realized the error in my ways and nailed it with ease.  I was pretty stoked to both finally complete that problem and top out my first V5 at Sportrock.  Granted, it was an easier V5… but a V5 nonetheless.

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