Ouch! Dammit!

Hound Ears October 2009. Let me assure you there will be a story written about this particular boulder field. Most of the climbs there are incredibly sharp and I must admit that the whole time I climbed there I preyed to myself that my feet would not give out. Instant carnage. I am very happy with my climbing there although I did not project anything due to the fact that in competitions it is unwise to give any one problem more than five goes. I must find a way to get in there so that I can attempt to project some of the lines that I found to be the most thrilling. Luckily, I do play a bit of golf. (wink wink, etc.) Speaking of thrilling I must share some of the highlights of my $50 bouldering session. First, I climbed for a bit and then went down to a classic V2 called Brutus. Well, Brutus lies in a corridor and essentially it has that name for a very very good reason. I thought to myself, "Oh! If I feel like I'm going to fall, I will just swing my leg back and rest on the wall behind me." Well, if you ever think something like that to yourself if you are in a similar climbing situation then don't climb that climb. Here is a case and point. I fell off Brutus near the top, while most of my body was still in the corridor. I did not even know I was going to fall but my feet slipped while I was "initiating the top out sequence" and due to this I started falling, hit my back on the wall behind me and landed on my ass. Luckily I was parallel to the two walls by the time my fall was complete. It was very 'Wylie Coyote' because on the way down I saw some of the spectators and I had time to think to myself "it cannot be that bad." I am glad I was right but soon after that all the people that wanted to climb Brutus walked away because they were not willing to risk the fall hazard and therefore they did not get to see my shaky second attempt where I actually sent the damn thing. You can just call me Caesar from now on. Then I was joined my boyfriend and two members of the BRG climbing community who had the intense pleasure of spotting me on the lovely highball Gin and Juice which is called a V3 but certainly is not. I got to the crux of the climb and asked my beloved boyfriend and spotter if he 'had me' and he says back to me, "Don't fall! There are NOT enough crash pads down here!" All the while I was 25 feet up in the air and still have a few more feet to go. I was not worried though. I knew I would be fine. The only hard part was getting back down once you fully topped it out because as a first time climber at Hound Ears it can be rather disorienting. Ok, enough about me. What about you? Happy Bouldering Season!!!