A night at the wall:

Last night after cooking a dinner of grilled Johnson BBQ chicken and some sort of instant frozen veggies (eh...) Kristen joined me for a night of climbing at what I have dubbed "Mt. Libertyville". Climbing went well I would have to say. Kristen was getting back in to the swing of things after taking a month off because of coaching and the other stresses that teachers need to endure. I scaled up (twice) the right side of the front face (I need to come up with route names for these...) We'll call this one "Z cold nose". For months I had tried to climb Z cold nose a number of times, but kept getting shot down by it's crux. I found the trick for me a few weeks back. In involves the "one arm death hang" and the ability to lift your knees to your chest at about the same time. (Sounds fun huh?) After my warm up of climbing up and down* (which actually took place before I climbed Z cold nose) I had decided to give my two most recent projects a go. The first is a bitch, a mega-mini-crippy 5.9 (or so Brain has rated it ;)) i'll call it "The Crimpy Bitch" the biggest hold is about the size of your thumb. I have managed to work my way up to the crux, a 1 foot roof. Which is about the time my hands just recoil by themselves, my middle finger sticks it self up and I fall to the ground. (Note to self: develop more finger strength. )

"They are called Fingers...but you never see them fing" - Otto

The second (which there is a pic of me getting of the first of two cruxes on my flickr page) is a double roof route. I have just about mastered getting over the first roof, which involves a nice little dyno to a hold that is just above the second roof. That's about the place where I get stuck. Just gotta keep climbing it like I did with Z cold nose.

* Down climbing:
There are a few key benefits to adding down climbing to your routine.
1. Teaches you good footwork as you are constantly looking down as to where to place your feet next.
2. You might need to down climb a route out on real rock for one reason or the other.
3. Twice the workout!