Monkey Looks back at a Year of Climbing

THIS is what I climb atop for my euphoria.

This Thursday I hit another milestone - redpointing my first 6c lead route at Redpoint Climbing Centre.

It was my second attempt at the route, after falling off the crux during my onsight attempt last week. Oh and I mentioned doing this at Redpoint Centre because of their supposed higher grade level (*shrugs*).

So I messed up a move at one point, which left me wrong handed at a crucial section - managed to slowly sorted myself out and recovered; rested properly and cruised the crux with conviction.

As I topped out though, I realised that I wasn't get the sense of euphoria that I was expecting. It wasn't like I was playing it cool either, I just felt calm (but not zen) about it.

Having thought about it on the way home, I suddenly I realised exactly why - it's been exactly one year since I had my first climbing session, after passing my belay test.

Monkey Progresses

I was so chuffed, I grew a fist mustache

So this weekend, I spotted a nasty looking 6c+ that I still hadn't tried yet. Monkey saw, monkey climbed.

My expectations were as non-existence, besides maybe falling off a load of times, apologising to Eloise on the camera and cringing at the recording to figure out what went wrong.

Except I didn't really get stuck at all. I fell off on a move because I rushed into it, I could have recomposed myself, I could have grown a manly beard. Hindsight is a bitch eh? Could I seriously have on-sighted a 6c+? Who knows? Who cares?

So instead tonight I decided to tried another 6c route, and on-sighted the shit out of it.