With rain, comes lots of gym time...

Last week was a pretty wet week and weekend, so most of my climbing was relegated to the Climb at Blue Ridge gym in Greenville. J-Rock, as usual, has set some of the best indoor routes in the area, and some of the best I've climbed around the country. Rarely does he equate a harder route with only smaller holds and longer reaches, like many gyms and route setters tend to do...he is the master at forcing you to make a specific, sometimes extremely difficult, movement in order to complete the route. In the long run, this IS what always makes a classic route classic, outdoors or indoors; different, distinctive movement or memorable use of holds.

I spent most of my time bouldering but roped up for a few routes, including an onsight of "Starry Messenger", a great, slopey, Fontainebleau-ish 5.11. The boulder problems were outstanding also...I climbed 5 V4's, 2 V5's and an onsight/flash of a V6. Seeing as how my goal for the year was to climb 5 V4's and 2 V5's, and I climbed that and a V6 this week...it was a really good climbing week for me.

I had hoped to go to Rumbling today, but I just dont have enough time to make it worthwhile. So, instead I'm heading to send some of the harder climbs we've found at Jedi...the Lord Sidius Arete V4 has been calling me. I have a week off of work next week and plan on rapping up the climbing season by climbing my butt off. I am hoping to head to Grandmothers and Blowing Rock boulders, as well as, rope up at Table Rock and some of the other great crags in the Linville Gorge. I'm also planning on hitting about 8-10 other boulder spots...like 4-5 areas in Pisgah (Shangrila, Nowhere, North Side, Nose, Fate), Granite City, Rumbling (if open), possibly Yonah, and all of the local areas (Jedi, Bearfields, Little Easy, Aztek, Rhodorete). I tend to do more than just climb on a day off, so I'm also planning on getting some mountain biking and kayaking in. With my wedding rapidly approaching, I need to spend more time on that than climbing (or at least that's what my fiance keeps saying:)). We are planning our honeymoon, so its not really the end of the climbing season...just a lull til I get to Europe in mid-May, then I can look forward to a summer of bouldering on the coast of Portugal and then my dream trip to Fontainebleau.

Be on the lookout for a new Local Spot this week...it'll probably be Granite City or maybe the Nowhere boulders in Pisgah. With the heat starting to show up, I'll start to post a few deep water spots before too long also.