If you start Inverted Layback at the crack\/arete on the left, there’s a lot of climbing on it. But whether you start on the left or straight up the middle, the climb comes down to a single moment when you pick up your left foot, the moment when you begin the “inverted layback.”<\/p>\n
Last weekend at Cathedral, Steve and I were trying to figure out how to start the second pitch of Pooh (or Rollin and Tumblin, depending on who you believe). It’s a hand crack once you get there, but it’s a seam first, and although we had a nice Alien in to keep us from falling off the ledge, the first couple of moves are thin and only marginally protected. There’s a huge, honking, obvious left foot, but once you step up on it, you’re locked in for the whole ride. Ultimately, we decided there was no smooth way to transition into the crack. As on Inverted Layback, throwing the foot up and committing to the moves that follow is the only option.<\/p>\n
The next day at Whitehorse, the commitment was more gradual. On a slab, each step takes you farther from the bolt, each step makes the sequence harder to reverse. The actual do-or-die moment is harder to define and therefore easier to postpone. Am I committed yet? How about now? Can I still change my mind? Maybe I will.<\/p>\n
Based on these three data points, I do better with big leaps than baby steps, though my mind tells me otherwise. I seek out ways to ease into the climb, to leave my options open, but options can lead to distracting self talk. Commitment leads to “quiet mind.”<\/p>\n
“We’re doing this<\/i>,” I said, throwing my pack down at the bottom of Inverted Layback and ending a lot of discussion and aimless wandering. Quiet mind.<\/p>\n
Disneyland, 5.6 (Dawn)
Le Plie, 5.7 (Steven)
Crass, 5.10 (TR)
Inverted Layback, 5.9 (P1: Dawn, P2: Mark)
Yellow Ridge, 5.7 (P1 & 2: Steven, P3: Dawn)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you start Inverted Layback at the crack\/arete on the left, there’s a lot of climbing on it. But whether you start on the left or straight up the middle, the climb comes down to a single moment when you pick up your left foot, the moment when you begin the “inverted layback.” Last weekend… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,9,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cathedral","category-gunks","category-whitehorse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}