Aug 18-20: Climbing in Sandrock, Alabama

So not much blogging lately. Well, I'm in Florida, so there isn't much climbing happening. I did go freediving in Blue Springs once again, but I barely broke 45 feet on my deepest dive. Or I COULD tell you about the time we took a "roadtrip" to the Melbourne climbing gym so I could get my hands in some fake crack, but that would be really lame. Rest assured, I haven't stopped climbing. In fact I may be climbing too much, I go to the gym three or four times a week, and recently the base of my middle left finger is getting really sore. I know a few climbers with finger injuries, so I'm careful. I've stopped bouldering (which is what hurts my finger the most), I even avoid hard routes on toprope. I've just been doing laps on 5.8ish routes on TR to work on my endurance.

Anyway, apart from lots of plastic pulling, I got to get back on real rock again last weekend at Sandrock in Alabama. Last time I was in Sandrock was last Thanksgiving with Hung and Eric, I got spanked on a 5.11a/b called Never Believe. This time my goal was to redpoint it. But I totally forgot the sequence for the crux, so I had to work it again from the beginning. After working out the sequence on the first day, I came back the second day hoping for a redpoint. We had to leave by noon to make it back to Florida by midnight, so I only had one shot. The crux started right after the first bolt until you pull the small roof past the third bolt. I was too pumped to link all the moves to push through the crux. I fell twice near the crux, then had to take near the top when I ran out of juice. Not even close to redpoint.

Maybe next year.