In an effort to try and be more proactive with something, I've started climbing – bouldering, specifically, which is climbing short routes on low walls without harness. Just cushion undernearth. It's also an effort of getting some content into my life that I enjoy to get my mind off work, because I've stressed myself close to the edge with my business.
So far it's been good after 6 or so sessions, because I'm enjoying the climbing quite a bit. I already bought my own shoes so I don't have to rent them, saves money long term (assuming I'll keep climbing for a long time, which I assume I'll do). The shoes are also much better than rented ones. They are just somewhat uncomfortable, because for climbing purposes you need them tighter to get better performance. If the shoe is too big, it's going to be hard to climb small footholds. In the beginning it's supposed to be bit uncomfortable though, because the shoe stretches a lot and molds into the foot, so it's getting less uncomfortable.
I don't understand how some people can jam their feet into a 4 size smaller shoe compared to a regular fit. For me a comfortable regular shoe is 43 or 44 (EU size). My climbing shoe is 42. 41 ½ was already so painful I couldn't walk.
This is how my hand looked after a good 3 hours of climbing. This is actually not bad. In the beginning the skin ripped open, but now it's getting to a point where its hardened enough that there's only minor surface damage.
The sport is like problem solving – which is an aspect I enjoy – and it involves a lot of technique especially when progressing to harder routes. Power is needed, but harder routes are impossible without proper technique. An instructor recommended that in the beginning the best way to learn is to climb lots of easier routes instead of getting stuck on trying to top a hard route, so that's what I've been going with. After I'm out of power, I step a grade lower.
Would you be interested on some video of me climbing? There's one interesting problem I've been working on (it's actually the orange one in the first picture): last time I managed to perform the beginning and the end separately but not the whole route in one go, because I was too tired at the end of the session. Next time I should be able to do it, and I'd like to capture it.
