Went for my induction / evaluation for a 21-day challenge that HV signed me for at her gym. Did some exercise, with and without weights and the coach said I had good movement, and HV, who popped in to see me at the end, said I’m much better than she was when she started. But it was kind of weird to be using all these fancy, weightlifting-like equipment that I used to be very intimidated by at gyms, back in the day when I used to go. It was always used by serious looking, muscular men. The coach asked me if I’ve ever carried a bar on my back. I was like: “No, when and why would I ever have done that?” Again, it was always the men’s domain at gyms. And he also asked me to use a TRX piece of equipment, which I’ve never used before. After the session, I felt really happy and pumped. I think exercise really gives me amazing endorphines.

I had resolved to go for social climbing after work, because I want to climb more regularly, and HV isn’t as keen. But I almost flaked out because I was tired (slept poorly last night), and had already gymmed (sort of), and the climbing centre was far etc. But in the end, I went ahead, and it was a lot of fun, also a great work out, slightly eventful at one point + good training!

I met some nice people. In particular, I got on with an Italian girl called Cat (Catarina), who is super graceful when she descend (she used to do ballet), and also does swing. She had broken up a couple of months ago, and went through a phase of trying all the swing classes (like me), and finally settled into the Blues class, which I’ve never tried (she does 5+ routes). Chris, a really tall, half-Dutch / half-Swiss guy who is now based in Sussex but temporarily in London – he’s really tall but surprisingly light – 65kg (he was doing 6+ routes). Melissa, an Asian American who is in Europe for holiday – landed in London on Tuesday, and decided to some climbing here, before heading to Spain, where she will also be doing some climbing (she does 6+ routes). Elliott, a really experienced, but rather gung-ho climber who “bullied” me / really pushed me to try harder grades (I actually managed to get halfway through one 5+ and almost to the top on another), and informally coached me on how to plan my routes and climb effectively to improve and also (he tried and completed a 7A route). And Eugene, a British-born half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese guy, who has been climbing for 3+ years, who Elliott said is a very steady and safe pair of hands for belaying (I think he easily does 5+ routes).

At some point during the social climbing session, I almost got into a mishap involving Elliott. Cat belayed Elliott at first, but Elliott had fallen off and sat in the air for a bit when he was trying the 7A route while Cat was belaying him. She got a bit stressed and fed up of belaying him (it probably didn’t help that she didn’t have the best brace position), so I offered to belay him.

Before I belayed him for the first time, I had asked him how much he weighed (63kg), and he asked if he could also ask my weight (I said, 52kg today). I have no problems exchanging weight info. And I think top roping is probably one of the social sports where I imagine it must be entirely acceptable (or even common) for people to ask each other’s weight. I can’t imagine in what other settings would it be perfectly normal for guys to ask girls their weights! So he said, okay that’s 11kg that needs to be covered by friction.

Because I’m historically used to belaying AJ who was probably ~75kg, I’m really aggressive in taking out slack, have quite a good brace position, and also used to anchoring myself. In this case, I had no anchor, but was quite aggressive in taking out slack, given his frequent falls. At some point, he asked me to give him a bit more slack so he can move around better and continue his climb. But as I was releasing the rope – and there was slack on my side of the rope, which didn’t really seem to release slack on his side of the rope, because of friction – he also fell off. I was partway releasing the rope, which had more slack than normal, and not in a brace position… so I was surprised and was slightly lifted off my feet and was pulled forward a couple of steps before I managed to brace myself and stop the fall. I think everyone in the vicinity turned and looked in some alarm – and Cat came over and asked me if I needed help – but I said I was fine. I was slightly shaken, but I didn’t really think I was in serious danger of dropping Elliot. I don’t know how he felt. When he got down, he gave me some tips on how to release slack (take a step forward, rather than releasing rope), and still trusted me enough for me to continue belaying the rest of that climb and several more times after that – so I guess he was net fine with it. To be fair, after that incident, I did become much better at belaying him – partly because I knew where in that route he was likely to fall, so I was prepared for that, and I’d brace myself in advance, and could almost sit down. Although I bruised my left forearm at some point while belaying him / breaking his fall.

I spent 2.5 hours at social climbing, which was a lot more climbing than I had expected to be able to do – generally… and also because I’m slightly injured (busted my left shoulder a bit from my last climb with HV), and also did some weights / gym training today. But I felt pumped and happy after the session. I’ll definitely continue doing this. It’s good to challenge myself – mentally / socially, and physically!