The 5.10 Milestone

The first day I went to Sportrock I noticed the chart of the climbing grade system on the wall that shows what difficulty you should be climbing between bouldering problems and top rope routes. Bouldering problems are rated in the Vermin scale (hence the V[number] marking), and top rope routes are marked in the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) scale. According to the chart, somebody consistently climbing V3 bouldering problems should also be climbing about a 5.11 top rope route. At the time, I had a hard time believing it.

Yesterday, my feelings changed about that chart. My brother and I spent the first two and a half hours climbing all the 5.9 routes we could find. However, I knew that I was a little behind my skill level because I was flashing them with little difficulty. I had tried a 5.10 the other day (on the auto belay system), and didn’t make it, but decided I should try another 5.10 route (especially since my brother could belay for me now).

Even though I was kind of tired (we had just climbed about six 5.9s), I wasn’t going to leave with out trying a 5.10. I narrowed it down to two, and just picked one. Planned as much as I could from the ground, then started climbing. There were a couple of tricky spots, but much to my amazement I flashed it! I was stoked, to say the least. Had a huge grin on my face for the rest of the time we were at the gym.

I put my brother on the same route next because I didn’t think it was that hard, but he was pretty tired after the previous 5.9 that had a couple of slopers and small holds on it. He made it about half way before deciding he was done for the day. I think he’ll be doing 5.10s by the end of the month though.

I felt I had a little more in me and wanted wanted to try one more 5.10 before leaving. Again, did as much planning as I could from the ground (you can’t even see what color the glossy tape is at the top due to the glare from the lights), and went on my merry way. This one was a little tougher, and had a few stretched out moves in it, but yet again… flashed it.

So if I am able to flash 5.10s (granted, I don’t know what level 5.10 they were), I probably need to start looking at 5.11s. My new goal is to be doing 5.11s consistently by the end of the month. I’d like to get myself into the FF2 class here as soon as possible, but I think I’m going to wait until my brother completes FF1 so that we can start taking the classes together.

Just got invited to go to Sportrock again today with Corey (the assistant manager over at EMS), and I’m sure we’ll be doing both bouldering and top roping. We’ll see how long my fingers hold out today, as they are just a little achy. I have to be there in an hour though, so I better get moving!