The Chalk Bag
Rock Climbing Blog by Derek Rippe
Climbing Carnage
Feb 5th
Let’s start a new category here, one that every climber can empathize with: Climbing Carnage!
Let’s face it – scrapes, scratches, flappers, sprains, breaks (God forbid) and all sorts of other bodily harm comes with the territory that so many of us love. For some, an injury marks the end of a climbing session. For the rest, an injury is more of a badge of honor or that motivating factor that shouts “this route will not beat me… bring it on!”. The only remedy: tape up and keep going. Most people think we are crazy, but in a strange, twisted reality… we are used to it.
Time to start posting
Jan 28th
Well, for anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Jon Rippe…Derek’s younger brother. He seems to want me to start posting some of my own climbing stories and thoughts, and seeing as how I’m bored at work at the moment, I’m making my first post.
I’ve been climbing now for a month. Derek took me and our younger brother out to Sportrock on Christmas Eve to do some climbing, and I signed up for my own membership that day. I usually try to get there 3-4 times a week for a couple hours. Now I’ve been taking kickboxing for almost a year (currently training to be an instructor), so I certainly had a bit of an advantage starting out with a low body weight of 130lbs and a decent amount of upper body strength. I started climbing with the ability to climb a 5.8, a couple 5.9′s, and some V1′s.
Bouldering at the V6 level
Jan 21st
It’s been about a week and a half since I’ve updated everyone on my climbing “life” and that’s largely because I hadn’t been to the gym in almost a week and the prior two sessions I just wasn’t feeling it.
I wanted to get into the gym this weekend, but ended up being a couch potato. My Xbox 360 had been out for repairs during the entire holiday season, and I got it back right about the time of my last post. Feeling obligated to make up for an entire month’s worth of gaming (not really), I ended up buying a copy of Fable II and played that for about 16 hours this weekend (oops). Glad I got that out of my system.
Climbing Fatigue
Jan 10th
If you read my last post, you would recall that I was smashing routes all over Sportrock Wednesday night. Well, I must have really overworked my fingers and arms because last night at the gym was quite possibly one of my worst climbing sessions to date. I felt a little weak after my V0 warmup, and was winded after completing one of my favorite V3s that I can practically do blindfolded. I couldn’t complete any of the V4s I’d completed on Wednesday, and struggled with the Junior Team Campus Training routes that I usually enjoy.
Endurance is obviously a large factor in the success of long routes or multi-pitch climbs, and I would assume that the best climbers out there have both an incredible level of endurance and efficient techniques for managing fatigue. I know that my climbing endurance is one of my biggest problem areas, and I’m curious as to how you deal with climbing fatigue.
V3s and V4s and V5s, Oh My!
Jan 7th
Enjoy the mildly creative titles while they last, I don’t think I can keep this up for much longer (I might have to actually resort to SEO-friendly titles, and where is the fun in that!).
I almost didn’t go to Sportrock tonight. I haven’t had an evening to kick back and relax since… Dec. 30th I think. After cleaning Piper’s tank (my pet ball python) and taking care of some web work for a client, all I really wanted to do was sit down and watch The City of Lost Children, a French film that came in from Netflix today. But, my brother was taking his first of three FF1 Sessions and I told him I would meet up and climb with him afterwards, so I saddled up and headed out. It was the best decision I’d made all week, haha.
Moving On Up: 5.11-
Jan 3rd
Just a quick update tonight since I’m really tired and want to crawl into bed. Went to Sportrock again today (third day in a row), seeing as I had some free time and felt like I still had some strength left in my fingers.
Started off climbing 5.9s as usual, and then climbed the 5.10- I have done repeatedly over the last two days. Sportrock was quite crowded for a while today, so ropes were in short supply and we didn’t feel like searching or waiting for another rope to free up so we stayed where we were. My brother climbed the 5.10- after me (and completed it!), and I was eyeing a 5.11- marked with bright yellow tape (easy to see!). I decided to give it a whirl.
The 5.10 Milestone
Jan 2nd
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).
A Great Day At Sportrock
Dec 28th
As I mentioned a week or two ago, there was a double heel-hooking, slightly inverted V4 in the far corner of the bouldering area at Sportrock that was giving me a lot of trouble – I simply couldn’t figure out the second to last move before topping out.
I’d been running over the problem in my head ever since the first evening I attempted it, mentally trying to work out the issues I was having. As I was in the shower this morning, thinking about rock climbing and that V4 (it’s odd I know, but most of my great ideas come to me in the shower), I came up with another potential solution to completing the V4.
Santa Claus Came To Town… And He Brought Shoes!
Dec 27th
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I spent about 4 hours over the course of two days at the local Eastern Mountain Sports store trying on climbing shoes. My tired 5.10 Spires needed to be replaced with something a little more modern with a little more toe and a little less suck. After trying on every shoe, I ended up choosing the La Sportiva Nago.
Of course, I then had to wait a month to actually get the shoes, as they were a Christmas present from my parents. After a month of patiently waiting and growing ever more frustrated with my 5.10s, Christmas morning finally arrived. Sportrock was closed Christmas day, so there wasn’t much I could do with them that morning (unless I wanted to mark up the walls at my parent’s house climbing on doorways and banisters, but I knew better), but the much anticipated day had finally arrived.
Fast Forward 1 – Part 3
Dec 17th
Well, tonight was the third and final session of the Fast Forward 1 class at Sportrock. The techniques and skills we had learned in the first two sessions were to prepare us for the this session, where we would be sequencing routes on the 40 ft. wall. As I mentioned last week, I was a little nervous about top-roping because I had no idea what my level of endurance was and how that would play out when climbing a 40 ft. route instead of 12 ft. bouldering problem.
Discussions