So I have been climbing a lot with Jonathan, Tyler and Matt lately. Before I proceed, I will give an update of the three:
Jonathan - He is my boss and a talented climber. He is also the brother of the first female to climb 5.14 on American soil. She was the fourth woman in the world to climb that grade at the time (the other three had apparently climbed at that level before her but in Europe?).
Tyler - A neighbor and Matt's roommate. Tyler is a very strong 5.10 climber who taking his increase in grades very slowly. I think that he will become a strong 5.11 climber by spring.
Matt - Tyler's roommate. He started climbing just a few months ago and is already progressing to 5.8s. Quiet kid, but fun to be around.
Anyway, I have been going about twice a week right now, splitting my time between Tyler and Matt and then with Jonathan. I am finding that my strength is not improving that much, but maybe my technique is. I say this because I am finding that I am getting higher up certain climbs but I am still tiring and need rest to complete them. Instead of increasing my strength, I think that I am subconsciously finding ways to save energy on the way up. I don't know, maybe it is a combination of things, but still, I don't feel any stronger.
Anyway, as I learn certain routes, I am able to finally say that I can climb 5.10 pretty well. Most of them I have to rest a couple of times the first time climbing them, but once I get to know them, there is no rest needed. I am slowly learning to moves to a 5.11 minus and can put together the three separate segments of the run without resting on each one now (unless I don't rest between the second and third and then I need to rest on the third), and that tells me that I should be able to conquer this route within a month.
Still, the trip to California is not going help any. I can only hope that it takes me very little time to get back up to speed after taking more than a week off.
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