5.11 on plastic

Posted by on February 16th, 2012  •  0 Comments  •  Full Article

Lisa, Tim, Sue and I met Phil at the Seattle Vertical World climbing gym Tuesday after work. Tim had never climbed before, but he did great for a beginner. Sue had fun on some 5.8’s. Phil led a 5.11 stem problem in a corner. I watched him climb it and it looked like my kind of climb. When he offered to let me follow it, I declined and led it instead. I don’t climb elevens. In fact, I have a rule: “Friends don’t let friends climb elevens.”

But there I was, leading up an eleven. Granted, it was on plastic, in a gym with close bolts. But still, on-sighting an eleven is a big deal for me. I’ve not led an eleven on-sight, ever. But as Phil commented when he lowered me: “Dude, you totally hiked that thing!” Phil is a good influence on me. He is a very solid partner. He knows me so well that he can predict which routes I will do well on. We had some great days back at Edgeworks. It was so cool to hook up with him in the big leagues up in Seattle.

Hiking a hard route, in climbing lingo means that you climbed it so well that you made it look as easy as walking. A more common situation for me is to make an easy route look hard. Easy for my mostly younger friends anyway.

I’ve been investigating getting into video. Android App development was not a good fit for me. I tried it, but spending the time it required just didn’t fit my personality. But before I can get into video I need to sell enough things to be able to upgrade my camera to something with video capability. I’m leaning toward the Canon 7D, or it’s successor which will come out this summer. The 7D is a three year old camera, so it would be smart to save money and sell previous hobby hardware until it comes out.

I refuse to go into debt (put a new camera on plastic), so I need to sell things to pay for the new one. Ham radios going on sale soon. Clint just got a new phone. I hope he likes it. He’s never had a smart phone before, but most of his friends have them, they seem to be the fashion accessory of the upwardly mobile.