Chris and I climb fairly regularly. We -try- to go once a week or so, but invariably stuff will happen to obstruct that. On Wednesday we went, which was the first time in about three weeks for me. The previous week Chris had been sick and the week before that I was in Indiana.

For those who've never climbed before, a primer:
In a gym, different routes will be rated for different difficulties. It starts at VB (Basic), then goes V0-, V0, V0+, V1, V2, etc. Theoretically, routes could get infinitely harder. I think the most difficult I've seen in the gym is a V10 or V11. You can usually judge how difficult a route is by how easy the holds are, how many holds there are, how much hanging or stretching there is, and how much you need to do complex movements. A very easy route (VB) will have easy holds, many of them, and it will hold your weight well. For slightly more difficult routes, they could either made the grips a bit more sparse or more difficult to hold, require you to hang a bit more or whatever.

For me, I've tended to handle V0's with regularity. V0+'s may give me some trouble though. I had tried some V1's, but never really got anywhere.

In any case, when we got there, Chris started out on a V1 which we'd tried the last time I climbed. It seemed like a fun route, but a bit more difficult than we'd done previously. That session, I wasn't at my best, so I cheated a bit to get going by going to a "save point" and starting a couple holds in. Even so, we only managed a few moves before fatigue and whatnot overtook us.

After Chris gave it a go, I decided to try. I got in position from the start and then... just did it. First time.

Over the course of the session, I finished that route and three others (another V1 and two V0+'s) which had been defeating me previously. All of them I got first time out. Made me feel really good about the session. I think I'll want to try and get the top out certification so I can do the routes all the way to the top of the bouldering wall, now.


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Since our D&D group has been put on hiatus for the summer, I've decided (after some consideration) to run a Shadowrun campaign. This will be my first experience running a game in close to ten years, so we'll see how it goes. Right now it looks like Pete and Wooko will be players, and I think we're going to invite Lance as well.

If anyone in the general area would like to play, I think it'd be fine to add another two players or so. I expect the campaign will go for about 3 or 4 sessions, about once a month, over the course of the summer. We'll be using the Shadowrun 4th edition rules. If you want to, just ping me in a comment.

I'm also giving some thought to running a modified 7th Sea or an Earthdawn campaign. Those would be further down the line, though.

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I'd also like to do a BBQ or two over the summer. Now that I've done my first test batch of chili, I feel more confident making some for a bigger get-together. Plus I've got some buffalo burgers and BBQs are always good.