ROCK AND ROLL!!!

Rock is rock.

Yesterday I managed to get some climbing outside of a plastic and chalk filled gym, and it's been just great.

I had done a small fingerboard session late on saturday night, just to give my body a wake up call, and not to let it forget that this moment of finesse and technique refinement goes along with the search of the ultimate power, like a nuclear plant that regenerates itself.

Anyway...

We were at Chiesina, home of the infamous roof (ex) project, and of some serious pulling on finger eating trachyte.

Ahh, the feeling of the shoes actually sticking on something not polished, the texture of the rock, the wind, the sun, the unimaginable power that comes from having a few nice girls around. Testosterone pulling, that was.

I felt very good, very good. I did the usual circuit with some nice variations without breaking a sweat, and at the end of the day I did the 7b+/7c version of the roof, the easiest line with a left exit. It must get a name, it's getting complicated now...

In the meanwhile I had tried the hardcore line under the roof, the eliminate, the project of a lifetime, and finally with a small foot adjustment I manged to do the only one move that still I hadn't done, from the vertical pinch to the small small crimp. So now I've done all the moves, I just have to put them together. It's worth remembering, to myself mostly, that the first move is still goddamn hard, proof is that yesterday I couldn't do it, although I only had three goes at it and anyway nearly got it.

Thinking again on the grade matter, especially about the two hard lines I sent this winter, Out of Service and The First of the Mohicans, yesterday was a very important day. It confirmed my thoughts, they are both very hard, in the 8a range. Why so? Because I've struggled alot on them, much more than on other problems of slightly lower grade. I've climbed in The Cave of Justice recently, and know what power is, but even if I couldn't climb much, I was able to do Rock Atrocity in two halves after 36 hours of traveling with 3 hours of sleeping. I have done 7b+ and 7b's in Fontainebleau in a few goes, in less than a couple of hours, doing all the moves very quickly and falling off due to bad climbing or just being pumped. I have almost done 7c in Font, and done all the moves bar one on a 8a there.

So if I'm fit, if I'm climbing on my terrain (steep rock with powerful moves), and if conditions are average, if I can't manage a move at least half of the tries it must be hard.

Yesterday proved that these two problems are damn hard.

Another proof is the recent trip to California of a few italian pullers amongst which there was the climber who had climber Out of Service first. Needless to say he quickly dispatched Mandala 8a+, and found many many 8a's there "very very soft". He clearly has no clue about grades and clearly had no clue about Out of Service grade.

Finally, I resolved to sandpaper my gym climbing shoes' soles, let's see if they stick or suck.