TWO DAYS

I'm happy to finally feel some soreness in my forearms, instead of just gym induced DOMS. I managed to score two days of good climbing, one in Sasso the other one in Lagoni: in both cases my long long drives were rewarded by a beautiful, strong wind blowing, making the rock feeling not greasy as it could be in this very hot summer. So I was very pleased to finally crank some. I have to say that I felt quite powerful, as long as my wrist doesn't hurt, but still I climb very very carefully, which naturally hinders hard performances: every time I have to slap to something with right hand I pause, reflect, and then I try to go static and adjust, trying to put pressure on the hold very gradually to notice even the slightest pain. It's a very difficult way of climbing, and it totally takes all the concentration and focus off from the problem, but it's good because I'm staying on my feet and getting some climbing, which is always good.

Again I was alone in both places, and again in Lagoni I was shocked by how messed up grades can be there. I think, and I say so with the greatest respect, admiration and friendship for him, that everything opened by Caminati and his posse is undergraded. Probably being able to crush holdless 8b's and 8b+'s in Font, makes him a bit too comfortable on 8a's with actual holds to be pulled. There's one problem that I wanted to try (and do sooner or later) called "Viaggio Astrale", Font 8a (it's featured here http://www.mentana104.it/video/viaggio.htm ).

It's the extended version of a Font 6b+ traverse. Before trying the crux moves, I thought "Let's get the easy bit wired as a warm up". Blimey, I couldn't do it. I think the easy traverse is at least Font 7a. Mind: ten minutes before I had done a short 7a+ in a few tries, and later I flashed another 7a+.

Anyway, I'm happy that I can climb for a couple of days without major pain with the wrist and I hope this is the start of a renewed period of absolute brutality.