YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

My back hurts, and I have a deep hole in my right index finger.

Yesterday I decided the risk of driving almost 500 kms to get some cool temps and good bouldering on new problems, after the rain, was worth. So I drove, and was awarded with a fresh breeze, dry rock and and a send.

I have a few names on my ticklist, for the place where I was yesterday, but two of them I can't try them on my own, and another one... oh well, I wanted new problems.

I put my eyes on a nice overhanging arete, "Spigolo Gandolfo 7b+", with one clear burly move to get the lip, and then a line of four rounded seams, really beautiful and really finger friendly. All this finger friendlyness was for making it even with the spike on the starting crimp. After my first try (that should have been the only one as I tought I was going to flash it, AH AH) my skin already was rolling; after the second one i had to sandpaper a big chunk of skin that had rolled even more, and after the third try I was proper cut. Deeply cut. A serious flapper. Keith, you know what I'm saying, don't you.

So I thought "What would Keith do?" Obviously the first answer was "He whould of flashed it, so now he would move on". I thought that he would have stayed and he would have thrown everything at that piece of shit of a crimp. So I put 5 millimeters of tape on my finger and proceeded to unlock the rest of the sequence.

Given that there are just four holds left, I wasn't thinking it would have taken me two hours. I need a mathematician to calculate how many tries you have to do to link four holds using two hands in different sequences. Very rounded footholds didn't help much, but I'm very proud of my feet now.

Anyway, I didn't want to leave.

Soon enough, the starting hold began to flex. Yes, to flex, with a big chunk of rock too. There were bits of loose rock inside. I removed them and this made the edge more flat, so that the spike was no longer killing me. Next go I crushed it. I mean, I really did. Once I got properly the first hold, it was just motoring to the top. Nice one.

Then I met power monster Michele Caminati working a project under a big boulder jammed in a gully. Impressive setting and impressive pulling on nothing.

On the drive home, two hours and half, I made a few phone calls to pass time. I called The Guru, a few friends, and my girlfriend. She asked me: "Did you climb something?" I said: "Yes! Spigolo Gandolfo!" She asked: "How hard is it?" "7b+" I said. "Oh you climbed nothing, that is." Was the final answer.

Really, you reap what you sow.