Thursday, August 22, 2013

Mental Tricks

Pete at Rushmore Pete at Rushmore

 

Back to Deadwood so I could swim again at the rec center.  You can’t beat a pool for $2.75 where they always have two lanes reserved for lap swimmers and never have any lap swimmers.  While I swam Pete washed our clothes at the laundry mat in Lead.  He didn’t know that the dryers were industrial strength and dried at about 100 degrees in 14 minutes, all for just 8 quarters.  Our clothes are all a little smaller than they used to be but they’re clean and that’s priceless.

 

We squeezed into our clean clothes and climbed near Mt Rushmore in the afternoon.  These climbs weren’t nearly as daunting as Devil’s Tower.  Pete led a few 5.7 and 5.8 climbs.  Once he had a rope set up on the easier climbs then we could try harder ones from the same anchors.  This way he didn’t have to risk leading them, it’s much easier on a top rope because you know the rope will protect you since you are hanging from it.  I came down off one of the 5.7’s that Pete climbed and he suggested I try the one next to it.  I hopped on it and did pretty well until I got half way and my foot slipped and I fell off.  Since Pete was belaying me I only slid an inch or two, not a problem.  But I wondered why I was struggling so much on the 5.8.  That’s when Pete mentioned that it was a 5.10.  Well no wonder.  I don’t know how I missed that.  But I made it up and was pleasantly surprised that I did.  It just shows you how much of climbing is mental.  Had I known it was a 5.10 I wouldn’t have tried it or if I had I wouldn’t have expected to be able to climb it.  Since I thought it was 5.8 I knew I should be able to so I kept trying.