Friday, September 7, 2012

Seam Nightmares at Northwest Branch

It's been an interesting couple weeks transitioning from summer break back to teaching, but even being back to work full time I'm blessed with a schedule that still leaves me plenty of time to get out and play afterward.  Yesterday I got even more into my school year routine with what I'm sure will be the first of many afterwork sessions at Northwest Branch.

From the first time I visited NWB, I've wanted to work on Seam Nightmares, yet somehow never actually got around to it yesterday.  Combining small handholds and open feet on a slightly slabby surface, what I did yesterday was in fact as fun as it always looked.  I'll admit a frosted mug of beer felt great on my fingertips last night though!


The only odd thing about yesterday's session is that I don't really know whether I actually sent the problem or just made a good day's progress.  I did top it out, but am not sure whether the hold I was starting from was actually the beginning.  Here's where I started...


This is on the first of the "good" holds, though there are two smaller spots roughly in line with my left elbow that could possibly be holds with a little bit of belief.  Looking for info on rockclimbing.com, the description of starting "way out left" made me think that I had started too far in, but this FA photo is taken in the exact same position and is labeled as moving into the crux.  That would also seem to support the fact that there's an earlier beginning, since the photo isn't labeled as the start, but those possible holds off to the left seem way harder than anything I encountered further up.

I'm sure I'll go back and try to play with it from the lower start regardless of whether this was an "official" send, but it would be great just for general clarification to hear from anyone who knows for sure.  

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