A break in the snow

For a winter where I've been at my strongest, I really haven't been out climbing nearly as often as I'd like. Mostly I blame the snow, which seems determined to make up for its near absence in our area over the past two winters.  At least, that's what I told myself until last weekend, when I used the cold and snow as a reason to stay inside and ended up missing out on this.

It would be impressive enough that he climbed it, but he also did it in 20 degree weather, with snow actively falling off and on through the morning.  And, he made it look damn good.  Okay, no more excuses for me.

Yesterday I left work and drove up to the Ivy Mill boulder, which John and Ryan had been nice enough to clean off for me.  Didn't end up doing much on it, but it was still nice to be outside climbing even when everything around me was blanketed in white.

Today was even better.  I headed south to Carderock to see if I could finish Silver Spot, which I had started working on with Chris a couple weeks ago, actually making it through the crux sequence only to have my foot blow on the last move.  After the obsessive sequencing, I knew it would go down quickly today.  Except for the fact that I completely forgot about one crucial hold, and then another, on my first two attempts.  The third try paid off though, and I even did a quick repeat lap just to see if I could refine my sequence any further.  A fantastic climb, and one that I'm sure I'll be revisiting many times.  Glad to be back on the rocks!