Rockclimbing Progress

Time for a progress update! It’s been a while since my first post on this list item and I’ve been twice more since then.

The previously-mentioned rockclimbing centre has few overhangs to practice on, but I made some minor progress while there. Again, my finger strength died before my other muscles.

Today’s trip to a different rockclimbing centre proved a little more fruitful, though not at first. There is only one wall with a proper overhang, but I didn’t have the finger strength to climb up the straight part and over the first very minor bulge. See the blue/green handholds on the right side of this picture:

So, I tried the easiest looking overhang (below) and succeeded.

Then the second-easiest overhang (blue handholds, below) and succeeded. The green handholds on the left were too difficult around the overhang, as the corner kept getting in my way.

So, I then had a few attempts at the green handholds on the left of the first picture. I couldn’t get past the halfway-point on the wall, due to lack of finger strength, despite multiple attempts. I even tried climbing while not sticking to a particular colour, but no luck.

Then, while resting, I noticed that the bouldering wall had a qualifying overhang, starting from the right side and climbing up towards the left.

I decided that this, or the similar overhang section at the other rockclimbing centre, would count for this list item, if I started at the bottom and reached the top. I managed to get halfway a few times before my fingers gave up, but I’m pretty happy as that’s a considerable amount of hanging upside-down and I’d already been climbing for an hour.

Next time I go rockclimbing, I’ll try the bouldering overhangs before other walls. Hopefully I’m not too far off success!