The Girl

Did a new thing at Mars roof yesterday by sending the girl, which marks off the first of the three long-term projects. 

I ended up driving up to Flagstaff on Friday night, where I stayed the night with Cole, Grayson, and their friend, John and Danielle. John and Danielle bought a plot of land in Flagstaff, where they built a home together. It's a good reminder that all the good things take time. 

The next day, I headed out to Mars, and warmed up slowly. I ended up using a modified warmup protocol done by Dave MacLeod, where I did the initial half of the warmup before the weighted hangs, and then began climbing on the Girl. I met two locals while I was out there, Sam T. and Brent B., who were trying the other lines. The progress was slow at first. The conditions were good, but not as good as I would have liked. Some of the holds felt a bit greasy, and sun was hard to come by. This, combined with how powerful the climbing was, meant that much of the session was spent resting, monitoring skin, chalking up holds, with intermittent burns in between. Sam was trying out some new beta on Lolita, while Brent was giving the Receptionist some burns. Both were very knowledgeable and we shared whatever information with each other on each climb. 

As it was with the Receptionist, the key to sending was all in the micro beta. I had developed a sequence that uses two toe-cam bicycles after the heart-shape box cam that is used for both the Receptionist and Girl. However, I found during my initial three burns, spaced out with 40-50 minutes in between burns, I was able to get to the first sloper throw, but I was not able to generate. Upon further inspection, I found that there was a very specific angle that I needed to insert my right foot into the teacup hold, followed with a slight rotation of my left hand in the stacked pocket until the side of my index finger was cammed on a tiny knob in the pocket. 

Funnily enough, according to Kim W. , there was apparently a time where I mentioned that she would send a problem if she rotated her foot about 23.5 degrees, or something, she would do it. She did end up rotating the foot, and she did the problem. I unfortunately have the memory of a goldfish, so I cannot confirm, but if I'm finding that all my beta revolves around rotating my foot or hand by a very subtle difference (cough, cough, Receptionist), then I guess it's true, and I guess this incident on the Girl is further proof of it. 

With that, around noon, the conditions felt good. Brent was able to send Receptionist on his second go, while I immediately followed up with an ascent of the girl on my fourth go. It was probably the fastest I have ever climbed the sequence. Thank you to John and Danielle for hosting me, Cole for lending me his pad, Brent for the spot, and Sam for humoring me. 

I then got started on Lolita, and I'm quite psyched on it. I ended up meeting with Cole, Grayson, Halo, Noah, Kim W., and their new friend Colton at the Pit. I messed around a bit on the Abyss, while Cole gave Purple Shark a good burn. We then went to get food, and that was that. Well...I snuck in two celebratory laps on Super Roof at dusk, before going home, but y'know, fitness. 

Cole chilling out on Purple Shark

The overall process on the Girl felt much smoother than the Receptionist, but I learned a few key lessons that I hope to apply in my future sessions. 

1. Stick to 1 or 2 boulders a day if giving good effort send burns
2. To build fitness and familiarity (for Mars, especially), try to take the line to the top at least 4 times in a session (regardless if you fall or not)
3. Give at least 30-40 minutes of rest in between burns in order to save energy and skin. Skin was an important factor in this process, as I had to farm it the past week
4. Really take a step back and examine if the method is actually good, or if it's what you're familiar with.

Future plans:

I feel a bit more free to go check out some new lines now. Bobby and I are quite psyched to not hang out at the draw for a bit, as there are a few other things in the woods to look at. I, personally, am most psyched on doing a return visit to Underhill, Bobcat's Den, and Warped. I have no issues with doing sessions at Mars, as well, as I would be very happy to repeat The Girl, Receptionist, and try to work on Ipanema and Lolita. I still do have a few other mini-projects to complete too, such as Bullemic (from the actual bathang), R God, Puma Prey, Cosmic Tricycle, etc... I will more than likely make a return visit this coming Tuesday before my flight out of town. 

We'll see.