Back to SteepWorld!!!

Yesterday, I got a chance to hang out with my buddy Brian at SteepWorld!  Haha, this is him making a statement, as is his habit and character (thank God, someone has some character)!    Brian is a great guy!  I’m so glad he was there yesterday when I got back on the wall.  He was asked by a woman upstairs on the mezzanine if the chalk helped and if her son needed it.  Brian told her that it wasn’t really necessary here in the gym, but outside, it helps.  His main point to her, though, was that most people use way too much of it and it’s more of a psychological thing (which I agree with).  He found this tiny Mammut chalk bag for sale, bought it, and put some chalk in it so that he can dip his fingertips into it when he needs to chalk up as part of his point, hahaha!!!  I think it’s perfect!!!  So funny!  He decided on the around-the-waist position, finally, but I couldn’t resist taking this photo of him to send to our friend Emily, who’s in Costa Rica on a study abroad trip right now.  This was taken right before Brian burst into laughter and we complained about the music some more, haha!  What a character!!!  Brian’s been my climbing buddy since I first started climbing at the old bouldering gym.  He was my partner for the first competition I went to and stuck with me so that we’d both have a partner and I wouldn’t be so anxious.  He showed me the ropes and still gives me valuable climbing advice and shows me new techniques on the wall when he’s there.  I was so glad to see him!!!

During my time climbing at SteepWorld yesterday, I got a chance to talk to Scott, who reminded me that the key to success is consistency, and Brian agreed.  “If you’re not consistent, it’s like starting all over again,” added Brian.  That’s exactly where I’m at.  I got to talk to Taylor, too, who I hadn’t seen on Friday.  We were all enjoying the two-hour period of time when the gym first opens and it’s a little less busy on the weekends.  Scott was remarking that it would’ve been great to have something like this climbing gym when we were kids, and how it was going to affect life for the young kids that have access to it now in their lives.  I wish I’d had access to climbing when I was young, but I have it now, so I’m going to make the most of it!  There are so many great people to meet and so many things to climb!!!  I gotta get with it!!!  The consensus is that we’re all waiting for the weather to straighten out so that we can go outside and climb!  Of course, we’ll all be in the climbing gym on the hot days, but that’s what the climbing gym’s for!

I was talking to Brian about my ideas on how they could expand their bouldering space so that we could have some good traverses, which Brian and I both love.  My idea was to have a free-standing bouldering structure in the middle of the gym where the large, open space is right now, and then there would be more bouldering and the perfect place to have some traverses that went all the way around so a person could traverse for as far as they wanted to.  Brian agreed that it could work.  I wonder what Phase 2 of the climbing gym (ie. expansion) will look like when it happens?  I know it won’t be for a while, but I’ll be excited to see it!!!  Maybe they’ll do something like the free-standing boulder in the process!  I think it would be great!!!