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Hmmm, make your mind up 😂
No.
I will always be willing to change my mind.
I don't actually see any contradictions there though. Perhaps you missed the "it means ..." which is what I was later changing my mind about.
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Hmmm, make your mind up 😂
Didn’t realise you were American. Funny how some phrases give it away.
Not American at all but interested to know what the America phrase was.
Free climbing is a very definite American phrase. In Britain you’d say trad climbing, or more usually just climbing.
I stand corrected!
BMC CLIMBING LINGO
I never really thought climbing made me fit. It made me able i hand upside down for really long times and do over 100 chin ups in one go. But then I was only 9.5 stone and 6 foot 5 when I climbed. I could hang from one arm to rest, put the other hand on rock or more likely climbing wall then lift my legs up to the overhang I was climbing on. One climbing centre (Cliffs Barn somewhere near Preston or Chorley iirc) had a tricky overhang problem that on my one lass and myself managed to climb. There were a few better climbers than me but I was a lot lighter and could do the tricky move around the corner by climbing upside down at one point before correcting myself. Not a good style but it worked.
I never felt fitter though. I was still at the back of the group when walking with the mountaineering and walking group.
Not sure. I wasn't a climber.
In which case you didn’t have a lead grade. Which is fine, not everyone leads.
Poor form and etiquette not to do your share of leading I thought. Of course in a club there's often people quite happy to lead for you either to encourage a less experienced or to gain leading experience.
I did lead the odd VS but tbh I could climb that level without protection so it was kind of pointless. Did that when climbing through I think it's called, where you second then keep on going to lead the next pitch.
I have no idea what i was really capable of if I hadn't got a fear of heights. I know bouldering problems I could do harder than a guy claiming E3 lead, E4 or E5 second. He was a German guy and competitive so didn't like that. He twisted my arm to do the big wall to show me up. Told me it was equivalent to a grade I could trad climb at but it wasn't, a lot harder and I reached my fear limit and refused to let go to be lowered down. Instead I downclimbed taking out quick draws as I went! Everyone thought I was weird! He learnt his lesson and never climbed with me again at the wall.
Back then it was considered a good climbing wall. In Preston in the 90s.
I have a few other cycling mates with the same opinion.
👅