Day 8: Lead Until You Die

Hah! Of course I didn't die. But I was definitely dead tired. We did five routes overall today, although I didn't complete the last one. I felt really mellow throughout the whole day, I don't know why. Wish I had that energy from the last day I went climbing. Climbed like 6 routes and I felt like I could do more. Oh well.

I learned a lot about my instructor, P'Muad, today because he was the only one looking after me. I already knew him from the first day of rock climbing here because he and P'Bo were the ones that took me that time.

P'Muad apparently was a Thai national rock climbing athlete. Ranked third here if I remember correctly. He used to be able to climb a 9a in the French numerical grading, which is like a 5 effing 14d!!! He has been climbing for 13 years though, since he was 20 years old. He says he's taking a break at the moment because he has been climbing nonstop for many years. He's basically giving his body a break.

Other than that, P'Add came to Crazy Horse with a friend. He was my instructor last time for Intro. to Lead Climbing. It's supposed to be his day off but he just went there to climb for fun. P'Muad pointed out when were waiting for the others to come that P'Add was climbing an 8 because we could see him from the resting area. That's at least a 5.13b!!! What the heck are these guys made of???

I didn't even know anything existed beyond a 5.12 until I got here. So yes, I'm sure I am in good hands at this place.

So moving on to how I did. Like I said, I was feeling very mellow and low on energy today. I did the first four climbs fine. Well, I did kind of struggle with the fourth and had to sit once or twice. Remember, I was lead climbing all of them.

The last two routes of the day was at this section called "The Hanging Garden." Then on my last one, I got halfway, tried with all my might, and was like "nope, take me down." Hahaha! The last one is supposed to be a 5b (5.8). I got stuck at the very slight and small overhang. It really was just a little curve protruding out. And the next bolt was RIGHT THERE.

One, I couldn't hold on for long. Two, P'Muad kept on telling me to reach for this one hand hold I couldn't reach. I tried a couple times, but there really was no hope for me at this point. I'm not strong enough yet. I mean, I guess I could just jump and go for it, but considering how much I had to fall to the last bolt below me, I decided to back out, lol.

Then P'Muad went up to do the whole thing. He showed me where the hand hold was and I was just like, I'm way too short for that. Hahaha!

A fire to ward off the mosquitoes!!

"The Hanging Garden"

My third climb of the day :)

A "golden bee" that just loves my legs :3

Talking about mosquitoes. I have a fri ggin' mosquito bite on my forehead! The first few days it just looks like a big bump on my forehead. And when I say bump I mean like a hard bump. Then it starts turning red and is slowly getting smaller. So now it looks like this ugly big pimple smack in the middle of my forehead. :'((( Trying not to touch it, trying not to think about it.

Curse you, mosquito!!!!