(See what I did there? Double meaning. I'm clever!)
After at least 7 years of not climbing anything harder than a ladder, I went to the Boulder Rock Club last night with Peter, my former co-worker and now neighbor, and his fiance Ann. I wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was certainly mildly depressing motivational.
The first hit to my ego was just digging up my old gear and trying on my old harness. I got excited when I realized it was a size large, but then I realized that's "large for climber types" and not "large for fat American types". And so I had to wander over to the world-famous Neptune Mountaineering shop and (*sigh*) get myself an extra-large climbing harness.
At the gym, I climbed a few "ladders" (nothing past vertical, thanks) in the 5.7 and 5.8 range, and it was plenty tough for me. I'm only mildly sore today, but I was embarrassingly exhausted after my four climbs. My one attempt at playing in a bouldering cave convinced me that being overweight and understrong are a bad mix. Hauling my 200+ pounds around by my now-sissified fingertips just wasn't going to happen. Meanwhile, Ann, who is a tiny pixie of a person, was flinging herself up 5.9s and a 5.10 or two. Why do I always choose to climb with these annoying Asians? ;) (That's an inside joke, y'all.)
It was cool though. I suppose I'll try to keep going (I bought a new harness, after all.), and hopefully this will add an extra kick to me current "get the hell back in shape" regime.