Bouldering and climbing

Over the past couple of days, I have climbed twice and bouldered once. My first climbing attempt was made in a href=”http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/central/rocks.html”Rocks State Park/a which about an hour’s drive north of Baltimore. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason/a, Dave, Emily and I arrived at the climbing site mid-afternoon which allowed each of us to get in at least one climb. There was a bit of excitement on the way to the area as Dave’s water bottle went ajar and formed a leak in the bottom but was still a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691468407654450″usable/a. Before we could start climbing Jason climbed up to adjust the location of the top rope. (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691412573079490″p1/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691455522752546″p2/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691408278112178″p3/a) Once the rope was in place, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691386803275666″Emily /awas the first to climb. Jason gave the climb a 5.6 rating. a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121692529264576658″Dave /awas the next to climb. As the sun was starting to set, I attempted to climb the rock face but got stuck at an a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121692774077712658″outcrop /awhich I couldn’t climb over. The rock face will have to wait until next time.br /br /On Tuesday night we went over to EarthTreks and I completed my first bouldering problem which was the “intro” problem. I tried a slightly more advanced “red” problem and nearly finished it. But since I failed to touch the final mount with both hands the climb was invalid. I spent the remainder of my bouldering working on the beginner problem trying to pause between each stage. Later in the evening, I top-rope climbed four/five problems that got successively more challenging. Having readily available chalk and my new climbing shoes were a great help in climbing a couple of 5.4 and 5.5s (I think).