Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Wise men say, 'It looks like rain today.'

Hi, my name is Brian Clevenger, and I haven't sent a boulder problem for the past 17 days. 

My most recent ascents came at HP40 of all places.  I had vowed never to go back there after being devastatingly shut down in years past.  Still, I wanted to compete in Star Chasers for the Triple Crown and maybe get a little redemption.  The day started poorly when we missed our exit and arrived rather late for the comp.  Fortunately, we were able to register and try to recover the day from that point.  I think we all had a diffucult time getting our heads in the spirit of competing, because none of us ended up doing very well.  I was slow to start and lost some psych when I saw that none of the labels had star values on them..  I also lost some psych when I realized that V3 is still stupid hard at HP40.  So, obviously I thought I had a better chance at V11.  Tilley was feeling equally unmotivated and accompanied me over to God Module.  I tried it for quite a while that day.  Tilley left to try to do some more new problems, so I tried it by myself with my mini Organic pad, then I was going to leave but Rami and Doug showed up.  I tried it some more and still couldn't do it.  I think I was pretty close to doing the first move, and the rest of it didn't feel that bad, but I just couldn't put it together.  At least I wasn't jumping off of the ground for the start.  Anyway, I quit trying to climb hard and went back to chasing stars.  I did a lot of new climbs, including a sick V5 highball to finish the day.  I was nowhere near placing, but I guess it was a better HP40 experience than I expected.  Except for the part where it was over and I had to drive back to Boone so that I could work the next morning. 


snaked this pic from DPMClimbing.com
Superstar Bitches

Since then, it's been non-stop work, air force (I went to Chapel Hill to take the TBAS test and hopefully did well.  Still haven't gotten my scores back.  While I was there, I went out on the town with Purpur and some of the people that he climbs with.  It was a pretty crazy scene for sure.  Frat Stars, Sorostislewts, Skinny-jean Hipsters, and even Brodie Climbsters.  I saw a lot of interesting things that night.  The girls there are not like the girls in Boone.  It was about 28 degrees, and all of them were walking the streets in their lingerie, all of the bros were wearing their blazers and boat shoes, rounds of 3 dollar PBR bottles were being bought left and right, and somehow we (the climbers) were in the middle of it all.  The last place we went to had nothing to drink for under $4.50.  Thus ended the night.  Still, I had a really fun time and I'd like to go back.  I finally felt like I found a place where I fit in.  Nothin says "Home" like standin on the sidewalk, suckin on a girl's neck while she texts another dude.), rain, and sickness (and a couple days of feeling stupid close on the Concave Proj).  I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, but it'll take some time to get back to full strength.  Fortunately, everything is wet.

Oh, also some shoutouts (even though everyone who reads my blog probably already knows):
Some peeps killed it last week:
Apparently
Dalen Gray strengthened his pimp hand and sent Full Throttle
Rami Annab climbs solid V13 and sent Lord of the Dance
Bri Wills did her hardest traverse to date with Stems and Caps
and
Josh Shepherd doesn't need good climbing shoes to send Preferential Treatment