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I'd give this year a 6 climbing wise and an 8 in overall. I finally got out mid summer and climbed as strong as ever with an eye towards crushing this fall but a broken ankle sidelined those plans. I'll see everybody in the spring, pissed off and ready to pull down.

Somehow through no particular special effort of my own I managed to lose a lot of my fear of leading this year, and I had plenty to lose. That made climbing for the pure mental and physical challenge all the more fun for me because the mental became much less about overcoming my fear and more about just trying as hard as I know how which isn't easy to do on a regular basis. Furthermore, I even decided to plug some gear the day after my birthday this year. That will make 2010 easy to remember because I thought I would never plug gear in all my life. I even beat kramp-dog to a 5.11, although of course it is still with an asterisk*

For a number, I'll give it an 8 as I still expect better to come.

I just got back into climbing this year. It had been over 10 years since my last climb. I started completely over this year, back to leading 9's, but by the end of the year I was back on 10's, and even pulled out an 11b. So for just getting back into climbing, I am gonna rate this year a 9. I hope to start spending some considerable time in the Gorge next year working on some new 11's and hopefully start in on some trad lines as well.

Climbing-wise, my year started out looking like an 8 and ended up being more of a 3. I did learn a valuable lesson: Never pull hard in the gym (except maybe working on the hangboard). Why? Because if you strain a tendon on some stupid boulder problem and have to sit out the entire fall climbing season, the ghosts of what should have been will haunt you FOREVER!!! There, I'm done being melodramatic.

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I'm wondering... How many of you have actually suffered an acute finger/tendon injury when climbing outside? Every time I've hurt myself climbing, it's always been bouldering indoors.

Brentucky wrote:Somehow through no particular special effort of my own I managed to lose a lot of my fear of leading this year, and I had plenty to lose.
.......
For a number, I'll give it an 8 as I still expect better to come.

Wow you are a tough grader! This all sounded stellar! What could have possibly made it better? What was lacking?

davyanderson wrote: How many of you have actually suffered an acute finger/tendon injury when climbing outside? Every time I've hurt myself climbing, it's always been bouldering indoors.

I've never climbed indoors so wouldn't know, I've also never had a climbing injury... maybe there's something to it.

davy, just went thru shoulder surgery ten days ago for a SLAP lesion from pulling outside.

Only three seasons have passed since I discovered climbing, but I feel that this season was nothing short of spectacular. I went on a month long climbing trip to Colorado with a close friend and climbed 27 of the 30 days we were there. I made it out to the RRG somewhere in the ball park of 75 days, and sent 2 of my 3 long-term projects. I saw significant improvement in my power, footwork, and body positioning, and for the first time in my climbing career I started making that desperate throw when I'm pumped out of my mind instead of calling a take and reaped great rewards for it. To my great surprise, I am enjoying climbing even more than in the past because I started choosing routes because they inspire me from both and aesthetic and quality of movement standpoint rather than for the grade attached to them. Most importantly, I've met countless incredible people in the climbing community who I feel honored to call my friends. I don't think I could ask for a better climbing season, so I give this one a 10.

SeanStone wrote:so I give this one a 10.

Great post friend!