Climbing 1:00:00 [3]
Basecamp! I was quite tired yesterday for whatever reason, so I took a rest day. Today, I stopped by Basecamp in the afternoon. I started on the autobelays and up- and down- climbed six pitches, ranging from 5.7 to 5.10c (ostensibly; I think it's 5.10a).
I then switched to bouldering, where I warmed up on all the oranges (4), sent my usual set of four greens and added the new honey-pot K (5), and sent a new blue guy (Z) for a total of 10 pitches. I climbed a few of them multiple times, for ~20 completed boulder problems. I was only able to send K on one of my three complete attempts, but it still counts.
I made a couple momentary friends - two other guys bouldering were about my skill level, and we discussed strats.
I also ran into the same guy from May 4 who clips into autobelays and just stands on the ground for minutes at a time. He seems a bit of a pariah; he did the same thing on the autobelays today. He's clearly competent, able to send an ungraded (5.10b?) yellow that has frustrated me, but he doesn't seem to care about social niceties, convention, and the climbing ethos. Another climber asked him not to be clipped into the autobelay if he's not actively climbing, and was met with hostility and challenge - "are you offering advice or what? No? Okay then." I complimented the guy who spoke up and voiced my confusion about the pariah's behaviour.
Later, the pariah went up to the bouldering area, where about 15 climbers were milling about. Bouldering is first-come, first-served, but there is convention - you attempt a route, then step away from the wall to give other people a turn. I usually step back for at least 10-15s even if I'm not planning on resting to make sure that no one wants to step up before continuing. Pariah guy treated the bouldering area as if he were the only one there, wandering around, completely indifferent to other people. He seemed an angry, angsty teenager or early 20-something. As the wall wasn't fantastically busy, it was only a small inconvenience, but he effectively took up as much time and space as two or three climbers with his ambulatory ways. He was stronger than I, but unspectacular - doing nothing harder than a blue. What was confusing to me was his route prioritization - he would wander from greens and blues to yellows and oranges without any clear direction or purpose. Most climbers warm up on easy stuff before tackling routes at or near their difficulty. He's defiance of convention was irritating, but there were very few times that he explicitly got in my way or anyone else's, so I didn't say anything.
I was very pleased to send the blue guy; I had previously struggled to get off the ground, but I finish after a few attempts and was congratulated by my peer who was working the same problem. Only one green still is elusive (L, black holds), by far the most difficult.