No I haven't, and that's a valid point. Whether John does it or not, the point I'm trying to get across is that we should still be supportive because he's found something that really motivates him and causes him to crank harder. John could easily just be sitting at home on his couch, but instead he's found something that's inspiring him to go to the gym and be active and push his limit. I think more people should be like John.

Thank ya. But I'm not a sir...
*Cough*

Which 13-? The green one or the silver one?

Thanks for the encouragement Austin. I spent twelve hours at the gym yesterday, and I finally sent the route! It was a monumental effort. I must have given it twenty burns yesterday. At closing time, I was dead tired and about to just give up, but I remembered your words of encouragement and decided to give it one more go. This time, everything clicked. I cruised the technical crux and managed my way through the red point crux. At the top, I had a foot slip and nearly fell, but I knew this was my only shot. I held on with all of my strength and campused the last move.With my last remaining ounce of strength, I clipped the chains.

Here is a picture of the route. I am sorry it is so poor, but the lighting is bad in the gym. The route is the green one that goes up the prow in the middle of the photo. For what its worth, it is rated 13c.


Thanks for the encouragement Austin. Your enthusiasm and determination is an inspiration to us all.

Thanks for the encouragement Austin. I spent twelve hours at the gym yesterday, and I finally sent the route! It was a monumental effort. I must have given it twenty burns yesterday. At closing time, I was dead tired and about to just give up, but I remembered your words of encouragement and decided to give it one more go. This time, everything clicked. I cruised the technical crux and managed my way through the red point crux. At the top, I had a foot slip and nearly fell, but I knew this was my only shot. I held on with all of my strength and campused the last move.With my last remaining ounce of strength, I clipped the chains.

Here is a picture of the route. I am sorry it is so poor, but the lighting is bad in the gym. The route is the green one that goes up the prow in the middle of the photo. For what its worth, it is rated 13c.

[image]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XkYiJv2gjiQ/TGWcYn9U0PI/AAAAAAAAAnI/I-4kKXy7su8/s1600/IMG_3422.JPG[/image]

Thanks for the encouragement Austin. Your enthusiasm and determination is an inspiration to us all.

Congratulations! Keep climbing hard and pushing your limit and maybe you'll be the next Chris Sharma!

Green, my strength is crimps, therefore it was more appealing to me :)

All you pussies need to stop humping each others legs and get a room!

I thought you were going to be the next Chris Sharma...don't smash his hopes like you smashed mine...

Oh c'mon man. Sorry for "smashing your hopes". I didn't mean to. Work hard, and maybe one day you will be climbing 5.14d and V15. I always wish you the best in your climbing. Good luck Brian.

Good work. It is probably the hardest route in Miramont right now. The brown 13 has one hard move at the bottom, then the rest is comparatively easy. The silver 13- is a great route, but not 13-.

You should get outside these days if that is your goal. The temperatures for bouldering are nearly perfect if you go to the right spots. Try Arthur's Rock and Carter Lake. Either place will be good as long as the temps are above freezing. They both get lots of sun.

The only advice I can give on sponsorship is try to do what I did when I was your age and racing mountain bikes. I put together a resume and sent it out. I was picked up by Bridgestone (when they were making mountain bikes) and raced for them for a year. In the very least, the process of putting together a resume will put some perspective on what you have or have not accomplished. The problem you may run into is that you have not accomplished much in the sport in five months, especially since many people do not regard indoor bouldering as significant unless it is a comp.

Austin, after my recent success, do you think I should take a short break to recover or try and ride the wave and keep pushing hard?

It's up to you, but I would do both. I would probably take a day off and then push hard again the next day. You don't necessarily have to take a day off of no climbing. Sometimes I'll take a day off but still go to the gym and just climb easy stuff, just enough to stretch out. There is one flaw in this method though....sometimes it's very tempting to get on another 5.13. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's usually a good idea to give your body a day to recover.

I read this and feel like I'm in some sort of troll matrix

Green, my strength is crimps, therefore it was more appealing to me :)

Ok so all being an asshole aside, the green is a fuckin hard route. I've sent the green there (I find their ratings to be a little soft though. A lot of other gyms rate much harder, I can climb 5.13 at Miramont but only 5.12 other gyms). Those last two moves are tough, but IMO not as tough as the start. The only reason they probably seem tougher is, well, they're the last two moves. But for someone with a strength in crimps, you should send it pretty soon.

My LEAST favorite route at miramont isn't even a lead route. It's a top rope route on the far right side of the wall on a slab. It has a green 5.11, a blue 5.10 and either a purple or a red 5.8, I can't remember. The route is the 5.10, called "Get Some". It was easy, but for someone tall like me all the stemming with lots of hand/feet matching was killing my body. There's also a new 5.12- to the right of those routes that I got to do the "indoor first ascent" of. That's my new favorite route. It starts off slab, then overhang, then slab again.

There's a 5.11- (don't remember color) that's on the same wall as the 5.9 red colored lead test, the wall with the ceiling 5 feet off the ground. I still haven't been able to send that one. I think I've gotten halfway at the most. It blows my mind how I can climb a 5.13- route there but I can't send a relatively simple 5.11-. Then again, I've never tried it earlier in the day, I've always jumped on it right before I leave and I'm dead in my arms.

Some serious advice, find another gym to climb at if you really want to rate yourself. You said before Miramont is one of the toughest rated gyms. That may be true for boulder problems there (which they actually made a little softer recently due to some recent events) but for rope climbing the ratings are soft. Take the five minute car ride to CSU's climbing wall, they like to sandbag their routes. Plus, that boulder outside....pretty damn fun.

Ok so all being an asshole aside, the green is a fuckin hard route. I've sent the green there (I find their ratings to be a little soft though. A lot of other gyms rate much harder, I can climb 5.13 at Miramont but only 5.12 other gyms). Those last two moves are tough, but IMO not as tough as the start. The only reason they probably seem tougher is, well, they're the last two moves. But for someone with a strength in crimps, you should send it pretty soon.

My LEAST favorite route at miramont isn't even a lead route. It's a top rope route on the far right side of the wall on a slab. It has a green 5.11, a blue 5.10 and either a purple or a red 5.8, I can't remember. The route is the 5.10, called "Get Some". It was easy, but for someone tall like me all the stemming with lots of hand/feet matching was killing my body. There's also a new 5.12- to the right of those routes that I got to do the "indoor first ascent" of. That's my new favorite route. It starts off slab, then overhang, then slab again.

There's a 5.11- (don't remember color) that's on the same wall as the 5.9 red colored lead test, the wall with the ceiling 5 feet off the ground. I still haven't been able to send that one. I think I've gotten halfway at the most. It blows my mind how I can climb a 5.13- route there but I can't send a relatively simple 5.11-. Then again, I've never tried it earlier in the day, I've always jumped on it right before I leave and I'm dead in my arms.

Some serious advice, find another gym to climb at if you really want to rate yourself. You said before Miramont is one of the toughest rated gyms. That may be true for boulder problems there (which they actually made a little softer recently due to some recent events) but for rope climbing the ratings are soft. Take the five minute car ride to CSU's climbing wall, they like to sandbag their routes. Plus, that boulder outside....pretty damn fun.

ADV=? ADV-??

What is that - some old-school ratings system?

I will keep this in mind. Good luck on your green route.

Oh, sorry. It's a rating system that some gyms use for bouldering. ADV-=V5 and ADV=V6.

The green route is over his head.

Why don't they just call them V5 and V6?