Tag Archives: Movement

Jul12

Bri’s Birthday Bonanza (of climbing)

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Wednesday, 31-May-2023


I took a half-day from work today.

See, that’s the joy of working a white-collar job as an engineer – I have vacation time, and I can use it for strange things. Like, say, helping my friend climb 36 routes in a day before her 37th birthday!

Yep, Bri’s turning 37.

I fully supported her goal of climbing one route per year on Earth – I left work around 2pm, and headed over to the gym. Bri and Lea had been climbing for an hour or two by then, and were optimistic about how long the climbing would take… I was a bit more cautiously optimistic, since I know how much fatigue can begin to wear on a climber, but I came prepared.

Snacks, protein shakes, drinks, and the promise of glorious tacos for dinner came with me.



Routes were climbed.

Hours ticked by, and numbers increased. Climbing slowed, but didn’t stop. We persisted, through energy and fatigue, we persisted.

22 routes were climbed by yours truly.
– 3x 5.9 routes, 3 on Lead
– 16x 5.10 routes, 8 on Lead
– 3x 5.11 routes, 2 on Lead


By the end, we were absolutely spent.

But you know what that means? It meant we got extra dinner. Just… so much dinner. Tacos, nachos, quesadilla, chips, and water. So much water.

110% worth it.

Jun20

The first climbing competition in years – Movement Friction Series 2023

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Saturday, 06-May-2023

I competed in a climbing competition!

Seriously! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve been to a climbing comp… there’ve been a few here in Portland, since COVID, but… for one reason or another none of them quite worked out. And, let’s be clear here, when I say “a few”, I mean “one or two”, at least as far as I can remember, so… we’re not talking about a weekly occurrence here.

When I found out that there’d be a comp at my home gym? Well! Excitement abounded.



I… uhh… don’t really know where to go from here, with writing about the comp.

I mean, it was fun, right? All climbing competitions are excellent – they’re a chance for the gym to show off its stuff, for the route-setters to step up their game a bit, and go above and beyond the usual type of routes. For competitions, the climbs are almost always special in some way – the route-setters use non-standard holds, they add more “terrain features”, if you will, and they add a bit of style and panache to the gym for a few weeks.

It’s awesome, and fun, but at the end of the day it’s a bit hard to describe in a blog…

Instead, I’ll focus on how amazing it felt to compete again.

Yeah, the gym was absolutely packed full. And yeah, we ended up waiting in lines a bit longer than I’d normally be patient for. And sure, if I’d had more time to climb I could have placed higher (Ed Note: Ben actually projected it out, and if he’d arrived at the beginning of the competition, he could have tied for first in his division. Yeah, seriously.) but… at the end, I had a blast.

I felt strong. I felt good, and I felt like I’ve made some real progress in the past few years. Sure, I’ve gotten stronger… but more importantly, I’ve started regrowing into myself – restarting those parts of me that I’d powered down in the past.

I felt strong, I climbed strong… and I was strong. Both mentally and physically.