Yoyo mojo

After almost zero deliberation, we have hit upon a new strategy to climb in the gym (see below). Nothing revolutionary, but Brian, Guillaume, and I commuted to TRC last night and decided to only yo-yo climb: any fall or hang on lead meant lowering to the ground, no hang-dogging or resting. With a three man rotation, we decided that next person ties in right away and that we would work a given climb until climbed through clean (or given up on).

With the zealotry of the newly converted, we worked a 9+, 10, 11, and 12. The 9+ (purple, Mad Russian column) was a tough choice for a warm-up, slightly overhanging but with pinches, odd holds, and big moves - took us each more than one try to nail it. The 10 (black) is a bit of an odd climb: easy 7/8ish climbing up to the arch roof, then a crux sequence involving a horizontal 180 degree turnaround and a single pad sidepull crossover to get out from under the roof. We worked this thing to death, but the seqeunce of the turnaround is tricky. Managed to pull the roof once but was too tired to clip. The 11 (purple) was good technical climbing, but G was the only one who made it past an awful lefthanded red crimp step up move, for which he was rewarded with a death-defying sidepull stretched out clip above. The 12 (red) was ridiculous balancey moves on tiny crimps; B wisely pulled a mat over, as we all managed to hit the deck from either the first or second bolt.

This strategy might be a keeper: we got a lot of climbing in, with no hanging or resting someone was pretty much always heading upward. There are a few advantages of this strategy that may prove beneficial:

• Volume - by repeating the easier lower moves, even on the harder climbs, you get more climbing in
• Repetition - seeing the same moves two or three times affords you the chance to be more efficient and immediately correct body position, sequence, etc.
• Quality - related to the volume of climbing, but in this case doing more moves when not pumped out means you can focus on quality, efficient moves rather than just hanging on for dear life; I often find my moves when hangdogging very bouldery, where I just try to reach the next clip
  
• Persistence - because giving up on a climb means lowering and waiting, rather than hanging and going again, I found myself really loathe to take on the rope

We'll give it a few weeks and see how it pans out. All I know is that I was pretty fried by the end of the night (though this might be related to starting lifting again). We finished the night off with a mad sprint for the Metro-North station; waiting around New Rochelle for the midnight train was not too appealing...