Little Ropeguns

Day: 275
Cedaredge to GJ and back
Time: Most of the day

In climbing circles a ropegun is a climber who always gets the hardest pitches and always climbs them in style, without falls, flaws, or faults.

After shaking off the concert from last night Leslie and I rose early to go hang out with our nieces for the day. Leslie went down early while I hung out a little with my grandma for breakfast. I went down a little later and found Leslie and the girls finishing up the breakfast dishes. We hung out a little bit longer and then headed on over to the big city of Grand Junction. Our oldest niece had some birthday money burning a hole in her pocket and had her eye on a new iPod Nano. I guess that is the new walkman, so I can’t argue since I had a walkman her age. After her big purchase we headed over for a little lunch so the girls could get loaded up for our date at the climbing gym. After letting our lunches settle a little bit we made our way over to the climbing gym so the girls could get their climbing on. Leslie and I both became belay slaves as the girls hammered out lap after lap on the climbing walls. The real excitement came when they both ended up in the bouldering cave and strutted their stuff. The younger niece was working on a problem which required her to dyno up to a hold she couldn’t quite reach. A dyno is where a climber throws their body upwards propelling themselves with their arms and legs while balanced on holds. She would just reach her hold which got her to the bottom of the roof. After that it involved her climbing up under the corner of the roof and making a long exposed reach to the finishing hold in the middle. Needless to say Leslie and I were very impressed. The older niece took a little bit to figure out the problem, but after a try or two put the moves together and grabbed the finishing jug only to slip off with a belly flop on to the mat. Her moment of grace was a long sustained overhanging climb on small holds. The first time she attempted it she made it half way up before slipping off and doing a giant pendulum out into space. Her second attempt I told her I wanted her to focus and tag the top. She replied “Oh, I’m tagging the top!” She did, without a slip and without a rest. I think Leslie and I have our little ropeguns.
CK