New Shoes!
So, many moons ago, I went to a bouldering competition at Berkeley. I ended up taking second place in the Intermediate category (see), so I won a pair of Nike ACG Cinder Cones! It's an approach shoe--a tennis shoe / hiking shoe with sticky rubber on it so you can go galloping over rocks, boulders, and walk-offs with friction and grace on your way to the climb. So we looked around, contacted Nike, and found out that they only made the Cinder Cones for men. However, this summer, they said, they'd have a new approach shoe out for women! New and improved, even! So I traded in my free Cinder Cones for a free pair of Nike ACG Air Switchblades (coming soon to an REI near you--yes, this is the shoe that convinced REI to carry Nike products again, though I can't seem to find the product description anywhere handy.. ), and I just got them this afternoon in the mail. Yay! They're beautiful, built more for edging than for smearing, with the collapsible heel for comfortable belaying, 9 sets of `eyelets' for adjusting them to fit perfectly, etc,. etc...
In other climbing news, after several weeks of only intermittent climbing, my fingertips are once again falling off... went completely through the top two layers of skin on my index fingers and thumbs within my first two bouldering problems tonight. Which just means that we'll have to go climbing more regularly ;). Besides, then I can get my weight back up to where it belongs, and keep my muscles from atrophying away...
In other climbing news, after several weeks of only intermittent climbing, my fingertips are once again falling off... went completely through the top two layers of skin on my index fingers and thumbs within my first two bouldering problems tonight. Which just means that we'll have to go climbing more regularly ;). Besides, then I can get my weight back up to where it belongs, and keep my muscles from atrophying away...