Carder.rr.rock climing.

What has it been...7 years since I did any kind of outdoor climbing? The last time I went out was when Evan and I were part of the climbing club freshman year of college and we went to Bozoo, WV.

This time around, Sandy, Amy, and Brian invited me to meet them out in Carderock, MD to hit up the routes they have there. The weather was absolutely fantastic, so I skipped out of work early to avoid the Cluster Fuck known as the innerloop of the beltway. The Carderock climbing area is just a bit downstream from Great Falls on the Potomoc with half of the climbing area sitting right on the river and the other half about 50m inland. The parts next to the river are pretty cool with a section with a path that seems like it was some Eagle Scout project to give climbers a base to belay from and another section where you had to rappel down to the river to start your climb.

I've been told about the dicrepency between the difficulty of indoor climbing vs outdoor, but was initially put off by the absolute lack of huge florescent target hand holds and colored duct tape to direct my route. The first climb I did was a 5.5 (inclined away from me, very easy) and was completely lost with the complete lack of good handholds. So like a blind man in an orgy, I felt my way through. The first few routes were mostly mastering balance on the tiny nubbins the rock presents you; the little white protrusions on the rock face. It was crazy how my hands made for little use other than to maintain arm position while pushing up with my feet.

All-in-all a good trip, with no collapsed foreheads or angry mobs of hippies. It makes me want to bust out my old Climbing Anchors book along with all my gear and try some better rocks. Which reminds me: my rock climbing gym gives me 3 Guest-Gets-In-Free tickets per quarter, so if anyone would like to join me, you got my number. It's an assload of fun with a lot of good people.