My first time climbing outdoor rock in over five months! My entire left arm is very weak, but the real problem is my limited range of motion. Climbing at Lindseth doesn't stress a joint like the intricacies of real rock. Any time my left arm got out of the paddler's box (climber's box?) I found that it was useless.

Ok, enough whining. At least I'm climbing. Zupes, Melissa and I go to Andrew. Zupes takes the first pitch and I lead the second. Fun climb, but very wet today. We rappel Arrow, landing right on a dead squirrel... did it fall off the cliff? Then we start to look for an open climb. Everything from Beginner's Delight to the end of Guide Wall is closed due to rock fall and Peregrines, and it is a Sunday with perfect weather... we can't find a single open climb. Finally we reach Strictly From Nowhere, and it is actually open. Even more amazing, there is only one party on Shockley's and they are nearly finished. Zupes leads Strictly and a second pitch traversing to the base of Shockley's. I lead the money pitch on Shockley's and go to the top of the cliff. Leading this was a real struggle -- my arm was always in the wrong orientation -- but I did it.

We walk down, collect our gear, and arrange to meet Magoogs and Sarah at Retribution. Melissa and I go off to climb No Picnic (quota!) and return to find Zupes down leading Bunny. There was some weird series of bails and lowers and traverses and rappels on some other party's rope which resulted in Zupes having to retrieve gear from half of Bunny.

All's well that ends well. We drive to Sarah's dad's house for dinner and a new Volvo. Then the long drive back to Ithaca, supplemented by Melissa's oreos and a discussion of where to find a location to effectively train for offwidth climbing. That last part was just me and Magoogs... nobody else should be blamed.