Went social climbing at the Castle again today – the first time in a while – since Elliott freaked me out with his aggressive climbing and I almost dropped him. Met Cate again (yay!), who I had bumped into at the Swing Performance Ball – she did the Blues performance. We partnered up and climbed together. She completed a few 6As this time – way to go! I exchanged numbers with her, so we can maybe coordinate climbing together in future.

With her encouragement and support, I tried a few 6As, just to challenge myself. Didn’t get far, clearly. But I acquitted myself reasonably well on a grade 5+ route, getting up around 25-30% of the way up (purple 5+ at Engine House Ropes, probably rope 7). And I completed two grade 5 routes (purple 5, on one of the Fang Wall ropes; orange 5, at Engine House Ropes, probably rope 6).

I’ve now achieved one of my objectives for 2023 (climb at least one grade 5 route). Previously I had already technically completed a grade 5 route on the auto-belay wall. But it was a really easy route – felt more like a 3 or 3+ – and I think was only graded up because it was a long route, and hence I didn’t ‘count’ it. This time, given I’ve climbed 2 grade 5 routes – one on a slab / inclined wall, but one on a regular wall – I feel I can tick it off as “done”, fair and square.

The other 2023 objective I’ve achieved – at least the ones I have actually disclosed to TF – is performing in the Swing Performance Ball! Even though it’s a shame that my partner and I weren’t really visible in the frame of the video at all, boo.