So.... "blah, blah, blah..... climbing this weekend, blah, blah." As far as "out of the ordinary" goes, the highlight(?) of the weekend was a truely unexpected and embarrising bouldering injury on my part. There I was, at Titahi Bay (a pleasent, oceanside climbing area just under 2 hours south of Palmy), goof ing around with my mates having a good ol' time. We decided we were sick of the ropes by mid-day, so we started searching out goofy little boulder problems.
After sending some hard, fun lines.... I spotted a cool "short but sweet," waist high, one move wonder problem and HAD to give it a go. I threw a boulder mat down to protect the landing (a few odd shaped rocks and a small woody plant of some sort) and sat my butt down on the pad to try the move. It basically involved a bad hold for the left hand and a worse hold for the right, pull down until my arse was legally off the ground, then throw my right hand to a decent hold up and right, then pull myself up and over the top of the rock.... like I said, short and sweet.
So as I said, the boulder was a bit more than waist high. There was one "big" move on the whole problem. The crux was pulling my scrawny little hump off the ground. Well I got that far, and tried to make the throw with my right hand. I failed. I fell back. The fall was a whopping 6 inches. The woody plant (remember the wody plant I quickly mentioned at the beginning of the story?) decided, in it's wisdom, that it was ready to fight back for my crimes against the environment.... It sent one of it's vial, nasty thorns (how did I not njotice the BIG ugly thorns?) clean through the 2 inches of open cell foam, the 1 inch of EXTRA DENCE closed cell foam, 2 layers (top and bottom) of heavy duty, rip stop nylon.... and into my arse!
"YEEEEEEEAAAAARRRROOOUUUUUWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!"
There are few things worse than having to get one of your bouldering partners apply direct pressure to a massive puncture wound in your ass to stop the heavy flow of blood, while another one gets alcohol wipes, a few bandages and tape to seal you bum back up! Well, crisis solved. I applied direct pressure by sitting on a nice cool rock while my "mates" packed up the gear.... giggiling the whole time.
I did survive both the mental and physical injury. Sunday was much more productive climbing and much less hazardous. It may seem a goofy anecdote.... but you are all worth it! I will be having a "battle scar" showing when I get back.... for all who are interested. Climb hard, fall soft. Luvs to all of ya!