Well..... no real suprises, but this past weekend I went climbing. I will say, however, that it was one HELL of a good climbing weekend. For starters, it was 4 days long due to a paid holiday on a Tuesday (I got paid to climb, YES!!!). Second, I went to Waitomo (limestone country) to enter a boulder comp and, though I didn't bring home any prizes, I was climbing SUPER strong for it. In the 4 hours alotted in the comp, I sent 4 V6's, 4 V5's, 3 V4's and a handfull of 1, 2 and 3's. Only the top 8 went towards the over all score, but I was able to more than double my score from the same comp last year! After the comp, we went to the local climbing gym to drink beer, watch out with 20 or so of the other competiters and watch climbing videos on the big screen. Sunday through Tuesday were spent at Mangaotaki, which is a SLOWLY developing climbing area with a stupid amount of good limestone boulders and 200 foot tall cliffs.
I had a standing project on one of the boulders there. I had spent 2 FULL days working this line, in hopes of getting the first ascent. On day 3 it went. I sent it. It is the hardest problem I have ever climbed to date. A few of my strong friends hopped on it and agreed that not only had I just sent a beautiful line that was bound to become a classsic, but I had also sent my first V7!!!!! Best of all... it was MY V7. I am one happy Matt Natti!