I have a confession to make: I’m a rock climber. I know, I know, it’s odd to picture a 6’10″ tall, ~300 lb man hauling his sorry carcass up the side of a rock with only a thin strand of 10.2 mm kernmantle rope between him and splattering on the ground- but I try. I’m not the best rock climber on the planet, hell, I’m not even good. But it was something I always wanted to try and so I started trying about a year ago. 3 weeks ago, I got to go on my first outdoor climbing adventure with a co-worker and some of his friends. We went to Big Rock, a xenolith studded slab near Riverside. As a place to go for a first outdoor climb it wasn’t bad. I managed to make it up a 5.7 and 5.8, though a second 5.7 near the end of the day defeated me (my ankles weren’t up to the strain of another attempt.) Since then, I’ve been going down to the boulders in Santee every weekend for a few hours to work on various problems – I’m trying to improve my technique so I’ll be ready for the next serious climbing.

Today I was doing a little crack climbing over on Mudball Left (the name of the boulder, who picks these?). I did fine on the first crack (the right most one) but the second crack tore up my ankles and wrist something fierce. I’m going to be working that problem for a little bit so that I can really master the sequence of moves I need to do that sort of mis-matched crack climbing well- the middle crack’s right side is about 6″ further forward than the left and it makes the footwork a little odd. Also, I just don’t have some of the confidence that I need just yet. I’ll get there though- with all things it’ll just take some practice. I only climbed for about an hour, though, since by 9:30 am it was already getting to be a bit on the warm side for the rocks.

The next big event for the day, after climbing, was going to the San Diego Symphony to see Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto, Mendelsohnn’s Hebridies Overature, and Devorak’s Seranade for Strings. It was a captivating performance! I don’t think I really took my eyes off the stage for most of the performance. For me, a live symphonic performance is as much a visual pleasure as it is an aural one. A good symphony breathes with the music, all of the performers moving and swaying with the swells and troughs of the piece. This visual, in fact, was appropriate for the Hebridies, since the orchestra swayed like kelp in a tide pool! Devorak’s seranade is a very light and pleasant piece- I thought it was an excellent follow-on to the overature as well as a good way to bridge the audience to the intermission and then on to the technically challenging Brahms concerto. Yefim Bronfman was the pianist; his performance was masterful and light at the same time- the touch that this music needed to really come to life.

Categories: Life
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