Unfortunately, I did not make it out to San Francisco on Friday. Apparently "The Room" is shown on a fairly frequent basis, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to see it before the summer is over. Saturday, I went rock climbing with a bunch of people from work, mostly friends I already knew. We went to a place called Planet Granite which is an indoor facility that has locations all over the area. The one we went to is supposedly the largest in the Bay Area, and it sure looked the part:
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| Bouldering |
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| For some of these, you start upside-down |
I have only been once before as part of my pre-orientation program for college, so for all intents and purposes, I had never done this before. So, I had a lot to learn about everything there was to do, different techniques, etc. It was about $20 for a day pass and to rent equipment. You need special rock climbing shoes that you're not supposed to wear socks with (I made sure they used disinfectant) and they give you a really good grip as you climb. With that, you can go bouldering (2 pictures above) which is basically free climbing that doesn't go too high. The reason for the height limitation is in case you get stuck and need to just fall back. All of the rocks are surrounded by padding for this exact reason. The difficulty ratings go by numbers, with the easiest being V0 and the hardest going to V10 or so. Each path, marked by colored tape, is a finish marking at the top of the rock. You are supposed to start with both hands on the starting rock, and put your feet wherever. Only then are you allowed to separate your hands and start climbing, only placing limbs on rocks marked by the tape for the path you're on. To give you a sense of difficulty, I was able to do a few V0 climbs but only one V1. The difficulty scale is quite steep for these, plus I'm definitely not a great climber (yet).
In addition to bouldering, there is top roping. This is where one person climbs, while another stays below on the ground and belays them. To belay, you need to get certified when you get there. There's a series of knots to learn along with proper technique, and you can take a class there if you want. If you want to get certified (either for the day or a couple years) you have to do it right when you enter. The reason for this is they don't want you getting a "lesson" from one of your friends and then taking the test. I imagine it has something to do with liability, consider I also had to sign a waver before they let me in.
Each person top roping wears a harness where the rope gets attached in case the person climbing needs to let go. That means that these climbs can go a lot higher. It was a little confusing because top roping has a different difficulty scale, starting around M2 and going to about M12. Instead of lots of rocks marked by tape, these paths have colored rocks to grab hold of so it's a little easier to see where you can go. I started out on a couple M7s and then did a M9 by the end. Once you reach the top, the person below slowly lets you down. That is one of the more fun parts, since you're basically free-falling:
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| My toughest climb of the day |
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| Look Ma... no hands! |
A bunch of the people I went with decided to get monthly memberships as they plan to go at least once a week. That is a little much for me, since I want to do a wide variety of things while I'm here. I'll probably go back at least a couple more times, but not enough to warrant a membership. The nice thing about that place though is that it's also a gym, so there are free weights, treadmills, bikes, etc. Not very many people go there just for that though. There is one final thing you can do at these places, but I'm not exactly sure if there's a name for it.
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| See the white chalk marks? |
In the rocks are tiny cracks that go all the way up. Some people like to scale the rocks just by using those, which seems almost impossible to me. You can also take a class for that, but I think you probably have to already be pretty good at everything else. I wouldn't be surprised if some people we saw there could do it, though. For a while, we were climbing near this guy who seemed pretty good:
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| Pro |
Another thing I'll do next time, since I now have an idea of my skill level, is take my camera up an easier one and take pictures from the top. I was definitely not going to risk dropping it just weeks after I've gotten it. I did get to take some cool pictures from the ground, though.
After all that, a few of use went out and got Chinese food for dinner. We went to an area where there are a LOT of different Chinese places to get food. It almost felt like a tiny Chinatown in the middle of California. There were even shops and bakeries that we explored after. To give you a sense, we were basically the only white people we saw in the place.
At night, I went to a bar called the Rose & Crown with a friend. It is basically modeled after an English pub - the walls are lined with different English Premiere League soccer teams. We had heard good things about the place, so we decided to check it out. They have a fantastic beer selection, so we just sampled different things. We stayed for a couple hours, watched people play darts, met some people, and then called it a night and headed home.
Today I slept in and went to the office to grab some food. It was also a fantastic day outside (hell, the weather here is fantastic every day), so I decided I was going to go to a nearby park, lay outside, and read. A lot of that is pretty unheard of for me. There were a decent number of people there - lots of young families. I overheard one dad with an English accent teaching his son to kick the ball. Later, a baby walked by with her mom because he wanted to look at my bike; apparently he's currently in a "bike phase." As they were walking away, the mom said "Say goodbye, Charles." It took me a moment to realize she was talking to the baby. I mentioned to her that I had the same name, except that my parents only call my Charles when they're upset with me. She said that since they won't be able to do that, they'll have to call him by his middle name in those cases. The baby then wandered over to play soccer with the English family.
After being in the sun for a while, I came back to the apartment for a swim, only to find the gate was locked. I'm not exactly sure why, but hopefully that changes soon. I spent the last couple hours around the apartment, doing laundry and reviewing pictures. I usually have my laundry done at the office for very cheap, but I wanted to just wash my gym clothes and it was only a dollar. Also, I think I forgot to mention that I got my hair cut at work this past week. Something like every other Tuesday, a service comes to a parking lot near the office in a giant air-conditioned trailer where you can schedule an appointment to get your hair cut. And as with pretty much everything else, the company pays for it.
Looking forward to this week, as I have pretty much every week. Maybe next weekend I'll finally get to check some things off of my list.
