Crawley

Today I went to Rock Club in Crawley. It was the first time I'd gone to that for more than six months - first time in Crawley other than on the auto-belay for nearly as long too. I was a bit anxious about it because I remember when I went to it before they were all much better than I was and it felt slightly cliquey. Well today it made no odds what they were like since they weren't there! It was just me. The instructor was a guy called James, 18 years old, friendly. More into running than climbing and injured, but he went up some routes, in trainers, and it was interesting to watch him. Ha - at the start he produced a ground anchor and assumed we'd need one on account of his being heavier than me. Thinking about it, I must have misheard what he said he was, which sounded like 55 (kg. Anyway he was no problem to belay. Dunno how he found me - he was using a Gris-gris anyway. I went up some 5's, the odd 4, some 5+'s (failed dismally on one of them - fully of slopey holds I got nowhere on; J kindly said he thought it was more of a 6 and I'd agree but then maybe I would). Tackled two 6a's, one on the shorter vertical wall near the till, which is a bit beyond me still - need to get better at moving my feet up to where my hands are, better balance, and stronger - as much in the legs as the arms. The other I think I'm a lot closer to getting up, on the main wall, round about 17. It was red. On that one I mainly need to get used to where the holds are - there's a dark pink up the same panel - and also get used to leaning sideways on side-pulls. But I think if I also work on stamina, I'll get up that fairly soon. Maybe next visit but one? I think oddly enough my 6a's might come in Crawley rather than Redhill.