It's been a while since I climbed a route at the gym that was just super fun. I mean SUPER fun. Don't get me wrong -- there have been fun problems I've climbed and it's always great to challenge myself with harder problems such as the 5.12b I climbed recently. Last night I hopped on a couple 5.11b's. The first one was as you'd expect any 11b to be -- pumpy and technical -- a good climb for sure -- just not one that I'd climb again unless helping someone work it.

The second one took me by surprise. It was set by Carl -- a fun guy who also works as a bartender at a local restaraunt. He's normally sets a certain "type" of route -- being super strong, his routes tend to be pumpy/beefy/big moves/slopey holds. In fact every route setter at the gym has a certain "style" that you can normally pick up on if you climb there enough.

This route was a break from the norm. It flowed. It was a little pumpy but not terrible. It was technical. And when I say technical, I mean Technical with a capitol T. It was in the stemming part of the gym -- where you are in a corner and you might have a foot on either side of the corner (or hands for that matter). I was amazed. There was no doubt that it was an 5.11 -- there were deffinately some committing moves: smear your feet up the wall with no foot holds, lock of your arm and throw to the next sloper; back step hand-foot match turning said match into instant drop knee; sloper to a sloper to a sloper to the last hold with your feet in awkward stances. But it was fun!

People at the gym have a saying for fun routes. They call it a Vertex Classic (Vertex being the gym name). I've only been on maybe two other routes that I'd give that name to (other people use the name "Vertex Classic" a lot more loosely). This route was deffinately a Vertex Classic.