Nine months post-op

In the sector of boulders Aracnofobia, on La Barrosa 

October was a pretty good month. The weather mostly cooperated and I only had to train a few times in my home gym. The rest of the time I was able to get outside, sometimes three times a week (besides the weekends, I make time to climb on Wednesdays, typically bouldering alone for lack of partners). Except for one day when I went to a boulder fest at Sierra de los Padres (we'll hear about that latter), I climbed exclusively on La Barrosa.

A short 10c face route on La Barrosa

Here is a sequence of photos where I'm sending the second half of a V4 traverse problem in the sector of Aracnofobia. Maybe you remember from an earlier blog post how this problem, because of it's aggressive left heel hooks and compressed exist, almost put me in the hospital before my first surgery. Last month I managed to do the thing in two complete parts. However, I still haven't sent the whole problem without a rest, yet.

Getting into the start of the second half of the V4 traverse 

Reaching this hold is one of the bigger moves

That's my revised hip doing those aggressive left heel hooks

Look at what comes next

These are the same last moves as Aracnofobia

Revised hip compression

Getting that right foot up and onto the hold is another big deal for me. 

All and all, in the five months since I began bouldering after surgery,  I've sent around 85 different boulders, from V0 to V4, including a half a dozen problems that I used to do maybe eight years ago, but haven't been able to do since, because of hip problems. 

Another highlight was sending the following short, but stout 5.11. This is a route that I put up and (naturally) used to be able to do on a regular basis. However, once again, it's been about eight years since I've been able to climb it. 

Sending a short but tricky and physically demanding 5.11

The old fat guy getting the clip before entering the crux

Butt shot after the crux

That's all folks

Eight years after losing my abilities to hip problems, I'm back. 

In the nine months since my hip surgery, I've sent about 36 different routes; some onsights and some redpoints, even a little bit of trad climbing. Five of the routes were 5.11s, including a new 5.11 route in the sector of the Autodromo on La Barrosa (no photos) and the following route, which I had also redpointed last year.

Fede trying to redpoint a stout little 5.11 in the sector of the Bosque on Las Barrosa  

Fede on the crux moves. It took him two days of work to send this thing.