Last night, I did one perfect pullup. And a half of a second one. (Saturday, as I mentioned on twitter, I did three sets of one pullup apiece, and a fourth one assisted by scott_lynch) But the really exciting thing was the climbing, as I (thrashing, kicking, strugglng) made it up one route that's not rated yet, but was right at the limit of my ability. I also managed a 5.9 I had previously failed on, and a tricky balancy overhung 5.8--plus an unrated route that was somewhere in difficulty between the two, and a couple of easy warmups.

But why I say I leveled up is because I noticed, on that 5.8, how EASY many things were. Stuff I might have been able to do previously, but would have struggled with. Stuff that I just wouldn't have been able to do at all.

I'm discovering something cool, which is that in all that climbing at ridiculously low strength to weight ratios (for a climber) I have developed a great deal of strength and skill. And now that my strength to weight ratio is much higher... I'm actually pretty good at this!

Something to be said for climbing in the equivalent of a weight vest since 2007...

In other news, I'm 150 pages into Steles of the Sky, and I'm rediscovering that writing a novel after working on short stories for a few months is a weird transition. Especially since I had to relearn how to write the damned shorts, because I kept trying to write them in novel voice.

Novels have so much room! Everything does not have to be planed down to the bone, every single word bent in service to theme, every bit of excess flesh pared away.