Thursday, January 30, 2020

The Enthusiasm Engine, 18.6 edition

Eli 18.6 finds out at the end of next week if he's going to Geneva this summer for an internship at the U.N.

His first semester was terrific. I don't know how anyone could have had a better time, and his grades were A's and A+s.

He started doing "speed climbing", which is different from bouldering in interesting ways. In bouldering, you accumulate points as you reach certain markers on a route. The routes change for every competition, and you don't see them beforehand. Climbs can take over 5 minutes.

Speed climbing is almost the opposite. A route is set at the start of the year, and it's the same for all competitions. At nationals, the route is 15 meters, but most gyms don't go up that far, so for NCAA regionals, it's 10 meters.

This was Eli's thing, when he was a kid and attended those week-long rock climbing camps. He went up the wall like a spider.

Yeah, you see where this is going.

When he first started, three weeks ago, he was doing the course in about 13 seconds. Then 10, then 8. Then 7.

Yesterday, he did it in 6.6, and he doesn't even have his own speed shoes yet.

National class for a 10 meter wall is around 5 seconds, I think, but still, that's damn fast, and he just started.

Never surprised.

Site Meter