30

"The Shampoo Squeeze"

If you know me well at all, you know that I hate my birthday. I'm not so fond of the whole aging thing. I'm particularly concerned with how aging will negatively affect my climbing.

Bearing this in mind I thought maybe if I went bouldering with a bunch of old dudes I'd feel better about myself. It sort of worked until Noah pointed out the inverse relationship between the respective ages of the climbers present and their climbing abilities. Bugger, this only reaffirmed my fears.

Despite the looming cloud of misery I dragged around all day I managed to have a good time and climb a few problems. I even snagged a first ascent! The legendary Dave Hatchett was kind enough to show me around Sugar Pine 3, where he has put in a ton of work cleaning and climbing new lines. At the end of the day he took us over to one he'd tried the previous year but never finished, and after a few attempts I got to the top. Dave and Noah both followed suit soon after. I called the problem the "The Shampoo Squeeze" (there a story behind it) and it was the last thing I climbed in my twenties.

Two other climbing highlights included Charlie Barrett's "Space Balls" and Joel Zerr's "Freeloader".

Freeloader from Princess on Vimeo.