To Climb or Not To Climb

That is NOT the question! Of course, to climb. But there are small exceptions. Somedays you might feel that your body is against climbing.

The most prominent signs of such a situation are:
-you realize you are not calm,
-you do not have a clear control of the rock,
-you miss good holds,
-feel as you have never climbed before.

It is then obvious, that your body needs something else, most probably a good session of drinking :)

Silelis Accepts Help

You still keep your old shoes, because you think someone who will want to try out climbing might use it? Bring it to Silelis club. From time to time there appear people who would like to join our club and try out climbing, but I cannot help them if they have a feet which is not 36 or 43! We accept even very smelly shoes!

Multipitch bububu

Silelis enters the unexplored area of multipitches.
The first step was done last Sunday - 'Cinque stagioni' in Arco.
Around 6 pitches varying from 4c to 5c. 200m in 2.5 hours.
Overall quite easy, except for the last but one pitch - a tricky 5c with good holds but athletic moves.




The way down - abseiling on an adjacent multipitch (which is a tough 7a-7b, therefore sometimes negative).
Quite scary for any true Silelis member.



Red line - way up, blue - way down.



Reported by Marius

Fixing Your Climbing Shoes

Even though most of us in Silelis still wear our first climbing shoes, there are some members who are not that lucky. For example, Vlad has again worn out his shoes. That is the price one has to pay if you don't want to stay at beginner's level. But we still respekt him even though he climbs so much and so well. His ingeniousness can be useful to many.
Just have a look how he fixed his shoes.

In the following picture you can see his shoe and the fixing material:

The Vlad's fixing method includes putting an empty coffee package inside the shoe and thus covering the hole.
Here you can see the shoe is almost as new:



The secret lying behind this solution is that coffee packages do not tear or melt like paper. Enjoy!

What Should Rock Climbers Eat?

We all probably dream of better performance, we train forearm muscles, hang in lock-off positions hoping it will help us on the rock. But many of us forget, that one needs to eat properly to improve in climbing. Beer and crisps are of course essential, but they are more for the psychological health than for the physical one.
So first of all what you need is energy. Therefore there is no place for mushrooms (unless magic) or other kinds of food that consume more energy than can be produced in climber's menu. A climber also needs the energy to be quickly produced. Not many people know, that baked beans are sources of very fast energy. Moreover, beans have been noted in the history of climbing long time ago. All children have been told the story about a grandma and a grandpa, who used the bean plant to climb to the heavens (which, obviously is higher than any rock!). Well we have no details about the difficulty or exact date of this climb, nor the names of the climbers are known, but we believe eating beans can help you to get to the climbing heavens.
We all know about the side-effect of eating beans which is to blame why beans are not so much liked even if they are very nutritious and tasty. For climbers, this is no side-effect! Climbers use the reactive force of the exhaust gases while climbing to propel up!
So if you are planning to improve a grade or so before the end of the season, look for beans!

New name for Lithuania

Found a nice name for our beloved country: in terms of climbing, Lithuania should be called Flatlandia or Flatuania! Here I recall a line I sometimes sing in the mountains: "Lietuvoj ner kalnu, Lietuvoj ner kalnu.." (translation: there are no mountains in Lithuania) in the melody of a song from series Courage the Cowardly Dog which I found here.

Where is Kindergarden?

View Larger Map

I remember I talked to someone who did not know where the Kindergarden rock is, so I hope I can still help. The rock is in the very center of the map (placemark next time), where the path is wider.