And here are finally the pictures of my new climbing trousers in action!
Some day, I should ask a third person to either take pictures or belay, so I can show off my me-made sportswear when lead climbing (or, more likely in Dutch climbing halls, toprope climbing). Both of those involve climbing on high walls. The climber wears a harness with a rope attached to it for protection and to lower him/her down after reaching the top (in a toprope set-up, those ropes are hung from anchor points at the top of the wall, when lead climbing you take them up yourself, fixing them to the wall at about 2 to 3 meter intervals).
Where clothes are concerned, both bouldering (climbing on low walls with thick mats on the floor for protection, which is what I am doing in these pictures) and sport climbing require a huge range of movement but the boulder does not have to consider the fit of clothes under a harness.
Anyway, in this picture, I am not really trying to climb the boulder properly but you get to see both my outfit and the bouldering wall.
In most of the other pictures, you can see my design choices are working out: I can bend my knees without baring them and thanks to that gusset, I can get my legs in any position I am capable of, without being held back by my clothes.
I'm happy with these, I guess I'll have to make some more!
In fact, I have returned a few days ago, after spending a week at the Gorge du Tarn in the south of France.
I went there with E and four other climbers (who are to thank for the pictures you see here) and we climbed both in the Gorge du Tarn and the nearby Gorge de la Jonte. In fact, we kind of had to because both climbing areas have mostly routes which are too hard for us.
We had two days of nice weather but after that, the temperature dropped to just over 10 degrees Celsius (at midday) and we had a lot of rain in the evenings. Not ideal when you are camping.
Nevertheless, we were able to climb every day. And we loved it. For me, E and two of the other, this was the first time climbing in France. And the first time climbing on real rock for more than two days in a row.
As a result, I think we all made some progress, getting more comfortable at lead climbing (most climbing halls here in the Netherlands are set up for toprope climbing so that is what we are used to) and at moving on chalkstone.
In fact, I am really keen to do more outdoor climbing this summer!
I'll just have to reconsider my wardrobe... I bought some items for which the fabrics would be hard to find but I am a bit unhappy with the fit of those. I don't mind a slightly too boxy jacket but I hate the fact that the waistband on my warm outdoor trousers is so low that my lower back gets exposed whenever I sit down or make certain climbing moves. I think I will adjust that pair of trousers, making a new, higher waistband and look for supplier of outdoor fabrics for the future.
