When I was about 13 I used to traverse the back wall of the community centre next door to my house in Lewes when I couldn't get out climbing. It was made of flint so was viciously sharp and bits of it often sheared off unexpectedly. It was pretty filthy and I had to climb over a 7 foot rusty metal gate to get to it and clear weeds and rubbish away from the footholds. It was great though as it was something to climb on. My nearest climbing wall was Mile End in London which was a three hour round trip (thanks for the lifts Mum) so this was all I had locally. The full traverse of the back wall was probably about 7b (route grade) and it took a while for me to link it as it kept getting harder as holds snapped off. Eventually I did it missing out the bigger holds and without using a big ledge for feet. I realised it was actually quite good training as well as being fun.
Reading Jerry's book I noticed the similarity in that he wanted to climb so badly that he would train on anything as a lad and how even by training on a shit brick edge wall he was able to make big gains. When all you want to do is climb you'll make do with whatever's there. Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing and certainly to be encouraged in the young.........
HOWEVER!! I didn't A: Tell anyone about my traverse or B: Feel the need to write it up anywhere. And had the internet existed I would have had the common sense not to upload videos of myself climbing the bag of shit complete with duff grades and descriptions of it's "classic" moves and then post links to the videos on a bouldering website! FFS!!!!
Anyway - back to Star Wars. lol
