i just had my first real outdoor-bouldering-day at the exact same place, on the same boulderproblem i had my last boulder-session some 8months ago and on consequently on the same boulderproblem where i injured myself so badly. back to "work" on the "highlander" i was!
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| what a nice day up there in the mountains... |
finally the weather got better and it was a brilliant evening up there in the mountains; 12degrees, wind, snow.... and some sun - just perfect... ;) i warmed up carefully, checked the footmoves if my hamstrings were ok with them. and they were ok ;) so i went on to test my actual fitnesslevel and started two hard moves into the hard part of the line, making roughly an 8B/+ boulder itself... to my big surprise i was literally chalcking up in the middle of the crux and instead of wildly swinging out i was going static through the next move as well... that was just crazy, i never ever experienced something similar - where did all that power came from?! and so i took a 15min rest - and did the same again... to finish up the day i climbed through the hard part of "reve de faire, 8B".... that was quite a first day... ;)
second and third session up there showed that due to my hamstrings not ready yet for hard heelhooking i was not able to climb my beta for the first part anymore. trying my other beta for that part i had to learn that my left knee (watch details below) was not ok with that. so i had to figure out another way for that first few moves. it took quite some time and effort but finally i found another way to climb that part... BUT with my old beta i was able to climb about 10times a day into the second part, NOW i did not manage to link it into the second part yet, just the single moves. that new beta bumped the grade for the first part from 8A to around 8B for me... despite my better over-all-power does that not really help to make the second crux-part much easier....
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| i still can't believe that this move (the hardest one) actually felt "EASY"!!! but the moves from the right got way harder due to my new beta i was forced to use - so as a result the move in the pic feels heinous again on link... |
obviously the hard training paid all off and i am strong as never before (i even did my first one-armer's EVER...). all i would need are two or three more weeks of "resistance" training and a day with nice conditions and i am 100%sure i would (kind of) WALK that "highlander" home... even with the new harder first part! BUT it looks like (climbing) life has other plans with me.... three weeks ago i was training and boudering in the gym (due to once again a lot of rain). i was sitting on a very high and near left foot and may i had a bit of tension/turning moment to the outside (as a hold turned), a little scratch inside my knee and a fall into the pads... bit pain at the very moment, but not too much pain at all...
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| my left knee: there should be no white fragment (tear) going into the black (meniscus).... damage clearly visible :( |
pain set in the next day while getting up and down stairs... so i avoided stairs for some days and the pain was nearly gone. but some days later as i was playing with our cats on the floor of our flat and my knee suddenly locked at 90degrees, some days later again... otherwise no pain but a strange feeling in the knee... so i knew something was wrong and the results of the recent mri-pics unfortunately do not look good at all. (it's not that on the mri-pics it's clearly visible that as i child i must have damaged my acl, torn my outside and ripped off my inside ligament as well).
the actual problem is a torn mensicus that glides into my knee and blocks it when i bend over 100 degrees or twist my leg. due to the place and the kind of the injury there is no "easy" surgery to fix this mess (and even then just a 50/50chance the fixing would last and a good chance for collateral damage....). so it would be best to try if the body can heel himself (but with 36 thats not the same as with 13...). to give that process the best foundation my doc suggested 6-8weeks on crutches.... no guarantees that it will heel at all... but at least a chance. if this is not sucessfull; surgey (the 50/50 chance)... if not sucessfull learn to live with it and avoid moves provoking a locking knee... if that does not work i have to get nearly all of my meniscus out.... that would mean that i would have to get a "knew knee" in some 3-5years and hope for i don't need to replace that one too soon.... not the best outlook into the (boulder) future...
so will try to take it easy, don't provoke any "locking" moment and give my body time to heal... but i am not sure about the crutches yet, as i have just no pain in daily life (but avoiding any high impact, no stairs and so on...). and even easy (and hard) climbing does not give me any problems as long as i don't bend or twist too hard...
