The Trip Of Northern Agression - Jerry's Kids

Those moments where you think to yourself, "Man, this is gonna be too damn easy". Those moments where it all just clicks together. When you're sitting at the base of something knowing damn well you're gonna do it.

I like those moments.

I didn't have any of those moments this trip. I went about things the hard way.


Jerry's Kids should have been easy. Katie and I tried it on the morning of our first day at LRC and I was lucky enough to watch someone do it. Good timing as I scammed all the upper beta from the dude. I did the crux second move after two or three tries and went to the top to suss things out. No problem. Felt good. Felt strong.

I had zero doubt in my mind that I'd do it next try. I sat and rested a bit as a couple other people gave it some tries. The sun had started to beat down on us at that point and I figured I'd do it and move on. Then I fell on the second move. And again. And again. For whatever reason I just couldn't get comfortable on the stupid hold no matter what I did. I had no clue what to do as the move felt totally foreign to me. Completely confused I tried in vain to repeat that move and eventually gave up. It had gotten hot and steamy and the holds felt like shit. So we moved on.

I ignored it for the rest of the day and figured we'd make our way back to it. On Sunday we played around on a few random problems and then Katie had her eyes set on Cleopatra. After working that thing to death and coming agonizingly close to doing it we decided to pack up and take off.

I'd gotten completely cold at that point and my skin was totally and completely shot. I had ZERO motivation to climb. None.

Then Katie asked if I wanted to get on Jerry's Kids. I grudgingly said yes and we walked over there.

I can honestly say that I've never been as unmotivated to climb. Ever. Ever ever. I did not want to put my shoes on. I did not want to climb. I wanted to leave and stuff my face and pass the hell out. I was well beyond over it. I wanted out.

I grabbed my teams and took one look at them before setting them aside.

"I definitely don't want to put those on right now."

So I grabbed my projects and tried in vain to stuff my foot into them. It was a sad attempt really.

"Maybe those will go on after I warm up a bit."

So I grabbed my Mocs(THANKS NIC!) and tried to warm up on the first move. At first I was just kinda flopping around not really trying. Soon though, as more people started floating by things got a bit better. Holly came by with her friends to say hi to Katie and see if she sent Cleo. Then one of the boys that we'd worked on it with the day before came over to try it once more with us. At that point I'd sacked up enough to put on my Projects at least.

Psyche is a very funny thing. It comes and goes so fast. I'm glad I was on the good end of it that day.

I tried it once more and missed the pinch with my thumb but went with it anyways. Sometimes you just get lucky. I rolled over the left foot and locked off to the sharp spike with a bit of surprise. I calmed down and reset for the bump to the good crimp and stuck it. I wasn't about to fall on any of the other moves.

I kept motoring into the undercling and stood up to the jug that ends any sort of hard climbing. As I stood up I paused for just a heartbeat. It was enough. My body sagged just a bit and despite me trying to hold off the inevitable I came down to the pads.


I can honestly say that it was one of the worst punts I've had in a damn long time. I was pissed. So so pissed.

I took a break while the other boy tried to finish it up in my absence. Sadly he met the same fate as me, getting through the hard section and falling on the V2 undercling move.

Fucking hell.

Katie convinced me to give it one last go and so I did. I quickly made it through to the spike and set myself for the bump, sticking it once more. I set myself into the undercling, knowing this was my last try and went to the jug coming literally centimeters short.

As I started my panicked trip back to the ground my right hand somehow caught a shitty miserable two finger chip. It was just enough as I caught myself from being the obvious punt of the month. One throw to a jug and shit was finished. I sketched my way through the topout and came down with a smile.

Soon after that, the boy also finished up with a similar near punt. Kinda funny.

What isn't funny was Katie's true punt after she got through the crux and then dry fired hard off of the painful left crimp. She wasn't pleased.

Jerry's Kids isn't a hard problem. In all honesty I should have done it in about 10 minutes. What was nice about it was that I had to try hard. It's something that has been lacking for me this year. For whatever reason I haven't been motivated. I'm not sure whether it's been the weather, my timing, work/travel or some other reason but it just hasn't clicked together for me this year.

It felt abnormally good to finish off something that I actually had to try on. It felt really good and it's something I haven't felt in a long time. Possibly since I did Moj last year. It's nice to see the psyche come back, no matter the circumstance.

On a separate note I'm getting more psyched in the Gymnasium AND I started running again. It was about 12 degrees when I ran today. Awesome. Feels good.