Book Seven

I finished Paul of Dune late last night. It was incredible. I haven't enjoyed a Dune book that much since reading the first. It took me a little while to get used to the writing. It is sloppy and sometimes silly (not that I'm Steinbeck or anything - it's easier to criticize creation than it is to create).
The fast and loose writing does not change the fact that you get to learn more about Paul both before he went to Arrakis (before Dune), and Paul after he becomes emperor of the galaxy (after Dune). If the writing isn't super duper, the plot line, at least, satisfies. I found myself hanging on each plot thread as they were woven, all the way to the end, and even after five hundred pages, I was left wanting more. Delightful.

A new order:

9) Chapterhouse: Dune
8) Heretics of Dune
7) House Corrino
6) House Harkonnen
5) God Emperor of Dune
4) Children of Dune
3) House Atreides
2) Paul of Dune
1) Dune

I'm a little concerned that I'm going to read those other books - Butlerian Jihad, Sandworms of Dune, and some other that I can't remember. I have a feeling that they would end up at 10, 11, 12. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are coming out with Jessica of Dune at some point. I think I will check that one out.
_______

Today was a good day for climbing. You may recall that I worked Ab Lounge, a v10 a couple of days ago, and made some progress. I think I said something along the lines of, 'I can't say for sure, but I feel like I'm close on it'. A friend from Minnesota showed up late last night, Randy, and we decided to climb together today. I took him out to Fountaine Red, where I showed him some classics - Le Beak, Rings of Uranus - and I climbed a few ones that I hadn't done before, in the range of v0 to v4. All of them were superb. One of them, Let Mikey Do It, a v1, is among the scarier climbs I've done here in Arkansas. It brought me back to my R rated trad climbing days (not that they were very long). As I climbed down, I realized that the thing was about as tall as The Wall at Carleton, where I learned to climb. The crux is all the way at the top. What I would have thought, ten years ago, of myself climbing a boulder that tall?
After, I took him over to the Invasion area. I wanted to see if I could make any progress on Ab Lounge, and thought he might be into working that, Electralica, the awesome v8, and the worthy v5 around the corner (with the long name). I gave him lots of beta on Electralica, and he flashed it! It was exciting.
Then we headed over to Ab Lounge. It looked kind of wet (It just poured yesterday), and the cliff above was draining, unfortunately, right onto the top of the boulder. Luckily, the sun had dried the face, and it was overhanging enough that the water dripped off without running onto the holds. The ground was disgusting though - I continually had that extra-heavy tennis shoe feeling where you double the weight of your shoes with mud caked to the bottom. But our spirits were indomitable, and I worked on the climb.
On my first try, I almost managed to finish it! I tried this cross over to one of the last holds, and blew off from high. He got excited about that, sharing my previously tentative and unconfirmed belief that I was close to doing the thing. So we talked beta for a while, and he stacked a big pile of pads up, and I grabbed the upper holds to try to finish from them. When I pulled on, he spread the pads back out, and I just went for it. I tried making a dyno gaston move to a decent, flat hold up high, and it worked! I topped out on the wet holds, feeling pretty damn good about the whole thing. Now that I had done all the moves, I decided that I needed a good long rest, so we went and checked out the rest of the broad Invasion area, including the name sake route, a beautiful 12d.
When we went back, I still felt a little unsure. For some reason, v10 is still a forbidding number to me. I get a mental block about it, and think that I can't possibly complete a climb at that grade. I struggled with that today.
I tried it from the start, and fell from high on the problem, almost sticking the last move. Then I tried again from the start. I moved through the lower moves reasonably well, but made a couple of small errors so that my hands were not in the best position, stuck the high bad crimp, stuck the gaston, and topped out!
It is among the hardest climbs I've done, and the only one rated v10 that I've ever done (The Coffee Cup in Leavenworth, which I originally thought was v10, is called hard v9 by many). I loved that the crux moves were so high off the ground, and so insecure. I had to really go for it.
I have about five days here to make the most of. My stack of books is down to three or four, and there are a couple of projects that I would still like to do. I will persevere to make the most of my remaining time, but, even if I don't get to climb another day, or read another book, I will leave content.