On August 30, 2011, I had a carpe diem moment. I had just acquired my first set of aid hooks and was desperately wanting to push myself in a crash course on hooking. Hooking seemed like pretty scary stuff, so I needed to work myself in stat for some climbs I have hopes to do.

Now, for those that don't know me, some might say that I have no shame when coming up with new & effective ways to train.




Sometimes I can even talk others into joining me with my crazy ideas.

I also can't resist seizing chances to document unusual training regimens for an excuse to practice multimedia productions, such as obsessive Photoshop annotations or productions in Premier.
PG Presidio Offwidth

So an idea came to me one day at work to bike up into the north Berkeley hills during my lunch hour and practice hooking in a rather unusual way.



It was at this time that I started getting tired. I had foolishly neglected to bring my daisies, and now I was precariously balanced on the steep wall with gravity pulling me back toward the abyss.


Rested, I gradually warmed back up to the rigors of the route.


Fortunately the thin placement held. By now I was nearly halfway across the route, and the moves were getting routine as the exposure eased off.


I figured the rebellion of my mind was a result of me bonking. It was now well past 1pm and I had yet to actually eat lunch during my lunch hour! I needed to refuel, stat!

I appealed to the authorities, giving a heartfelt defense of my lofty goals in hopes that they would allow me to continue reaching for the sky. Fortunately my explanation of what I was doing worked, as the concerned grounds manager eventually relented, saying "eh. I guess this is Berkeley."


Nearing the end, the route began to get tight and awkward.



Special thanks to Ryan Pintar, who was willing to go along with all of this silliness and take pictures.

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