Skin so S**t

Firstly apologies for the lack of any photos with this post, soon I promise.

I am sadly having to take another rest day today because the skin on my finger tips is getting too thin. I took a day off on Monday, then climbed yesterday and now have to take another day off today. This is frustrating as I do not feel too tired from the climbing it is just that I can not hold on to anything because my skin hurts. It seems to be one of the biggest problems with many climbers who just have soft skin, but there is no real solution to toughening it up. I should probably wait until it is properly healed but at the rate that I heal that would take far too long and time is too precious for that, as I seem to be gathering unfinished boulder problems at quite a rate. Some of these admittedly are due to lack of physical strength, technique, height, reach and a million other excuses rather than skin, but frustrating all the same. I seem to have been here in Joe's a while now and my tick list is not as extensive as I maybe first hoped it would be. i hope that over the next few weeks I can go back and put a few of my "still to finish" list to rest.

All is not lost on these rest days though as tis morning I went for a short run with another climber girl, Kelsey, and then cam into town for a spit and polish in the Food Ranch sink, so now I feel all pretty and cleanish again.

On another subject I had a good weekend as my friend Sarah was in the Valley for the weekend and it was a great surprise to see her. As usual Sarah was super psyched and strong and made swift work of quite a few of the problems that I have been working on and more. Sadly she had to leave on the Sunday evening and is flying back home to the UK on Thursday. Short but sweet visit, but good fun with lots of giggles. Thanks Sarah.

Hopefully I will be able to hold on to some of this excellent sandstone again tomorrow and with any luck send something groovy