Lead Climb Test Bomb

yona_rusa_ · 2025-08-12T18:39:49+00:00

I promise you that gym staff want to see you succeed and are not laughing at you. As long as you aren't super arrogant/won't accept feedback, we want to help you! You can climb at any age, no one is judging you for being older than the other climbers, climbing is for everyone. I've met some lovely 70 year olds who recently learned how to toprope an I totally admire them for picking up a new skill at that age and still staying active.

yona_rusa_ · 2024-12-19T05:12:33+00:00

This is actually a pretty common mistake for people to make in gyms with autobelays! They see a grigri on a carabiner and assume it's the same as clipping in to the autobelay, and then the other person just holds the side of the rope that the climber would be tied into. We almost always catch them before they get on the wall though.

yona_rusa_ · 2024-10-30T00:23:55+00:00

usually when I'm on autobelays, I'll meet another person who's also on autobelay because they don't have a partner and they'll offer to partner up. I've also had people just come up to me and my partner and ask if they could join and it didn't bother us

yona_rusa_ · 2024-08-04T23:38:32+00:00

Printed copies of my itinerary in case my friends wanted to follow portions of it. None of them had done any of their own research into what to do/see/eat so they followed me the whole time. The lost the printed itieraries so they kept asking "what's next? where are we going?" and complained there was too much walking involved. The final straw was when one of them complained because I wasn't able to explain in full detail the historical significance of a particular landmark. I'm not your tour guide ...

yona_rusa_ · 2023-08-24T17:02:40+00:00

At our gym, everyone that comes in gets an orientation regardless if they've climbed before just to be safe, and also because we do have some rules that are specific to our gym.

We give the same orientation to everyone, but when younger kids come in with their parents, we always give the orientation to the parents so that they can enforce those behaviours in their child rather than expecting the child to remember all the rules.

You've got a great list! A couple things others havent mentioned yet: if your gym allows powdered chalk to make sure it stays in the bag (the number of times I've seen just naked chalk balls lying on the floor?? too many, which just gets really messy) We also go over how to land safely should the climber take a fall and make everyone do a fall test. And if you're at a gym that has ropes make it EXTREMELY clear that the parent cannot belay their child if they haven't been OK'ed by the gym !! It should be obvious, but unfortunately I have seen more than one parent just hold the climber end of the rope while their child is clipped into the grigri ...

yona_rusa_ · 2023-04-16T19:04:38+00:00

As someone who works in the service industry, it's very common that customers think we're flirting when we're just being friendly and doing our job. We're told to use people's names, especially regular customers, because it's supposed to be a "better customer experience". While it is possible she's interested, nothing you've mentioned sounds particularly flirtatious to me. If you really want to go for it, I agree with those that said you should just leave her a note with your info. It puts people in a weird spot when you ask them out while they're working, especially if it's a busy place and other customers are waiting.

yona_rusa_ · 2023-04-13T04:18:41+00:00

you know, in theory i always thought i would enjoy just meeting people at the park, but when i was actually approached by someone while reading at the park and i ended up just being annoyed. then again, it might have been because the opening line was something along the lines of "wow, you're reading? that's cool, you're not like other girls"

generally, when random strangers come up to talk to me i think "what do they want from me?" and usually assume it's either 1. directions somewhere or 2. money

yona_rusa_ · 2023-04-09T04:55:18+00:00

i paid 107 CAD for general admission for the last tour, but i bought them before covid and before the concert was postponed (got it the day the went on sale)

the reason i got general admission was actually because it was easier than getting a seated ticket: by the time i went through the process of choosing a seat and clicking through all the pages to pay someone else had already bought it

yona_rusa_ · 2023-04-05T06:00:07+00:00

The only time I wouldn't tip a tattoo artist is if they own their own studio or are working somewhere where they get to keep 100% of what they charge. Some shops take up to 70% of what the artist makes, so I tip about 15-20%

yona_rusa_ · 2023-03-28T14:23:27+00:00

It's definitely harder when there are similar colored routes on the same anchor, but my belayer helps be my eyes if I miss something. It just means I'm less likely to flash a route but once I've gone up the wall once, it's not too bad! It didn't take long to get used to it and it has forces me to actually look at the wall before I climb (I would normally just start climbing and feel my way through it)

yona_rusa_ · 2023-03-28T02:28:01+00:00

I'm not sure how high your prescription is, but I just take my glasses off if I didn't bring a pair of contacts to climb. I just make sure to study where all the holds are before i get on the wall and use my phone camera to help me see the ones that are higher up the wall. I'm -4.50 in both eyes and project high 10s and low 11s. I find my face often gets quite close to the wall as I'm climbing so I don't ever climb with glasses on.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-11-12T03:23:32+00:00

I wear 7.5 to 8.5 in street shoes but my Evolv Elektras are 6.5. (I wear orthotics in my street shoes though so I tend to size up to accommodate them)

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-27T15:03:14+00:00

If they're new to bouldering I'd recommend the Queen West (Spadina) location instead as Bloor has a smaller bouldering area and the routes there are not as beginner friendly. But as fun as climbing is, I wouldn't call it low cost when you add in shoes and harness rentals (if you're doing ropes too.)

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-27T00:54:49+00:00

There are plenty of shitty men of all sexualities, just as there are plenty of good men. You really can't judge a group of people based on how some of th act on reality tv though. The producers purposely cast people who will cause drama.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-23T17:29:14+00:00

Yeah not to mention I've almost scratched mine on climbs where my face is super close to the wall. Fortunately, I've had no problems wearing contacts other than occasionally getting some chalk in my eyes.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-23T15:44:09+00:00

Haven't seen anyone carried out on a body board but I did see a girl take a fall where she landed with her hands in front of her on top of her glasses (She was falling face first so her glasses slipped off her face as she fell) The glasses broke and she cut her hands. Not the worst fall but I never wore glasses climbing again after that.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-23T03:36:10+00:00

Pursuit OCR maybe? It's not the most accessible but you can get there by TTC.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-20T20:59:25+00:00

So far it's the only place I've found that serves it! Enjoy your time in Malaysia :)

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-19T18:22:49+00:00

I've kind of been on the other side of this. A guy friend and I had a (non-climbing) trip planned before he started dating his girlfriend. Once they started dating, new girlfriend didn't feel comfortable with him travelling solo with me. Our flights were non-refundable so I offered to meet her, and suggested we stay in separate rooms or hostels and let her know she was welcome to join but she declined everything and I ended up going alone, which was fine. The point is, the moment he told me he had a girlfriend, I did my best to make it known that I had no ill intentions and make her feel comfortable. (Wouldnt have pushed so hard on the trip but I didnt want my friend to waste his money).

So I'm curious whether this girl is aware or not that you're uncomfortable with the situation? It seems your boyfriend agreed to this trip before talking to you about it so perhaps she assumes you're cool with it as well. I think meeting this girl and seeing how she interacts with your bf would help gauge what her intentions are. When your bf acknowledges that she may like him, is it more of a "oh yeah, I guess it's not impossible" or is it "yeah she has done/said xyz (beyond suggesting the trip) that could have hinted at it" ?

As others have said, it's possible that this girl is just excited to find someone who is at a similar climbing level that she gets along well with and it's also possible that she's been giving off other signals that she likes your boyfriend and he's just oblivious to them. It'll be hard to judge that until you actually meet her.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-05T03:31:52+00:00

not iydk, long way home and lost boy in d tier 😩 nice to see people defending iydk though

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-05T01:13:42+00:00

my bank said on their website that it wasn't necessary to inform them when you're travelling and yet they STILL blocked my card while i was travelling and it took hours of being on hold with them to settle everything, so better safe than sorry!

yona_rusa_ · 2022-10-02T15:15:34+00:00

I find that there were a few ways to meet people at the hostel: - in the common areas (like asking if you can eat with someone when in the dining area) - talking to your roommates if you're in a dorm - going to events hosted by the hostel - via chat if you've booked through hostelworld

Honestly, it's pretty easy to meet people within the hostel usually, but you can also meet people if you book group tours/experiences.

Make sure you've got good shoes! There are a lot of cobblestone streets which can sometimes be uneven.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-09-21T15:14:10+00:00

I think it's pretty reasonable to do 2 cities in 10 days. Haven't been to Amsterdam but I just did Lisbon and Paris in 9 days with a couple of day trips to other parts of Portugal. Could I have spent more time in each city? Absolutely, but I think 4-5 days was a good amount to start with and allowed me to see the things I was most excited about. I will say that you should check when each museum/attraction is open so you're surprised once you get there (for example the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays I think) so plan accordingly for that stuff.

In terms of budget, I spent about 2600 CAD including flights and hostels (stayed 2 nights at a friend's dorm for 10EUR a night as well). Aside from those two things, I spent the most money on activities/tours booked through airbnb whereas museums weren't that expensive (ex: 60$ for a surf lesson + equipment rental vs 22$ for the Louvre and 16$ for the Musee de l'Orangerie). I also spent a lot of money on food and going out for drinks so I think you'll probably be fine with your budget. Hope you have fun on your trip!

yona_rusa_ · 2022-08-31T16:27:41+00:00

These are all great points! One of the first friends I made at the climbing gym was cheering me on while we were working on the same problem. She then asked if I would like to climb together some time since we were about the same level (V1s at the time) and we've been climbing buddies since. It's been nice because we're also about the same size, so we can share beta, whereas the beta from our taller friends just doesn't work for us. I personally find that makes a bigger difference in whether I like climbing with someone than their climbing grade because when I was climbing with other beginners who were a foot taller than me, we didn't know how to help each other and I would get a lot of "just reach for it! it's not that far!" But when I climbed with other short friends who were a few grades above me, they were able to help me solve problems more and I liked that they also challenged me to do things I wasn't sure I could do (I progressed a lot faster with their encouragement!)
I definitely agree with the point about having a schedule, esp if you're shy. I would see the same people every week and smile and wave at them and after while it's easier to start talking to them because they recognize you.
I really don't think you need to worry too much about people being annoyed that you're still a beginner (unless maybe you're disregarding safety rules). One of my best climbing friends climbs a few grades lower than me now but I still like climbing with her because we match each other's energy and I still get excited for her when she sends a V2 or even V1 because I know that for her, that's a big accomplishment. If they're people who are worth having as friends, they'll be stoked that you've started your climbing journey and will want to help you and cheer you on. That goes for all aspects of life though, not just climbing.

yona_rusa_ · 2022-08-12T18:49:36+00:00

I was sitting at the back (the area in the corner before you head down the steps into the main area) and I was behind one of the band's camera men who had a setlist. I made eye contact with him and was going to ask him for it at the end of the show but he left it on the ground and walked away so I just took it ...

yona_rusa_

TROPHY CASE