Atombessy --

I'm just doing indoor. There's a pretty big climbing community in Boulder, and a lot my co-workers climb, so it's pretty common for us to go to the climbing gym over lunch.

It's been a struggle -- I've had an issue with my right wrist for years. I finally thought it was healed last year, started climbing, and it flared up bad again. I found a great hand therapist; she made me stop doing *anything* active with my wrist. So all last summer, I couldn't ride bikes or my motorcycle, let alone climb. On the plus side, that's when I got back into soccer.

Right now I'm doing the hardest stuff I've ever done, up to some gym 5.10s. I'm definitely better at "technical" climbing where footwork really matters than at overhangs or other stuff where you really have to do some dyno moves. I like to take my time and really think about each move. But 5.10s are still really hard; some 5.9s are! The rating is just the beginning ...

The good news is that now, rock climbing is considered physical therapy for me. It allows me to build strength in a neutral wrist position. If I don't climb for more than a week, my wrist starts tweaking.

You may be right -- the upper body strength may be giving me better control. Do you do things like lifting your front wheel or bunny hops? That's not something I've ever done on a trail, and given my wrist's history I have a feeling I need to stick to technical stuff I can manage with body english only. Also, my new mountain bike is actually *five pounds* lighter than my old one, which makes it way easier (sometimes too easy!) to manhandle. That's a combo of higher-end parts and frame, and the fact that it's an XS instead of a M.

There was one point when I approached the lip of a bridge, something I could easily ride over, and decided to pull up the handle bars. Being used to the heavier bike, I fully expected nothing to happen, maybe just a slight unweighting. I actually yanked this bike up hard enough that the front wheel twisted a bit, eep! That's probably a combo of the rock climbing strength and the lighter bike / shorter wheelbase.