Flying Circus!

I have been saving Flying Circus for a long time hoping I could get my first 5.10a on-sight.  All of the 10's I've led previously had either been top-roped or I'd hung on gear.  This weekend, I felt ready to take it on.  Kurt and I were very lazy Saturday morning and didn't make it out to the crag until early afternoon.  I got racked up, roped up, and was ready to go.  My goal was not to hang on any gear.  I wanted to either take a lead fall or get the route clean.  

I didn't meet my goal.  I got intimidated and hung in two places -- several times in one place where I kept climbing and then down climbing back to my piece of gear.  But I finally did make the move that was intimidating me and finished the climb.  I didn't meet my goal, but I did finish the route and was able to calm myself down and relax each time I started getting scared.  So even though I didn't take a fall and I didn't get it clean, I am proud of myself.  

After cleaning Flying Circus, Kurt decided he wanted to put up Neat and Cool (another 10a).  He struggled a little on it, but did end up finishing the route.  Then it was my turn to clean.  After struggling quite a bit on the overhung pumpy hand traverse and making little progress, I wasn't having fun at all.  So I used the slings I had to aid up the bottom section of the route since I had to clean the gear off of it.  The second half of the climb resembled fun, but it's still not a climb I'd want to repeat.  Once we were finished with that, we watched a girl flawlessly lead the tricky section of Neat and Cool and then we headed back toward the parking lot and I put up Cold Comfort (5.9).  Although it wasn't my first time on the route, it did challenge me a bit on lead and I felt good about it.  Kurt cleaned it and then we headed back to town to finish the evening with dinner and a movie.