Coaching a new pupil from France. He flashed 6c+ on top rope on the first session with us last week. This week he asked to join the group leading. A quick check out of his skills showed he was proficient so away he went.
To develop his climbing and enhance his experience, I removed the quickdraws from the wall so he'd have to place them himself.
We also found his achilles heel - grit like rounded slopers. Something to work on over coming weeks.
It was not only very enjoyable working with such a good climber, but also very interesting dealing with the language issues. Between his English and my French and a bit of miming we could generally do fine, but sometimes he resorted to Google translate for technical things he wanted to ask and needed to be sure we were on the same page about for safety.
