After all the excitement of the Shakespeare World Cup, I thought I would sneak a non-Shakespeare comic in here, just for a change.
As some of you might know, when not occupied drawing Shakespeare cartoons or cataloging books for Southeast Asia I can often be found at my local rock climbing gym, getting into all sorts of literal scrapes. Recently my gym put up a new route that mimics chimneys, or rock fissures that are wide enough to fit your entire body in them. In order to climb them you have to sort of wedge yourself in the chimney and use your body tension to inch your way upwards. It kind of looks like this:
Not me. I found this photo on this blog, and the climber's expression perfectly sums up my opinion of chimney climbing, so I borrowed it.
It's not very common to see chimney routes in gyms, so I was very excited to see one in my gym. This is what happened when I tried to climb it.
The friction coefficient of my gym shorts has never seemed so important. (In case you're wondering, I did eventually make it up, thanks to my climbing partner's patience and advice.)
Check out my other rock climbing comics here. Normal Shakespearean service will resume on Friday!