Progress Up -- and Down

So here's the current progress on the rope-climbing:

The green rectangle is my height in relation to the rope. (That's a six-foot-high fence in the b.g, but the angle in the picture makes it look a bit shorter.)

The red circle is where I could get to without gloves. Only a couple of feet, but hey, that's what it is.

The blue circle is where I've been managing to make it with gloves, (sans the time off whilst gone to the dog show.)

The yellow circle is where I reached today. Nearly fell off coming down -- if you miss your grip with one hand, it makes for a fairly insecure grip with the other. Since I'm trying to descend in the same form as the ascent, i.e., with the knees up, feet in front rather than dangling directly below, this makes it trickier still, balance-wise. So far, I've found that coming down is harder than going up. Go figure.

Nothing to brag about here, but progress.

When I to the point where I can ascend, touch the support branch, then descend in good form, I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Then? It just becomes a matter of how many reps I can add before my arms fall off ...