Climbing Rocks

Somebody was going to have to start climbing.

The first ten or fifteen feet looked easy, but then things got more complicated. Elijah, our charmingly calm and competent guide from REI, explained that sometimes you just have to get up there to see what to do. But then, he was an expert, and had climbed this same face many times.

That's Eijah in the orange shirt, left and below right, getting us ready to climb.

None of us had ever really climbed much outside of a gym. The younger four people on the climb all had experience in a rock climbing gym, and some of them looked very comfortable with all of this. That would pay off on the rock, too.

I hadn't ever climbed in a gym, and hadn't been on a rock wall in forty years. I generously volunteered to belay the first climber in our group, allowing one of the younger guys to climb first. It was the least I could do. Really.

He started up quickly enough, and before I knew it, he had hoisted himself over the lip and up to the top of the rope, sixty or seventy feet above us. While he had been climbing for some time indoors, this was a pretty good show for the first time on real rock. I eased the rope out to let him back down the cliff and let the next guy climb.

Sooner or later, I was going to have to start climbing like everybody else. I watched a couple more climbers, tried to learn from their mistakes, and finally stepped up to the wall. The first few feet were obvious. And then there was a tricky little section where I couldn’t really see any handholds. I made it two thirds of the way up the wall before I decided that it was far enough.

As I was being lowered away, Elijah pointed out that I didn't have to hang onto the rope with both hands. After all, if it broke, my hands weren't going to stop me from falling. And it wasn't going to break. Trust the rope, he advised.

I did, but it took a conscious decision on my part to do that.

Over the next couple of hours we took turns on different routes up the rock walls. My favorite route seemed complicated right at the start, and I eased over a bit to the left, to see if things were any better over there. A couple more feet up, and then I rested on my knee, easing over to another ledge. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece getting you just a bit closer to finishing. There was a nice crack going up to the right, and another that took me a bit left. And then as I stood up on that last foothold, I realized that I could touch the carabiner at the top of the climb.