Thursday, March 20, 2008

I got the fear

My friend Dave and I have been rock climbing each week for about 3 months now. We are planning to go up to Wales this spring for a climbing weekend. Outdoor climbing takes a lot of equipment, so we're slowly building up our collection, and our comfort with using it. We bought a rope and some quick-draws (those things you use to clip the rope into the anchors in the wall), and started lead climbing last week.
Lead climbing is different from top-roping, in that if you fall while climbing on a top rope, you don't really fall, you just kind of slip off the wall, because you're tied into the rope at the top of the wall. But in lead climbing, you start with the rope on the ground and clip into anchors as you go up. If you fall off, you fall twice the distance you've climbed above your last anchor. With anchors every five feet or so, you never fall very far, but it feels like a lot when you're clinging onto the wall.
On Tuesday, I didn't realize that I could reach a clip point. Dave thought I was getting ready to clip in, so he gave me some slack in the rope. I slipped off. Result? I fell about 10 feet, and in the process, got my leg caught on one of the quick-draws. I have a nasty bruise and rope burn on the back of my knee. But more importantly, it ruined my night, because after that I was under the control of fear, and I couldn't climb anything.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Since I have acrophobia, my hands were perspiring just reading this!
You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.
Carol