climbing outside

Rock climbing outside was great fun, exciting, invigorating and challenging. It felt almost like it used an entirely different set of muscles, I was fatigued after we finished. Even though I’d only done about five or six climbs. It was also frightening and nerve wracking. The idea of falling is far more frightening outside because, although you’re on a rope, when you fall you scrape down an uneven wall and can often wind up swinging out to the right or left – more scraping against an uneven wall. Not scraping, actually, slamming after a wide swing. Trying to pull a roof was terrifying because I knew I’d swing ten feet to the left when I came off. Which I did.

I managed to hit myself in the head with my helmet. An excellent example of irony. I ate a lot of gorp. Went up to the top of the rock to take photos looking down, On the way to the top I saw a snakeskin which caused me to have a small panic attack – being terrified of snakes as I am. Every time I climbed up this one route – the bunny slope I called it – I saw a hole directly into the dirt between the rocks. Round and snake shaped. Every time I was eye level with it I had to control my panic and just climb on past.

I enjoyed the day and, although the climbing was sort of frightening, I definitely want to do it again. I’m not ready for real hard routes yet. But I loved the feel of the cold and flaking rocks beneath my fingers. The teeny tiny holds I can’t get onto in the gym felt enormous outside. The support of the convex wall beneath me helped more than the flat unnatural wall in the gym. Can’t wait to try again.