Climbing with Phil

At REI they say, "If you aren't a climber, give it a couple months and you will be." I had worked at REI for about 6 months and still hadn't climbed so one of my co-workers, Phil, decided to take me and some other climbing 'newbies' out.  Phil was working on a climbing instructor certification and had to log hours that he had worked on a mountain with inexperienced climbers. 

I borrowed gear from my neighbor's (yay they had gear that fit me) and  our big group went up Boulder Canyon to our destination.  The first thing I noticed about climbing is that the gear is HEAVY and you have to hike it in, I don't know why but this never occurred to me.  The half a mile hike up the side of a mountain carrying the gear about killed me, I was sure I was done in for.  Once we reached our climb, Phil and some other more experienced climbers went and set up a top rope for us, giving us a chance to catch our breath while practicing knots (yes, they made us do our own knots, so if we fell and died, it was our fault).  

They quickly taught us how to belay  and sent us up. Belaying is when you stand at the bottom, holding the rope attached to the climber (the rope goes from the climber to the top of the mountain to you).  Your job is to take out the slack as the climber goes, so that if/when the climber falls you are responsible for catching them. Belaying was probably the scariest thing I did all day, having someone else's life in my hands- yikes.  

Then we got to climb an easier climb (ranked a 5). I felt very awkward at first, everyone is at the bottom looking up at your rear end, and nervous that I wasn't strong enough but I did it and it was great.  They had us do some top belaying (which means you start at the top of the mountain hook into a rope and lower yourself, no one else is touching the rope as a backup.  This was also really fun.  I quickly learned that the heights part of climbing didn't bother me (it was nerve racking for some of the other climbers) and that I felt pretty safe on the rope. 

At the end they set up a harder route (a 7.5) that had a table top (a ledge you had to climb over).  It was pretty hard and none of the newer climbers could do it. But I REALLY wanted to get over this ledge and I am pretty stubborn.  So I started the climb and when I got up there I realized I was about 6 inches from a grip I wanted so I yelled down to my belayer that I was going to jump for it... and I did.  I figured, "I am attached to a rope, what can go wrong?" 

The feeling of falling (after I jumped and didn't catch the other side) was different than I thought.  You only fall a couple inches before getting caught by the belay but then you swing (to the sides) until the rope pulls tight, or until you hit a rock hard enough to stop you- so it was less of a fall and more of a swing.  I ended up jumping and falling about 8 times trying to get over the ledge, each time pulling myself back to the rock and trying again, and finally I was exhausted and I knew that even if I got the right grip, there was no way I had the strength to do it.  So I came down. 

My coworkers thought I was insane.  They said they had never seen such a gutsy first time climber, that made me feel pretty good (especially since I was bummed I didn't make it to the top).  My body, however, disagreed with how cool my gutsiness was and was just bruised and sore.  Every day for a week I found new bruises and scrapes- ouch.  

It was a fun outing.  I loved climbing and would definitely be on board to doing it again (next time I have to take Ben).  

As I was coming down, after falling  a lot, they said I should dance down because I was so awesome. So here I am doing 'jazz hands.'

That is me up there under the ledge- I almost got over it.