Climbing

Despite its obvious limitations in capacity and processing power, my brain is capable of learning new things every now and then.

The latest factual acquisition is this: A "waterproof" camera is impervious to immersion ONLY IF you remember to close the battery compartment door before dunking it in the pool.

I was hoping to get some demo footage to show to students in the freestyle clinic that Stephanie and I taught last month. My brilliant idea was that I would take movies of my stroke by putting the camera on the bottom of the deep end, and swimming directly above it. As far as I know, there was nothing wrong with the idea...it was just that I apparently didn't get the pod bay door latched securely. The second the camera entered the water, it went all Outer Limits on me.

The battery was well and truly fried. But after drying out for a week, the guts of the camera seemed to have recovered. I'll admit, though, that my testing protocol was somewhat less than rigorous...but I thought the camera was fine. I took it along to document my re-introduction to the sport of rock climbing.



As always, you can click on the photo to see an embiggened version. But in the spirit of honest reporting, I must confess that some of the colors have been inadvertently "enhanced" by the camera's moisture-induced schizophrenia.

But that is the rock face I climbed on Sunday. My friends Chris and Angela invited me to climb on North Table Mountain with them. I was nervous and timid about the whole thing, but knew that Chris was extremely safety-conscious and patient. There was no reason not to give it a try.

I'm not in any of these photos, but will consider posting pix of myself climbing in a future post. Chris went up first to clip in the ropes, and then Angela and I attempted the same route after he had come back down.

The first route he picked looked a tad too aggressive for me, but I gave it a shot. Wearing borrowed equipment (climbing shoes and harness), I started up the rock face.

Once I was a few feet off the ground, Chris had me just relax and take my hands off the rock, so I could learn to trust the rope. This lesson was crystal clear to the rational part of my brain...but it's really a challenge to let go of the monkey-brain urge to cling to the wall like a superglued leech.

Each time I'd freeze up, I'd hear calming words and logical advice from below. Each time I felt stuck, my friends helped me locate a new foothold and take the next step upward. Time became distorted; I have no idea how long I was actually on the wall. After being so focused on the accomplishment of each tiny incremental movement, I was surprised when I suddenly found myself at the top of the route. Whoo hoo!

Of course, Chris and Angela looked like Spiderman compared to my Jabba the Hutt as they scampered up the same rocks in a tenth the time...but I feel like I have the potential to improve greatly if I decide to do this more frequently.

Sure, I have a lot to learn about technique and how to make good climbing choices. And I need to acquire the specific strength and fitness required for moving my body weight upward on a wall. But the biggest thing is probably just confidence. As I learn to instinctively trust the rope and belayer, it will become easier to trust myself. And that's when I'll start making progress.

Of course, all of those things assume that I'll be able to find time to climb, and people who are willing to climb with me. With snow expected tonight, it may be a while before we have another gorgeous day of bright pink climbing skies and shorts-friendly temperatures. In the meantime, I'll make an effort to talk my swimming pals into practicing with me on the climbing wall at the Ridge. Let me know if you're interested.

Thanks, and have a great day!