(no subject)
I have a little break in the action of my annual fall climbing trip. I'm back at the coffee shop in town nursing a cappucino before heading out to climb a Classic Desert Tower. So I'll tell some tales of Day One: Working Out tout the kinks.
My casual study of holistic medicine has taught me that fear and overexertion often exhibit themselves in the symptom of nausea. Today, I saw first hand.
I fell six feet onto my camming device, came to a prompt hanging stop in my harness, felt nausea rise up in my body, turned my face toward the ground below and air wretched. Boy Wonder covered his head, but nothing came out. Cool… I’ve never climbed so hard I dry heaved, but it’s about time! I did come close though that one time I led the neverendingly demanding Generic Crack.
Believe me, I wasn’t in any real danger up there, but one’s body very much likes to believe it is. It’s part of our natural survival instinct and the reason so many people are afraid of heights to begin with. I’d plugged twelve other cams- all expertly placed-into the rock to stop my fall should that one have failed. Redundancy is a must. The people who wash windows on skyscrapers for a living know this rule.
Yeah, my own engineering brain and fellow climbers, including renowned guides, have been lecturing me for years that I place perfectly good gear and I need to start trusting it to the point of falling on it more often… like the boys do… like any advanced climber should. So today when the climbing became desperate, but I could see the good hand jam another five feet higher, I went for it.
***
Some picspam:
A good fall looks like this... http://www.pbase.com/jnphoto/image/35666602 Thanks for the show, Lewis.
A classic desert sanstone splitter crack... http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l320/Zia_Montrose/Fall%20Climbing%20Trip/?action=view¤t=RacingShadowGirl.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch2 Cracks this uniform are very rare.
It's taking two cappucinos this morning, Day Four, to convince the old bones to head back out despite their aches and protests. Civilization is so cushy...
.
My casual study of holistic medicine has taught me that fear and overexertion often exhibit themselves in the symptom of nausea. Today, I saw first hand.
I fell six feet onto my camming device, came to a prompt hanging stop in my harness, felt nausea rise up in my body, turned my face toward the ground below and air wretched. Boy Wonder covered his head, but nothing came out. Cool… I’ve never climbed so hard I dry heaved, but it’s about time! I did come close though that one time I led the neverendingly demanding Generic Crack.
Believe me, I wasn’t in any real danger up there, but one’s body very much likes to believe it is. It’s part of our natural survival instinct and the reason so many people are afraid of heights to begin with. I’d plugged twelve other cams- all expertly placed-into the rock to stop my fall should that one have failed. Redundancy is a must. The people who wash windows on skyscrapers for a living know this rule.
Yeah, my own engineering brain and fellow climbers, including renowned guides, have been lecturing me for years that I place perfectly good gear and I need to start trusting it to the point of falling on it more often… like the boys do… like any advanced climber should. So today when the climbing became desperate, but I could see the good hand jam another five feet higher, I went for it.
***
Some picspam:
A good fall looks like this... http://www.pbase.com/jnphoto/image/35666602 Thanks for the show, Lewis.
A classic desert sanstone splitter crack... http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l320/Zia_Montrose/Fall%20Climbing%20Trip/?action=view¤t=RacingShadowGirl.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch2 Cracks this uniform are very rare.
It's taking two cappucinos this morning, Day Four, to convince the old bones to head back out despite their aches and protests. Civilization is so cushy...
.