I got lucky in that no one else was signed up for today, which meant that I got Hanz all to myself for the full three hours. Once he went over the basics with me (and had me practice over and over and over again, with both hands, from both sides of my body, until my shoulders were a bit achey), I tied in and scaled the 5.8 specifically meant for learning lead climbing. Because the route was on the easier side, I was able to focus on applying the skills I'd just learned- sometimes more proficiently than others- until I got to the point where Hanz had instructed me to "take a fall", so that I would know what it feels like.
Let me explain- when you take a fall on the top-rope, you don't fall very far- if at all. This is because the rope is holding your weight from above. When you fall on lead, however, you fall twice the distance between you and your last anchor, because the rope is trailing along behind you. So if you're just about to hook into a new anchor, but instead you miss and fall, you can go quite a bit of a distance (say ten feet), with quite a bit of resulting swing. As such, you have to fall properly, to absorb the force with your legs or arms, rather than giving in to the instinctive tuck-into-a-ball and thereby letting your whole body crash into the rock.
So. The time had come for me to take my fall. I knew I was going to seriously fall, because I was at "the next anchor" but hadn't clipped in yet. And for the first ten seconds or so, all I could do was cling to the wall mutter, "Ohshitohshitohshit" under my breath. But then I stopped that, took a deep and bracing breath, reminded myself to "make an X", and I fell.
It really wasn't that bad.
Hanz is, of course, an expert at what he does, so he gave me a very soft catch, which meant I barely felt it at all. And once I'd done it that first time, I was able to let go and drop on command like a well-seasoned spider, trusting in his ability to catch me (and my ability to keep my head and thereby my form). So that was good.
But then it came time for me to belay him.
I found it very awkward to belay for a lead climber, because rather than constantly gathering in slack as one does for top roping, I was feeding out a steady stream of slack, with the occasional huge gulp of slack whenever he went to clip in to an anchor. In other words, it felt backwards, and I wasn't very good at it. Not to mention I wasn't very good at judging how much or how little slack to allow.
And then it was Hanz's turn to take a fall, and I... completely screwed it up. My hands were wrong, my stance was wrong, and then everything went very wrong.
Fortunately they plan for just such instances, and Caroline was my backup. She saved Hanz from plummeting to the floor, and saved me from slamming up into the overhang (which, I am sure, would have slowed his fall enough that he'd have been just fine), and I just stared at her with wide, panicked eyes as I dangled in the air between her and the also-dangling Hanz.
Humiliating? Yes. The very best way to make sure I learned not to repeat that mistake? Also yes.
And they, of course, were very kind about it, as good teachers are when you truly learn a scary-ass lesson. And I got it right on every subsequent fall, so there's hope for me yet.
It was tiring work, largely because I had to think so hard about what I was doing, instead of just doing it. It will probably be a while before I can comfortably climb a 5.10 on lead- or even a 5.9 without having to take breaks. Ah well, such is the progression of life: learn and practice, practice and learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment