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Post by rikita on Mar 22, 2009 22:46:16 GMT
i was asked to start a thread about climbing (in the sense of rock climbing), as i mentioned it a few times... so here it is...
so who else here likes to rock climb? do you go to real rocks or climbing gyms or both? is it something you do regularly, or just occasionally?
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Post by rikita on Mar 22, 2009 22:50:16 GMT
as for me, i have been climbing for three years now. i am not particularly good - never been much of a sports person - but i enjoy it very much. one of hte great things is that it is fun even if you do easier stuff, and that you are mainly competing against yourself. also, most climbers seem to be very nice people, at least i often get encouragement even from people that are very much above my level, and most of them are very willing to help or give advice...
i mainly go to climbing gyms and artificial rocks, as i unfortunately live in an area far from real rocks... i have done a few weekend trips though, mainly to the ith (in lower saxony, very nice area for climbing, lots of not too hard routes), and have also been to franken (i guess THE area in germany for climbing)... outdoors is prettier of course but also a bit scarier...
i am in fact often scared (not really scared of heights, but of falling), and it took a long time before i started trusting the rope and everything, but i find that climbing is a great way of learning to face one's fears...
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Post by spindrift on Mar 22, 2009 22:55:58 GMT
When you started to climb did you have a teacher? Do you still have a teacher?
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Post by rikita on Mar 22, 2009 23:02:06 GMT
well i started with a friend of my dad's who was climbing already for a while, so he kind of taught me but like more in a not-so-structured way... but i decided then to take a university course - well they offer four courses at my university, one semester each, two hours per week. they aren't cheap for university sport (but much cheaper than any commercial courses) but very much worth the money...
i tend to have a theoretical approach to most things, so taking a course was the best option for me... also, looking around at climbing gyms you do see a lot of people who climb well and thus think they know it all, but they do make mistakes while belaying (belaying is quite simple, but you still have to do it right) - so a course is a good way to learn the basics correctly... on the other hand some of my friends started now without a course, and i teach them, but since i want them to belay me, i try to make sure they really understand the important parts.
in the later courses we learned a lot of cool stuff i might need one day for bigger climbing tours outdoors...
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2009 23:13:45 GMT
This is so interesting, Rikita! I am fascinated by how people face down their fears in order to tackle the problem-solving nature and thrill of climbing.
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Post by rikita on Mar 23, 2009 17:06:08 GMT
though i am quite careful... that is the nice thing, really - climbing feels dangerous, but in reality, if you don't do crazy stuff, and you know what you are doing, it is actually quite safe...
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Post by spindrift on Mar 23, 2009 17:13:48 GMT
Do you have to buy your own ropes and stuff? or are these supplied at the gym? it sounds interesting.
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Post by rikita on Mar 23, 2009 18:58:56 GMT
well at the gyms there are top rope areas, where there are ropes hanging there, and lead areas, where you need your own rope. you need your own harness and shoes and belay device too. but you can also rent all these at the gym, but if you go often, it is definitely better getting your own.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2009 20:53:39 GMT
I did some climbing and repelling in college my Senior year. It was part of a course called Outdoor Experiential Education. We went into the Ozark Mtns. on weekends and on weeknights back in town (Saint Louis) we repelled off the administrative building. It was a blast once I got over the initial fear and felt confident with the ropes which were pretty simple affairs. At the end of the course our task was to build a small course for the University school children. It was one of the most rewarding of all my college courses.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2009 21:20:03 GMT
I did some climbing in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Not planned and not safe, but the guide egged us on. There were amazing prehistoric carvings on the rocks, and I wouldn't have minded if I had broken a few bones for the opportunity of having seen them.
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Post by BigIain on Mar 23, 2009 21:53:34 GMT
I used to love climbing. My two older cousins were in to it in a massive way and encouraged me to go with them almost every weekend when I was in my mid-teens. Seems like a different lifetime now! We took holidays in the Alps and the Dolomites for a couple of summers which were all about climbing and drinking beer.
With training for rugby I got just way too bulky to climb for any decent length of time so I gave it up at aroung 18 or 19.
Not long after I quit, one of the cousins had a really bad fall down at Truro. He fell around 150ft and smashed his skull and one wrist. He had a long long rehab for the head injury and has most likely not been the same since.
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Post by spindrift on Mar 23, 2009 23:10:58 GMT
K - I thought you didn't like heights. I remember this because you made as comment on one of my Swiss precipice photos.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2009 5:41:47 GMT
Wadi Rum is not all that high.
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Post by gyro on Mar 24, 2009 5:46:18 GMT
I have to admit that I can understand to a point the fascination/challenge of climbing as a rule. But not when it comes to the major death-defying and dangerous stuff like the Eiger, K2 etc. To put yourself at THAT much risk seems odd, in all honesty.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2009 9:40:56 GMT
I agree G.
In my later years I developed a kind of vertigo,not necessarily a fear of heights per say. At Uxmal,Yucatan we climbed to the top of one of the ruins.
The steps going up were teeny. When I reached the top it was gorgeous,spectacular sweeping views. Then, I saw that the way going down involved going forward on the steps and I freaked,sheer panic and terror. My husband has a photo of me hugging the wall. He thought that they were going to have to air lift me down. There was another woman in a similar state. Then someone showed us a way to go down backwards in the rear using some chains to hold onto.Had no problem with that at all. It was the idea of looking forward from that high forward that I was terrified of. Went back up and down the rear a second time.Same with the other woman. We ran into her days later in Tuluum and laughed about it.
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Post by rikita on Mar 24, 2009 10:57:00 GMT
iain - sorry about your cousin. that is quite scary, such a fall... do you know what exactly happened there? was he in a belay and there was something wrong there? or was he free soloing?
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Post by rikita on Mar 24, 2009 11:01:21 GMT
yeah i also dislike having to go forward down a steep way. in some cases (if there is something to hold onto) i will turn around and go down backwards (like a toddler going down stairs)...
actually, before i started climbing, when i was in peru, i was visiting the saqsayhuamán ruins, and as i am always curious about following strange paths just to see where they lead, i tried if i can walk down to the street from the ruins directly, rather than passing the entrance of the ruins. well for quite a while this went okay, but in the end the path got steeper and steeper and more difficult. but now i had gone too far to want to turn around. in the end, there was a part that i actually had to downclimb - not difficult, i guess no more than a UIAA II or III max - but still scary for me. well, i did climb down but half way down, still a few metres above the road, i didn't know where to put my feet anymore, so i called out to people passing by to please help me and tell me where there is a good foothold. so they guided me down there by calling stuff like "Put your left foot a bit further down - your right foot a bit more to the right" and things like that...
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Post by BigIain on Mar 24, 2009 18:25:39 GMT
Rikita, he was a bit of a show off and always liked to freeclimb to the first stage before roping up. I am so glad that I did not witness it even though I would have got to ride in the helicopter with him.
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Post by rikita on Mar 24, 2009 21:26:59 GMT
with freeclimb you mean free solo (afaik freeclimbing usually refers to climbing that is done without technical help, while ropes etc. are used just for safety - a free solo is climbing without any safety measures).
yeah well free solos is something i don't really get. a lot of famous climbers do them, sometimes on huge walls, and i guess they kind of know what they are doing, but it is still a risk i really wouldn't want to take. you could get a cramp or be distracted for a second, even in an easy route...
yeah i guess seeing something like that would be quite traumatizing... the only bigger fall i saw was my bf once falling and one of hte stoppers coming out - so he fell about five or six metres instead of just two or three, but i still managed to hold him about a metre above the ground (he cracked a rib though because he hit against the rock on the way down)... still i was more scared than he was - i screamed, he didn't...
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Post by BigIain on Mar 25, 2009 7:16:50 GMT
Yes, Free solo in that case.
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