A month after my Ultimate encounter (see First Blush Part 1), I still had not tried my next target sport, Rock Climbing. Scheduling with a partner proved difficult. But the opportunity finally came last May 29, just 2 days before the end of Nike's First Dates promo.
The sight that greeted us at Power Up Silver City was not what I envisioned. The place was like a makeshift venue for AXN's Amazing Race Mall Tour. There was no door, no partitions, just the hall of Silver City, a lone desk, some fixtures, and the floor to ceiling wall that went up 38 ft. My sister remarked that it's much higher than the one she tried before. The wall was quite intimidating. But as brave but unprepared soldiers getting ready for battle, we approached the reception, ie. the lone desk.
We presented our Nike printout, signed up, paid for the harness and belay card. Only the session was sponsored by Nike, so gear rentals would have to come out of our own pockets. To our relief, our shoes were approved so we didn't have to rent footwear, which we wanted to avoid for sanitary reasons.
For our belaying lesson, our trainer ran us through the terms commonly used:
Climbing - the word used by a climber to inform his partner/belayer he/she is ready to climb
Climb on - go signal to the climber
Tension - when a climber is asking for more tension in the rope
Slack - when a climber is asking for less tension
Down - when a climber is ready to go down
Let go - go signal to the climber to let go and "sit back" on the harness
After learning the vocabulary, it was on to the real thing. I volunteered my sister to climb first. She didn't mind. After all, she's done it before. :-P The trainer guided me in belaying. It was a high climb but it did not take long for her to reach the top and come back down. And then it was my turn. The 38-foot wall seemed even more intimidating than when I first saw it that I forgot to say "Climbing", which the trainer was quick to remind me. As I climbed higher and higher, there were moments when I feared I would lose my grip or my footing but thankfully, I didn't. I felt like the top wasn't getting nearer, but the way down was getting longer and I doubted that I could make it all the way up. But I pressed on and before I knew it, the "rock" at the center of a red square marking the end was staring me in the face.
My sense of triumph was shortlived for I still faced the challenge of going down, which I must admit unnerved me a little. Reminding myself that I've gone on rides that plummeted from greater heights, I shouted "Down!" and let go at the signal. Clutching the rope, I waited for my belayer to lower me down to safety. At the first gradual movement of the rope, I relaxed my grip, for there was no stomach dropping sensation, just a feeling of being pulled down, really slowly. We collapsed on a bench after my descent, both climber and belayer exhausted.
Climbing is hard, but so is belaying. To some extent, the safety of the climber rests on the belayer. The belayer must 1. constantly pull in excess rope during the climb,
2. pull the rope taut before descent,
3. gradually feed rope during descent, supporting the climber's full weight in the process.
Belaying solo during my sister's second climb (i.e. without the trainer to guide me), I made the mistake of not doing #2 properly and proceeding immediately to #3, such that there was too much slack in the rope, causing her to drop faster than intended. Upon trading places, she made the same mistake, and I hit my knee on the wall at the sudden jerk of the rope when she recovered.
We called it a night after the second try, knowing fully well that the next day would be torture on our muscles. The belaying strained our muscles and drained our strengths more than the climbing itself. We only climbed the beginner's wall twice and did not bother trying the intermediate level. And we were probably not employing the proper belaying technique. Maybe on our next visit, we'll tackle the intermediate wall and also learn that technique.
Conclusion
Between Ultimate Frisbee and Rock/Wall Climbing, there's a better chance of me climbing again than playing Ultimate. Not that I enjoyed one more than the other, because I enjoyed both. But in terms of logistics, scheduling, and manpower, rock/wall climbing is easier to arrange ;-)
