Climbing, with Johnny Walker

Finally went out and did the introductory climbing course at Cliffhanger. The one other person in my class was a guy named "Johnny Walker". I kid you not, I have his business card to prove it! After passing my belay test tomorrow, I will be able to climb for free all week! Yes, friends of mine that climb, that means YOU!

I feel good about taking the course. The material could have been given to me by a friend, but there is a method (KISS) that they use and it works. Also built into the course is stuff like training your hands to do the belay motion so it becomes subconscious. As a final step before getting my belay ticket, I have to wait 24 hours, and then go back and show them everything I learned. So yeah, I'll be searching for people who want to go climbing Friday night.

Part of the course is "surprise falling", where one person climbs up the wall and then without any warning, jumps off. The belay has to save their life. Everyone does both roles, the falling and the saving. I jumped mid-reach, so there was more slack than I thought; as a result, I came within a foot of striking the instructor - who was standing on the ground. After my fall, you could hear a pin drop in the place for a few seconds - I fell too far and got too close to the ground. Consider that there could easily have been 50 people in there. It was a rush, that's for sure!

And the climbing was great fun. There's a special kind of bond, even between nearly perfect strangers, when you put your life in someone else's hands. The gear is pretty simple, and once you know what to do, it really is pretty foolproof.