Day 202: Rock Climbing

Let's have a big round of applause for my dad - clinging onto a boulder, on an overhang with no ropes!  I didn't try this one as I found climbing a wall, with a harness and a rope and people hanging onto the rope a little too much to handle.  I have no idea how high up I got in the end but it seemed like a very, very long way down.  I climbed 5 times.  We went up the first wall half way-ish to have a go and make sure we could get back down again, then up the whole way.  We tried a much more difficult section of that wall and I didn't get far before getting stuck and coming back down again.

Then we transferred over to a really high wall and I actually denied my instinct of saying no and went for it, and I think I got a good way up for someone who looked at it and went "Oh hell no!"  However, it was here, on my 4th climb, that I got stuck and had a nervous breakdown on the wall ;-p (the photo above was taken by my mum at about the point I freaked out I think, and I am the person in the blue t-shirt above the second boulder and below the overhang)  It was touch and go getting me down as I was clinging to the wall shaking all over and refusing to lean back and be lowered down!  I managed to come down a foothold or so and there was enough tension in the rope then to lower me the rest of the way without significant leaning.

So, you would think that I would have stopped there.  No.  At the 5th climb I was mental enough to think to myself "Hey!  This is a shorter wall again and if I get stuck no distance up then it'll be fine - I can come down no bother after the incident on the other side!"  Maybe I shouldn't have talked myself into this one though as I got up not too far, got stuck and then in the process of panicking because I was too tired to hold on for any great length of time whilst stationary, and trying to come back down I slipped, spun round and hit my head off the wall, got lowered the last few feet and then stood and had to reign in another breakdown :-p  I managed to laugh and move on though so I'm proud of that and well, I wussed out at the abseiling but can you really blame me?

It was a rather eventful day and I am absolutely drained - mostly from the nervous shaking thing (I have the kind of shake that looks extremely exaggerated :-p) but my arms and fingers know they've been working too.  I mean, have you ever realised how heavy laptops are?  I might be sleeping with this thing on the bed tonight...  So thank you to my little brother and his fiance who decided this would be an interesting stag/hen do instead of going clubbing and getting wasted.  I have always fancied climbing but I doubt I would have tried it if I had had the opportunity before now.  I am very glad I got the chance and that I did it - I am proud of myself!  And I wouldn't do it again but that doesn't matter - it was the experience that mattered - and it certainly was an experience! :-)