Oh you silly homework – writing exercise 3

The worst moment.

After a week of bouldering my hands were rubbed raw from spending whole days on rock and making marshmallows around the campfire (and often putting my hands too far in the fire). My fingernails were filed down by multiple encounters of desperately grabbing onto anything my hands could reach. The slight chill of the winter air in Alabama was setting itself into my core and my hands would slightly shake if I weren’t moving. I looked at the new puzzle my sister had shown me. Contraband seems like an easy climb at first but it is an underhang. I get into the starting position which is nearly upside-down and am glad for once of having short legs. Taking my hand off the first hold, I can feel my body shudder to keep itself up. My stomach muscles ache from the extended use. I grimace as my taped-up hand grips the spiky surface of the crack. I can almost appreciate the numb that the cold gave my hands or I might have felt how much the gritty rock bit into my previous wounds. I make it slowly to the corner where the tricky leg movement starts to play. I start to lift my leg to a position higher than my center of gravity (which is around my chest at this point) and then my hand can’t take my weight anymore and I slip off the rock and fall onto the crash pad. I swear loudly and go back to the starting position. I make my way up the crack again though I can feel the pain more since my body has warmed from the exertion. At that point again, I lift my leg and fall. This time though, I swung more because I did not want to let go. The inertia threw me off in the other direction and I crashed into a tree stump and rolled around on the ground. All that frustration and I only get to limp away promising myself that I’ll defeat it next time.

Discovery

In PRG (Philadelphia Rock Gym), my sister showed me the “cave” area to climb. In it was all underhangs. The starting position puts people parallel with the floor. Instantly I can feel how much core muscles play a role in climbing which is why so many people look so buff when doing this sport. My stomach started out with a very small throb as I reach for each hold. I also notice that long fingernails get very much in the way when climbing and I took a small break to go cut them. (they will rip off if you are not careful: cut them) I start back on the plastic holds and make my way to the entrance of the “cave”. At this point, the climber is to climb up and top out (finish the climb/reach the top). I reach up to try and grab a hold and fall because my core muscles gave out. After a few tries, I decide to do something different from what I was trying. At the mouth of the cafe, I take my foot and put it on a hold far to the left and line up with the opening. I reach up and grab a hold which now positions me hanging on a wall with nothing below my upper chest. My foot extends to my far left and I heel-hook on a hold almost level with my hands. Grappling up a few more holds I finally make it to the top. At the top I can feel my body shaking from the enormous effort. Satisfaction washed over me. I had done it. “I want to do that again.” I rush down the stairs at the other side and go back to the start and climb it all over again. My body is stiff the next day but I still wanted to climb. Even the next day I wanted to climb some more. I admit to myself, “This is something fun.”

Here are some pictures and a link. The are just some pretty examples of an artistic view.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150382720141350.409037.141230676349