Luis showed me how to balance my body, to swing my hips to adjust my position to free up certain limbs, and to "dance with the wall". It was true. I watched him do it and he did dance with the wall, gracefully, effortlessly, whole-heartedly. It is most fascinating. It's about the balance, the focus, the problem-solving. Sticking as closely to the wall as possible so your centre of gravity is not too far away. Thinking what the next step would be. Envisioning yourself taking the next step, and the next, and the next.
I learnt that I have to trust. The first climb was nerve-wracking, because I was so irrationally afraid that things would go wrong - the rock pieces might fall off, my belayer (person on the other end of the rope) might let go, the rope might not hold me, my feet might not be strong enough, I might have tied the 8 knot wrongly, the other person might not have locked the carabiner.... Man my head's good at being paranoid.
The scariest part was when I was at the top, and I had to let go. Imagine yourself at about 3 storeys high, clinging onto your hand and footholds with dear life, and you had to let go. That's basically trusting your partner with your life. She'd let go of the rope slowly and I would abseil down the wall. My right hand just dug into the handhold and refused to. Finally, after much reasoning and rationalizing with myself, my right hand loosened its death grip, I let out a shriek of terror, fell ten million miles in my imagination and made my way safely down the wall. My palms were soaked when I got down.
Rock climbing is fun. I think I'd do it again. (Another abrupt ending, but I really need to get back to work. I actually wrote this the night that I did the climbing so pardon me for this shabby copy-paste job.)
