taking instruction from (a not so) new climber
(note: this guest blog entry was written by my friend matt d. i thought you all deserved a break from my usual dribblings.)
this past weekend, i had the distinct (read: dubious) honor of taking instruction from the purveyor of this blog. to set the scene: a massive, sparsely populated climbing gym in the heart of san francisco’s mission district. the muffled music of a street festival just outside the gym, distracting a bit from the otherwise serene atmosphere. yours truly, clumsily stepping into the wrong spaces of his tangled climbing harness.
having not climbed or bouldered in over a decade—and even then, only every other month or so, on random boy scout treks—i suspected the experience would be vaguely familiar. after a quick refresher from my patient instructor, i whizzed through my belay test, and felt strong enough to tackle any track on the wall.
impressions after my first 5.8: this isn’t as daunting as it looks from the ground.
5.9: what? is this supposed to be challenging? bring it on!
5.10a: oh, wow. now I get it. not so easy when you jump to the next level. technique really does make a difference, apparently.
(a quick aside: am i the only one that thinks the yosemite rating system is nonsensical? maybe it’s the mathematician in me, but shouldn’t a difficulty scale be somewhat uniform? if a 5.9 is 10 times harder than a 5.8, shouldn’t a 5.12 be 10 times harder than a 5.11? even the dewey decimal system seems straightforward by comparison.)
back to a 5.9: rounded out my day as a new climber with a solid, speedy climb in my skill range. endorphines running high after a successfully traversed track.
the experience left a great taste in my mouth…or perhaps the more accurate cliché would be: ‘a tingling sensation in my fingers’. actually, that’s literally how my hands felt after 3+ hours. at the risk of sounding like a drinker of the kool-aid, this is a pastime that everyone should try at least once. going vertical can be quite a rush! and if you’re a seasoned veteran and taking a newbie to the gym with you, practice patience and give vague helper hints—your new climber companion will thank you. who knows, you might even gain a long-term climbing buddy out of the episode.
one last thing. the keeper of this diary isn’t so new to climbing anymore.
Labels: gym, matt d, san francisco
posted by david mejias @ 7:00 PM
1 Comments:
nice work, although I imagine after 3 hours of full-body exertion, more than just your hands were exhausted. when you wake up in the next morning and your muscles ache like you’ve been beaten, smile. it’s worth it.
being a runner, my perpetual stalemate with gravity has left me with little more than a big pair of lungs and legs that would leave harland sanders rubbing his hands together with delight. “ascents” are done by climbing stairs, and my “descents” are usually due to untied shoelaces, loose gravel, or the minichasms that apparently work their way into the asphalt at dusk. needless to say, it isn’t quite the workout that gives one that “climber look” that males 12-99 desire.
you know the one: mesomorphic, prominent pipeline-like veins all over the place, muscles that flex their own little muscles, and a back that, when exposed, would make michaelangelo put down his chisel.
certainly, there is the high of knowing that today, you have achieved new heights: you have put another yosemite decimal point under your belt by finding the last hand hold on some ridiculous, inverted, mirror-smooth rock face by using an astronomical amount of chalk. you, my friend, are one spider bite away from slinging webs.
but that’s not what impresses me most. give this new hobby (3 hours?? habit? addiction?) a chance to ‘do its thing’ and you will be asking your tailor to let the back out of your suit a little, to take in the waist here or there, and, if possible, to take out these damned shoulder pads – you look like some power dressing woman from the 80’s.
sigh...envy grins and nods at respect.
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