Rock climbing course - day 1

I can sum this day like this: "What d'f#$% was I thinking to myself?!". Instead of starting climbing on a climbing wall I went today straight for the rocks. I think I should find places to run for physical activity instead...

I am sitting now, bruised, cut, scratched and battered. I've done three climbs out of five and, for the first time for a new kind of sports, I am not enthusiastic about it. When I reached the top, instead of feeling "Yeah, I made it!" I felt more like "For the love of Buddha, get me down, NOW!".

After getting the basic climbing instructions, we started by climbing inside a cave. We had two climbs, graded 5a and 5b (I think it's the French grading system). I imagined climbing as something same as walking up, but with your hands. But the first one, graded 5a, had a crack in the middle, so you had to hold one leg on one side of the crack and the other leg on the other one, not exactly what I had in mind. The second one, graded 5b, ended at the top of a stalactite hanging way above the ground(!). The only way to reach it was to push yourself off a stalagmite, placed about 30-40cm next to the stalactite .

After lunch I was dead tired but we had three more climbs to conquer. This time on a wall of granite. It is much sharper than the limestone the cave is made of, but less slippery. I started with the hardest one, 6a. Climbing should be mostly leg work, but in this climb most of the work was based on hands. I managed to climb the beginning quick, arriving with exhausted hands to the real difficult part. Climbing uses underdeveloped muscles of my hands. As a result I had to take four rests before I barely managed to reach the top, exhausting the guy securing me with the rope too. After standing back on soil, I barely managed to untie my shoe laces, and gave up on the rest.

On a serious note, it was very impressive to see the height I've climbed, but I didn't feel exhilarated. Comparing it to other activities, maybe the fact that we went on these climbs first, which weren't easy for me, were discouraging. I need to start on easier climbs, building strength for the task at hand (pun intended).

The course goes on for two more days. Common sense knocks inside my head and tells me to stop. But my curiosity for knowledge and trying new things ignores it. Therefore I read a bit about what we are going to do tomorrow, leading. When rock climbing you can climb using a "top rope". That means that you climb and the rope secures you if you fall. But how does the rope get there in the first place? Someone, the really first person, climbed and dug bolts into the walls. When a pair climbs, the first climber takes the lead, attaching the rope to the bolts as he climbs up, until he gets to the topmost point. Then the second climber collects the carbines used for attaching the rope, but he does it secured by the first guy. The thing is, that if the lead guy falls, he falls the distance to the last secure point + that distance again as the rope is not secured. Ouch...

See you tomorrow! Hopefully in one piece... ;-)