Quick note for you readers that are not climbers before you read the rest of this post. This post includes climbing terms that I need to explain for non climbers to have any idea what I am talking about. So here is a quick lesson in climbing jargon.
Lead climbing basically means you are the person climbing the route first. The reason this is a big deal is because the person who climbs first takes on more risk. Once the first person climbs the route, that person sets up an anchor at the top of the route so that anyone else that climbs it afterwards can "top rope" the climb. That means that they will only fall as far as it takes the person on the ground holding the rope (which is called belaying the climber) to lower their arm which will put a brake on the rope. Normally if you have a person belaying you that knows what they are doing this only takes a second and the climber only falls a few inches. However, when you are the lead climber there is no anchor setup at the top of the climb yet. Which means as the lead climber ascends the route he or she must occasionally link the rope to points of protection or bolts as they climb (bolts are what you use when sport climbing, and they are already firmly placed in the wall for you). Now that means that when the lead climber falls they will fall 2 times the distance from where they are on the climb to the last bolt they linked into despite the belayer braking as soon as possible. This usually ends up being several feet instead of inches. This is why leading incorporates a bit more danger than top roping.
Also climbing routes have ratings that indicate their level of difficulty. A 5.12 is considered pretty difficult, and a 5.5 is considered pretty easy. While I will try and climb anything up to a 5.11 when I am top roping, I have not reached a level where I feel comfortable lead climbing anything above a 5.7.
Whew, OK clear as mud. Here is a review:
Lead climbing- Climbing when there is no rope setup from the top to break your fall, therefore the climber must occasionally link the rope to "protection" in the rock as they climb so that if they fall they do not fall all the way to the ground.
Protection- Bolts or other forms of climbing gear that are firmly placed in the rock that the rope can be linked to.
Sport climbing- Climbing when there are bolts already placed in the wall for the lead climber to connect the rope to.
Trad climbing- The lead climber must place their own protection into the wall as they climb because there are no bolts.
Belayer- The person on the ground that holds the rope the climber is connected to and stops the climber from falling by braking with the rope if needed.
Top roping- Climbing a route that already has an anchor setup at the top of the climb, that also has the rope the climber is connected to linked to the anchor during the climb.
OK never mind, I'm bad at explaining this. Go get a book about climbing. Then read the post below.
Well we made it back from our trip, and poor Tomme had to basically ship off to a training exercise only a couple of days later while I got to rest. But this gives me an opportunity to write about a rare thing, which is female mediocre adventurers. I mean lets face it, guys are basically expected to be adventure addicts, but girls are supposed to think bugs are gross. So finding friends of the same gender that love the outdoors is tough. Basically girls seem to think that they either have to stay completely away from all this stuff or they feel like they have to be experts at it to be accepted. So when I went on an ice climbing trip last year while Tomme was deployed, not knowing anyone else on the trip, I was not thinking there would be any other chicks there I could relate to. While there was only one other girl on the trip, luckily and surprisingly she was not an adventure snob. Finding another non adventure snob female who loves all of this stuff as much as I do is rare. Also doing a bunch of outdoor activities with guys while your husband is deployed is a really bad idea in the Army, not so much because anything insidious would happen, but because of the rumors that always follow friendships between people of the opposite sex in the Army. For these reasons I latched on to this girl, by the name of Anita, immediately. Ever since, we have gotten into all kinds of outdoor "shenanigans" as we like to call them, and this past Saturday we went climbing.
We had a great time, however we did have some issues on this outing. Now I don't lead climb stuff harder than a 5.7 for two reasons. One, I am a wuss. Two I only learned how to lead climb last summer. I had an awesome teacher named Kellen, and he was the most skilled adventurer I have ever met that was not an adventure snob. That is was made him such a great teacher. He was patient, and he never made you feel dumb for trying to learn something he knew so much about. Last winter Kellen passed away in an avalanche, and he is greatly missed. But every time I go lead climbing I know I'm out there because of him. So thanks Kellen, I appreciate it so much!!!
Kellen gave me some great advice last year which was to make sure I didn't do anything beyond what I was comfortable doing. I think his exact words were don't push it. So since this was my first time leading this season, I told Anita that I would only start out on a 5.5 or a 5.6. So we got out our trusty guide book of the area and found a section of climbs that would offer such a skill level. The problem comes when you think you have found the spot you are looking for until you are about halfway up the wall and realize you are not on the right route, and you are not starting out on a 5.5 or 5.6. In other words, a real feeling of "Oh shit" comes over you while you are already hanging on to a wall attached to a rope. Which resulted in my first fall on a lead climb ever, and I nearly peed my pants. But I didn't fall all the way to the ground and die, so that's the important thing. And despite the unintentional increase in difficulty we had a great day. Finishing it off with lunch at my favorite Colorado Springs Mexican restaurant.
However my mediocre tip today is to make sure you have the route you are looking for before you start climbing it.
