Climbing Away Your Fear

Imagine yourself on top of the worlds highest summit, Mount Everest. Now
think of the highest place youve ever been, if youre anything like me; I have a fear
of heights; blood starts flowing fast and your heart beat raises significantly. You may
have ridden the drop zone or any roller coaster ride at an amusement park, if you
think thats high and scary you havent been climbing. I dont mean climbing a tree
in your backyard or climbing to the top bunk of a bunk bed, I mean, climbing. Its
like comparing a car ride to a motorcycle ride. Youre safe and buckled in (hopefully,
click it or ticket), but when youre climbing the only lifeline you have is the rope tied
around your waist looped through a carabineer inside the cracks of the mountain.
Thats a real thrill.
Many people will look at climbers and call them crazy, or say that they have a
death wish. No average person would willingly climb a couple hundred or thousand
foot summit unless they were crazy. In a way climbers are crazy, but theyre not. I
heard a man say in a RedBull video Youre crazy if you dont do what you love, in a
way hes totally right. They do it for the thrill, the adrenaline; they do it for the love
of the sport. The freedom they have climbing, not having to worry about home,
work, anything stressful. Its just like how soccer players love playing soccer, or
football players love playing football. Climbers love to climb, they dont have a
death wish and theyre only a little crazy.
Climbers use forums, climbing apps and magazines, etc. to see which
summits to climb, which not to and whats the best new gear. Or in this case, in the

screen shot its a guide for new climbers.

Theyll rate climbing spots on how difficult they are with the YDS: Yosemite Decimal
System. This is the grading scale climbers will use in the U.S. but theyre many other
grading scales that are used in different countries. For the U.S. the easiest climb on
the scale is a 3-4, the most difficult being 5.15c. The hardest climbs are definitely
something scary. You would imagine some type of grip on a mountain but with the
harder difficulties the grip is about as big as the distance between two cement
blocks. Look at the walls inside our classroom; the little bit of a crevice there is
between the two cinder blocks is about the same as the best grip on the hardest
climb. If youve ever been to an indoor rock climbing gym and climbed the higher
difficulty climbs those are nothing compared to real rock, real mountain climbs.
This discourse community is definitely a thrill seeking community that just
loves to have fun and discover new places. Climbing is a physically and mentally

demanding sport. Climbers usually are always training themselves to become better
and to have a stronger grip. Grip is key for all climbers. Everyone in this community
strives for strength in their hands. The best climber in the world, Chris Sharma still
trains himself. Now if youre wondering if climbers obtain injuries, other than falling
off the side of a mountain, they do. Just like how baseball players get Tommy John
surgery, better known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (torn elbow
ligament if you didnt know), climbers get deep elbow pain or brachialis tendonitis.
The pain affects their grip to the point where it hurts to even grip a coke can or even
turn a doorknob! Crazy right?
What I love about this sport is that it doesnt single out a gender. Many
women climb and even some of the ones that do climb are better then the men. The
second best climber in the world is Steph Davis. Even though there arent many
women in this community, its still cool to see women test themselves physically and
mentally climbing crazy peeks.
These people use the same everyday language as any person does. They do
have certain words that describe climbing positions, and which knots are which
when using the ropes. Also if the climber has a safety guide, usually the climber and
safety guide communicate before the climb. The climber says on belay then once
ready the guide replies with belay on once the climber hears that he than asks
climb me and when ready the guide replies with climb on than the climber does
his/her thing and climbs.
Most sports people would say anyone can play or compete in but thats not
the case with climbing. Climbing is definitely not for the faint hearted or the weak.

No, you dont have to be in super great shape but even world-class athletes arent
capable of doing half the things climbers can do. Look at this picture for example
(next page). This man has no ledge to put his feet on, his shoes (a unique shoe) has a
special kind of gripping rubber that uses friction as a grip to hold for a little bit if not
too much weight is applied. Hes also countering his weight by leaning slightly to the
left while gripping the mountain rock. Many expert climbers would be able to
shimmy up that and make it look like a piece of cake.

The tools of a climber usually consists of a lot, A LOT of rope, carabineers,

quickdraws, belays, a helmet for safety, chalk + chalk bag, tape, spring-loaded
camming devices (SLCD), ascenders/descenders, climbing shoes, belay gloves, and
other safety devices; oh but dont forget a strong mind and body. Youre probably
scratching your head thinking what the heck is half the stuff I just read. Dont worry
I felt the same way until I researched what half the things were. All you need to
know is that most of the items I listed above are meant to keep the climber safe, and
to assist them on their ascent.
Climbers have a wide and special array of lingo only they know. Traverse
means climbing sideways; Look for the pocket! pockets are holes big enough to fit
your hand in, an easy grip; mano is a pocket but only big enough for a finger or

two; the infamous disco leg is the shake in your legs after standing on your toes for
too long; an arte is an outward pointing rock, ex. The corners of a pyramid are
artes; chimney is an area or crack of rock that you can fit your whole body into;
abseil is a way of saying your coming down using a device or just the rope;
morpho is an adjective to describe a climb that depends on your body movement.
Wow thats a mouthful isnt it? But wait theres more; Im not going to get into all of
the knots they have names for but ill give you an example. A bowline knot is the
equivalent knot to a figure 8 pretty much. So now you have a little more insight of
their language or lingo. They also know the kinds of rock, the kind we learned
about in our middle school science class but only 3 are climbable and thats granite,
limestone, and sandstone. These are the stronger types of rocks that wont break or
weather away as easy as other rocks.
When I went to Inner Peaks (the indoor rock climbing center in Charlotte)
the first thing they had me do was fill out a safety waiver. They than asked me if I
knew how to belay and obviously I didnt know how to so I said no. I had to pay an
extra $5 for a Gri-Gri lesson. Belaying or to gri-gri is basically like being the
climbers safety, if the climber falls or wants to come back down from the climb Ill
be on the floor with one end of the rope attached to me while the other end is
attached to my climbing partner and ill start lowering them using a pulley system. It
was a quick lesson and easy to do. After the lesson my buddy and I went climbing
every wall we could before our upper bodies gave out. It was quite the experience
and I recommend it to anyone interested.

Overall the average climber is a very interesting, very fun fulfilling person.
You or the average person would love being around a climber, theyre daredevils in
a way and very out of the norm. Some would call them adrenaline junkies, but I
like to call them thrill seeking; just looking to have some fun, get out and enjoy what
this awesome world has in store. Theyre physically fit, and mentally unbreakable;
nothing is impossible for these men/women. Theyre opportunists and strategists.
So if you ever want to try climbing, and I mean the real legit climbing not the bunk
bed climbing, than you know what to expect. If youre up to it, you can do it so get
out there and start climbing to the top of your goals, or in this case mountain.