Vs. the Rock:
Rock Climbing for the novice:

By The DC Press Staffwriter
August 1, 2008

On the stretched-out roads that head towards Coopers Rock State Park, West
Virginia, Lindsay Marler, the carpool driver, said “And oh yeah, you need to
wear a helmet, because, you know, sometimes people fall.”

An image of people falling like a sack of potatoes entered my mind....
Slowly I asked, “Do people fall often?”
“Well, yeah” she said with no problem.

How I got into this, I don’t know, but while my fellow students were
probablyrecuperating from a festive Friday night, I walked through a quiet
and slow college campus to get the carpool that would take me rock climbing.
The only catch was that I had to arrive at the carpool at 7:30 am. I hailed a
cab to guarantee my punctuality.

The clever cabbie asked me what a college student was doing awake at such an ungodly hour. I told him about West Virginia, the Rock, and the carpool. Amazed he said, “You’re driving two hours to climb a rock?” (continued below 'after a word from our sponsors')

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it’s the big effort for the little things that makes life worth living. In the taxi, I naturally thought of those car ads they bombard you with on TV. I could see it long before it even happened. I would wear my shorts, connect myself to a harness, skillfully climb my mountain, and then maybe, for doing such a good job, I would get a sports car like the ones on TV.

Yet my prizes will have to wait ... for my muscles to grow.

Seriously, though, you do not need huge muscles to climb a rock, although it wouldn’t hurt. All you need is technique, a sense of the terrain, and good rubber shoes (a.k.a. climbing shoes).

The main instructor for us beginners was a pleasant, laid-back guy by the name of “Bill.” He wore a bandanna motorcycle-style, I, for one, dug the sincere, no-nonsense way he told us how to put on our equipment. Still, I had trouble doing it.

We had to put our legs through these little hoops. I wondered if it was supposed to be so uncomfortable. I asked one of the “advanced climbers,” who said, “Oh, you have it on backwards.”

The group of beginners included a few couples, a couple of Pitt students, and a family of four: 10 in total. The class takes you from safety to belaying to the formal calls between the climber and belayer. Just like weight-lifters need someone to “spot” them to make sure 300 pounds don’t drop on their chests, rock climbers need belayers.

While the climber is on the rock working their way up, a “buddy” is giving them less or more rope to work with - think of a pulley system - depending on their need for mobility, balance and motion.

Everyone did a great job. The long-legged, long-armed attendees moved up the 30-foot rock like seasoned pors; some took a more conservative pace, and everyone did well. I wondered how 12 and 13 year old girls would fare. They both did an excellent climb for their age, and soon it was my turn.

The calls took tow to four minutes on average to get up the rock, and 15 seconds to get down. You don’t climb down, but walk with your legs stretched parallel to the ground, Batman-style (the 60’s TV series, not the ’90’s -00’s film series).

So, I saw myself getting up quickly. Well, I took 20 minutes to get up and 40 seconds to get down. By wearing two-year-old shoes, I lacked a lot of the grip that rock climbers rely on, so I used my upper body, which you’re not encouraged to do because it tires one out quickly.

Skateboarders will tell you that once you skateboard, sidewalks are never the same. I feel the same way about 30-foot rocks for the time being. I had a great time and did some climbing, the kind you neither do nor see on those TV ads. I got my feel of the terrain, the feel of my fingers gripping the cracks in the rock, pushing against gravity to keep your body close to the mountain and that adrenaline rush of not falling like a sack of potatoes.