Hanging Around

Desperate not to allow myself to mooch through yet another semester without commiting to any social events, I decided to take drastic action ...and so I have taken up rock climbing. As you do. And, I am happy to say, I am hooked already.

The university mountaineering club is an eclectic mix of characters, but they all share a common goal - to put themselves into as many uncomfortable surroundings as possible. This is generally achieved by either walking up some wind blasted, rain drenched, midge ridden, precipitous mountain side, or alternatively, by dangling perilously from a bit of rope attached to a wind blasted, rain drenched, midge ridden, precipitous mountain side. I felt right at home.

I first tried my hand at rock climbing a couple of years back whilst I was teaching at an outdoor & environmental education centre down on the Norfolk coast. Here I was given responsibility for the safety of school kids left in my hands - quite literally - as instructor I was the one left holding their safety ropes. *coughs* fools! *coughs* Its pretty unnerving stuff going from being a complete novice in charge of my own uncooperative body parts, to suddenly being a complete novice in charge of a bunch of uncooperative little people - especially when they seemed quite determined to do their best to injure themselves by being generally idiotic. I have to admit though, it was very amusing. Especially the part with me being in charge of kids at great heights. And I didn't even injure any of them. Not seriously anyway. But back then I didn't stick with climbing though. I lacked the upper body strength to do alot of the stuff that I thought any self-respecting rock climber ought to be able to do, especially given my Spiderman-esque delusions. Besides, when I didn't have an obnoxious 12 year old to dangle from a 60 foot drop anymore, it somehow just lost some of its appeal.

Anyway, thankfully all of my recent work/life-avoidance-time spent in the gym has finally paid off, and I have now improved quite some way in my dangling-but-not-falling abilities. Indeed, I am almost gecko like. Except without the ability to shed my tail if I am forcibly grabbed.

So this weekend I am off to buy my gear: ..harness ..shoes ..chalk bag ..garishly patterned leggings in sickeningly flourescent colours of the kind not seen since 1984 ..and of course, LOTS and LOTS of gadgets for doing clever things with knots. And rocks. Its all very exciting really. And on Sunday, I am going out with the club to have my first taster session of ice climbing - can you imagine?? Ice axes! Crampons! Ice screws! I mean, that must have at least double the gadget possibilities as normal climbing does. Brilliant!