Rope Work

Hey everyone, good things happened today: I finally started training!

Although I was really meant to start last week with my University climbing club, today I finally got around to getting to a climbing wall and learning the basics of rock climbing which are core to everything else I will ever need to learn to do with ropes, be it in ice climbing, bouldering or even on a building site. I've done a little bit of rope stuff before, abseiling on adventure camps with the Army or a little rock climbing with Scouts, but that was all at least 4 years ago and if I'd paid attention and learned anything (which in itself is unlikely), it was all long forgotten.

So, with my trusty girlfriend Bailey in tow we headed off to the Westway Sports Center in Shepard's Bush to re-acquaint myself with the finer points of rock climbing, and hopefull have some fun at the same time. After paying for membership, renting a harness and a pair of climbing shoes each we headed out onto the climbing walls for my first lesson.

Charlie reminds me to trust him and the equipment.
I find a man wearing lycra indoors difficult to believe.

First up was simply how to climb; a quick introduction to the double-figure-eight knot that underpins all climbing (which I'm still struggling with) and a lightning ascent of an easy-grade wall to get me confident in myself, what I'm doing and the equipment. The familiar rush hits me as I get further up the wall and as I abseil down I've got a massive smile on my face - even if I never end up on a mountain I know I'll be here as much as I can. Although it's somewhat difficult to put my faith in the equipment and Charlie's belay skills at first, after a couple of slips and arrests and an abseil down I'm feeling more confident in what I'm doing.

Bailey gets a turn and although slightly less confident than me (with a bit less of a head for heights) she's soon rocketing up the walls and doing what Charlie describes as 'throwing the right shapes'. He looks on enviously and mentions something about us 'larger' people never being really good at rock climbing. Not that I especially mind; it's fun but I'd never take it to a high level. When she comes down, Charlie takes his first ascent with me belaying, and I quickly get to grip with maintaining a constant vigil. I'm very aware that to a certain degree his life is in my hands and do my best, although my abseil is a little fast and leaves him nursing a crushed crotch when I keep the rope too tense on descent. But otherwise all is well.

Charlie showing off that he's better than me, whilst I dutifully belay below.

After Bailey is down we walk around and past the self-lead walls, where climbers are attaching their belay rope to karabiners set into the wall or using their own quickdraws to secure themselves to the wall. This is what I'll have to eventually learn how to do, except on a mountain I'd be hammering anchors into ice or rock and leading in that way. But for now, we concentrate on simply learning the ropes. We have a go on a series of other walls until eventually my fingers start to give out. I try one final ascent of a Grade 4+ wall, but even with a healthy dose of chalk my fingers are shot and I can't grip, and I fall less than ten feet off the ground. My forearms are on fire, my fingers are aching and my feet are asking me why I've squeezed them into such uncomfortable shoes but I've competently completed my first proper ropes session.

All I need now is a few months more and I'll be sorted. That is if I can learn all the knots that I need; it really would sruprise you that I was a scout sometimes. Although I certainly know what my next kit purchases will be. Anyone want to give me a lovely new harness?

A Proper Introduction

So, as a first post I suppose I should explain what this is all about. I'm James, and I'm a student in London about to enter the second decade of his life. In the bare basics this is a simple blog that follows me whilst I make a bit of a tit of myself learning the finer points of mountaineering. It's slow, it's not necessarily fascinating and I can tend to get bogged down in annoying little details.

Still here? Well, your choice I suppose. Let me explain further:

I've always had a hankering for the outdoors; before I was six months old my parents were taking me on walking holidays to Brecon or Dorset or any number of middle-of-nowhere locations and lugging me around whilst they 'enjoyed what was left of their youth' as they put it now. It seems that being carried on an old steel army rucksack frame, lolling about not quite comprehending my surroundings (apart from a healthy dose of fresh air and rain) triggered something inside me that left me enthralled with climbing mountains. I'm not a huge walker; give me a patch of flat ground to walk across and I'll be bored stiff, and I'll let you know about it. But give me a challenge; a mountain, an arduous route, difficult conditions and I'll lap it up and ask for more. I've climbed Pen y Fan, completed the Fan Dance challenge, trekked across Dartmoor and even spent a week hiking in the jungles of Brunei. However there is one itch I've never been able to scratch: I've never climbed a proper, snowcapped mountain. I've dreamed about it, read books and magazines, watched films and read blogs, but the opportunity to do an alpine ascent myself has never presented itself. There's only so much that the British Isles can offer you in the way of true mountaineering and whilst I haven't ever climbed anything in Scotland, it's still not the Matterhorn.

Fast forward to October 2012 and I start work (whilst still a student) at Blacks Outdoors and meet my boss, Charlie. Through conversations we discovered we both shared a burning desire to be up mountains, but where I had only dreamed of it, Charlie had been there and done it, had the expreience and the knowledge and was willing to share it. Slowly an idea formed in my mind, and just before the start of 2013 I approached him with the aim of going to the Alps in the summer and making my first mountain ascent. He agreed, and here we are today, starting out on our training. It should be fun, so stick around.

I might even make a tit out of myself. I'll let you watch.