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Arête On!
Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 3:12 pm by JamiI am not entirely ready to declare my fear of heights abated. But I am willing to say that the terror that once gripped me as I dangled from a rope 40ft. above the ground no longer makes me shake. I think Saturday’s session at the Columbia gym helped a great deal. Larom came out with Audrey and I before we all headed up to Baltimore to meet up with some friends after Otakon. Larom taught us a few new terms. If a course is labeled arette on, you can use the side of the wall to help you get to your next hold. Arette off means no side of wall for you. Arette means “stop” in French which is kind of funny“Arrête” is stop, “Arête” is edge (Thanks fiftywan). There’s also feature on, feature off, crack on, crack off. A feature is a giant piece of plastic jutting out from the wall that may or may not have a hand or foot hold bolted to it.
At the beginning of our Saturday session, I was still shaking. The walls at the Columbia gym are mostly vertical so there’s not a lot of leaning back or hanging upside down. They are higher than the Rockville walls so that started to freak me out. Audrey had no problem and just monkeyed her way up a bunch of 9s and 10s. Larom challenged me to a 9 and I flashed it! Flashing is when you complete a route for the first time without any takes or falls. Flashing a route that weeks earlier would have stopped me shaking in my harness boosted my confidence tremendously. My last climb, I went on to tackle a 10c and managed to use my head to wedge myself between a feature and a foot hold to reach the next hand hold. Didn’t finish the route, but I didn’t freak out being stranded so high.
Last night was great fun. Audrey kicked ass hitting 10s and an 11 or two and I stuck with 9s and 10s. Maybe in a year or so I will gain enough courage to try lead climbing.
So not to bore you to death, here’s a highlight clip of Maja Vidmar from Slovania climbing in the lead finals of the 2007 Climbing World Championships. Damn, she makes it look so easy! Not one move wasted. I want to be like her when I grow up! She came in third in the women’s lead finals.
And here’s her full climb if you have ten minutes to spare:
