In just over a week from this writing, I’ll be starting the first pitch. I’ve been frantically working to finalize gear details, such as: making aluma-heads (to be bashed into tiny seams in the “rock”), making webbing slings (connect everything to everything), sorting gear and buying what’s needed, making final improvements on the porta-ledge (what I sleep in), and a host of other things. Next week I’ll be buying the last of the food and packaging it up to withstand the rigors of hauling. Millions of details!
But, when it’s all said and done, everything comes down to that first moment of standing at the base of the tower, looking up at where the route starts, and selecting that first piece of gear with which to step off the ground and into a new world.
The thing that’s hard to describe to non-climbers is how one single decision, one move, takes you from the realm of the “safe” and known into the realm of the unsafe and unknown. And each subsequent decision just strings you further and further along into that new realm. As the ground retreats, you fully enter that new world, and before long, as you start living on the thing, it’s like you’re on a new planet. The familiar rules no longer apply.
As just one example, if you drop something in the “real” world, you just bend down and pick it up. You think nothing of it. On a big wall, if you drop something, you don’t get it back. You spend the rest of the climb without it, and you may never see it again.
Another example is that you think nothing of moving your body physically three feet to one side. You just shift over on the couch or take a small step to one side. On a big wall, just moving your body three feet in any direction is a project, and it must be done carefully according to the rules. Don’t follow the rules, and the ultimate rule, gravity, takes its relentless course and has its way with you.
So, I’m getting scared at present. This thing probably isn’t as hard as it’s claimed to be. But if it’s even 75% of what it’s claimed to be, then it’s still a killer. I sit around thinking, “What are the odds of _______,” and I fill in the blank with various scenarios. I’ve prepared in every way my decades of experience has taught me to prepare. But, in the end, the rock just doesn’t care what works and what doesn’t, and it can spit you out without warning. The best laid plans of mice and men….
What were all you people THINKING helping me fund this thing? You left me with no excuse! Shame on you! 🙂
Seriously, thanks again. I’ll stay in touch.