Lead Climbing
I took my first lead climbing course on Monday. It's hard.
I was with a few friends and we all climb 5-9 or 5-10 when doing top rope. Even though the course was only on a 5-5, we were all completely dead once after reaching the top.
Compared to top rope, lead climbing is sure to give you a healthy dose of fear. You don't really fall when climbing top-rope, you just stretch the rope a bit. When doing lead climbing, you take at bare minimum a one meter fall before you even start to stretch the rope. Just knowing that makes you grip the holds so hard that you tire up in no time. Then you add the technique factor.
You have to clip your rope on the way up when lead climbing. That may seem obvious but clipping means that you have to let one hand go, reach down, pull on a heavy rope very far sideway, reach up, secure the quickdraw with a single finger, then manage to pass that slippery rope through the gate. When you couple that with the facts that you take the rope from the wrong side every other time and that your buddy is still an inexperienced belayer who does not give you the slack fast enough when you are trying to clip, you soon notice that you burn nearly half of your energy hanging from one hand while trying to clip.
Next course will be on taking falls with lots of practical exercises, which is sure to spice up the evening with a pleasant wave a adrenaline. Lead climbing is hard but it's also extremely rewarding. I look forward to my first real lead climbs.
Comments
wow that must have been quite a experience,we are planning to go for ours on this weekend.
poor me n lucky u ,dunno when is mom gonna allow me to go climbing n trekking.
If someone wasn't going to vegas we could have enjoyed the thrills of fall training a bit sooner ;)
Fair enough, I did delay the schedule a bit by going to a great conference to learn state-of-the-art new stuff. However, do not forget that if another someone had not been insisting that we go with the female instructor, we would already be done with that course.