Climbing to Greater Heights

Some of you already know that I started a new hobby last fall. Rock climbing! I got pretty serious into it pretty quickly, and rapidly moved up the difficulty scale. I started doing 5.6 and 5.7 routes (beginner) and am currently at about a 5.10 (intermediate) difficulty level. I expect it will be a year before I get to 5.11, but that's okay because 5.10 has four sub-grades labelled "a" "b" "c" and "d". Right now I can do a 5.10b with some difficulty. Haven't tried a 5.10c yet.

But tonight, I advanced in this sport in another way.... I am now LEAD CERTIFIED! This is the next major step forward in the hobby and adds another dimension of difficulty to the climbs I am already doing. The difference is this: the safest and easiest sport climbing is done by a system called "Top Rope" climbing, where the person scaling a cliff is secured by a rope that runs from him/herself to the top of the cliff, then back down to a safety partner called a Belayer. It's pretty safe in that if you fall, you're already roped to the top of the climb so you don't fall very far.

Lead rope climbing is much more dangerous. Your partner still belays, but you take the rope with you and clip it in to carabiners on the way up. As you climb, you go higher than the last place you clipped so the distance you fall can be much greater. There's also added dangers of: tangling in the rope as you climb it (called backstepping), putting the rope in the wrong side of the carabiner (called back clipping) or pulling up the wrong side of a rope from the previous carabiner (called Z-clipping). The techniques done by both the climber and the belayer are more technical and practiced in lead climbing.

So. I had taken a class on lead climbing in late March. Since then, half the time I've been to the gym I've practiced both lead climbing and lead belaying, as partner interests allowed. When I went to the gym tonite I wasn't thinking at all about the test. But as I got there, I found the gym only half crowded and some of the staff had time to administer the test. I did it pretty much spontaneously!

The lead belay part went well. That part never concerned me as it is pretty straight-forward. For the lead climbing, however, the instructor chooses a route (a 5.9, the first level of intermediate difficulty). He chose a route I had never tried before, on a wall I don't usually climb. Turns out it went very well! I controlled any nervousness and just focused on the task at hand. My clipping was perfect. I didn't fall or need to take a break. The holds were generous and the route, though it traversed a bit (it was one of Skella's routes) I found clips when and where I needed them.

Success! Achievement! I am now Lead Climb and Lead Belay certified.