Being Spidey

Yesterday, I tried something new - wall climbing! Well, its not actually my first time to scale a wall, but it was my first time to go to the PowerUp gym and scale different walls for almost 2 hours. It gets pretty draining after a while but I enjoyed myself immensely.

I also learned how to belay. Yey! According to Wikipedia, belaying is the technique of controlling the rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far. As the climber moves on the climb, the belayer must remove the slack from the rope by paying out or pulling in excess rope. If the climber falls, then they will free-fall the distance of the slack or unprotected rope before friction applied by the belayer will start to slow their descent. It is extremely important for the belayer to concentrate on the climber's situation, as their role is crucial for the climber's safety. (emphasis mine)

When Kuya Chonny showed us the proper way to belay, it looked smooth and easy but no, when it was my turn, it wasn't easy after all. Let me qualify that statement. Belaying itself is not that complicated but the thought that somebody's life is at stake if ever I make a mistake... then that's when things get complicated. :) I can imagine the fear that my friend D felt when she was belaying for her son. Anyway, I got used to it after a while and we even received our belay certificates. hehe

With regards to the climbing experience, it gave me a different kind of high, a sudden rush of adrenaline. The fear of falling and the determination to get it to the top added to the excitement. It made me feel like Spiderman trying to look for stable handholds and footholds just to make it to the top. For starters, we scaled the Kiddie wall. Then moved on to the Molly wall. Then, we attempted the Poise wall which was true to its name. According to my friend, "Kaya Poise and tawag sa wall na yun kasi nakakawala ng poise." hehe. The pictures were totally unglamorous but what the heck, I strained myself to get to the middle part. After that, I can't hold on any longer. I had to let go. Thanks to my friend who was belaying, I was able to land in one piece. Haay, that was pretty frustrating. This just goes to show that I have to build up on my upper body strength and lose a little weight so that I can pull myself up. Well, I can't learn it all in a day. I still have the whole summer to practice and try again. :)


Someday, I'll conquer that Poise wall and any other wall for that matter.

P.S.
Thanks to Dana B. for the action shots. :)