Climbing rocks

 I have trust issues.


This is my first thought as I stared down at the instructor. I am hanging off about 6 meters in the air, clutching the rock wall for dear life.

'Jump!' He yells. 'Trust the system.'

I looked down at him, at my brother, his gf, and a stranger, and back at my arms, and wondered how long I could hold this position. Probably for a little while.

'The belay system has yet to fail! Just jump!'

There was no tautness to the rope that held me. It didn't feel safe. I feel like if I flung myself off the wall, I'd go crashing onto the gray mat down below. If I rolled like the professional that I was, I might preserve some body parts and just dislocate the shoulder. I looked down at the instructor again.

'JUMP! There's nothing to be afraid of!'

I looked over to my left, a mass of bodies on the wall. Scrambling over mini chunks of rocks as they deftly made their way to the top. Fingers and calf muscles taut, their brows furrowed in concentration as they determined the best 4 stones for their limbs, preferably close enough together to support their bodies. The method was simple, leave the bottom-most stone, and find another a little higher up. It was almost like playing a vertical game of twister. 'Left hand on purple!' 'Right leg on white!' 'Grip the colors like your life depends on it!' It kind of does.

'They're not going to help you, just jump!'

I don't trust the system to hold. I don't trust it to decide that it'll catch me. Which is weird, because I had just ridden the elevator to the climbing club. How far can you fall before being caught? I had climbed up here without any feeling of support from the machine-held harness, it seems improbable that it was going to switch on the resistance when I jumped. Isn't that how injuries happen? Wasn't there a specific term for it? Whiplash. This is a badly designed system.

'I promise you, there is nothing to be afraid of. Just jump!'

Alright.

Ready.

When emptiness is still, it is an eternity -

'JUMP'

I jump. For a split second, gravity takes over. I fall. Then the machine senses a huge downward force and it kicks in. It feels almost like the seat belt when I'm thrown forward, except that it allows me to continue my motion. I am lowered down to the relative safeness of the grey carpet. I look over at them, they are laughing at me. I laugh with them. I survived rock climbing 101.

Published on
6/2/19 4:38 PM

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