Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Battered - From the warzone and back
I was totally battered over the weekend from lack of confidence during a climbing course and sheer stupidity.
Level 2 climbing required me to engage in lead climbing. I was totally fine with it and fared pretty well at first. But then I realised that my belayer was feeding me more rope instead of braking, when I was descending! (But he's new at it too... so it's not exactly his fault.) But that freaked me out a little. Later, as I was attempting another wall and reaching out to the topmost handhold, I slipped. In a split second, I had ended up 2/3 down the wall! The free fall was exhilarating, but my heart had popped out and ran into hiding already.
And here's the rope burn I suffered...
These affected my confidence drastically and I couldn't even manage a simple wall anymore! I had lost all cool and my heart was pumping like crazy from under the couch it was hiding. All I could think of was, I needed to clip myself in and attach the rope in to get my first anchor, or I would just fall and die. (Lead climbing is different from a rope hanging from the top which acts as a safety rope. Lead climbing requires you to put up the safety rope yourself.)
That was the first day. On the second day, we did traversing... which is to move sideways and upwards, like Spideyman... instead of just ascending. I attempted a diagonal ascend instead of doing it 90 degrees. (Why? Cos it didn't occur to me that I could do it at 90 degrees.) My hands gave way cos I wasn't used to the added weight... you have to tug at your rope and pull yourself across while holding on. And so I was flung at a wide angle... from the right to the left and whacked my knee as hard as you could imagine, on the protruding wall on the left and ended on the ground. (Lucky my belayer was experienced this time round and 'planned it to perfection' so much so that I ended on the ground on my feet. Haha!) But I did attract everyone's attention. (Did I mention EVERYONE??)
How much shock can one take in 2 days?
And that was not all...
I was at Harbour Front MRT and rushing for the toilet cos the bladder was bursting and I was late. Guess what? I slipped with a loud thud and ended face forward. No big deal... I quickly got up. And BANGED my head on the slightly protruding wall several centimetres off the ground! It was apparently quite loud cos I could feel many heads turn and stare. I 'bravely' got up and ran away from all the attention.
And here are the injuries sustained.
Not mentioning the multiple blue blacks on my legs and butt, and the huge 'beng kok' on my head which I was afraid would be serious.
So dumb right?
My only hope...
Level 2 climbing required me to engage in lead climbing. I was totally fine with it and fared pretty well at first. But then I realised that my belayer was feeding me more rope instead of braking, when I was descending! (But he's new at it too... so it's not exactly his fault.) But that freaked me out a little. Later, as I was attempting another wall and reaching out to the topmost handhold, I slipped. In a split second, I had ended up 2/3 down the wall! The free fall was exhilarating, but my heart had popped out and ran into hiding already.
And here's the rope burn I suffered...
These affected my confidence drastically and I couldn't even manage a simple wall anymore! I had lost all cool and my heart was pumping like crazy from under the couch it was hiding. All I could think of was, I needed to clip myself in and attach the rope in to get my first anchor, or I would just fall and die. (Lead climbing is different from a rope hanging from the top which acts as a safety rope. Lead climbing requires you to put up the safety rope yourself.)
That was the first day. On the second day, we did traversing... which is to move sideways and upwards, like Spideyman... instead of just ascending. I attempted a diagonal ascend instead of doing it 90 degrees. (Why? Cos it didn't occur to me that I could do it at 90 degrees.) My hands gave way cos I wasn't used to the added weight... you have to tug at your rope and pull yourself across while holding on. And so I was flung at a wide angle... from the right to the left and whacked my knee as hard as you could imagine, on the protruding wall on the left and ended on the ground. (Lucky my belayer was experienced this time round and 'planned it to perfection' so much so that I ended on the ground on my feet. Haha!) But I did attract everyone's attention. (Did I mention EVERYONE??)
How much shock can one take in 2 days?
And that was not all...
I was at Harbour Front MRT and rushing for the toilet cos the bladder was bursting and I was late. Guess what? I slipped with a loud thud and ended face forward. No big deal... I quickly got up. And BANGED my head on the slightly protruding wall several centimetres off the ground! It was apparently quite loud cos I could feel many heads turn and stare. I 'bravely' got up and ran away from all the attention.
And here are the injuries sustained.
Not mentioning the multiple blue blacks on my legs and butt, and the huge 'beng kok' on my head which I was afraid would be serious.
So dumb right?
My only hope...
# posted by Banana Saviour @ 7:28 PM 
