Vertigo to go SHelena, staring up. That morning TElijah, our calm and competent guideNERgAWAULPbyhe first ten or fifteen feet looked easy,but then things got more complicated.t.six of us stood in front of the verticalwall of rock on the side of Mt.we’d been tutored and outfitted, trainedfrom REI, explained that sometimes you just in all the techniques and commands of have to get up there to see what to do. But then, rock climbing. There was only one thing he was an expert, and had climbed this face many times. left to do. None of us had ever really climbed much somebody was going to have to start outside of a gym. I hadn’t ever climbed in a gym, climbing. and hadn’t been on a rock wall in forty years. I generously volunteered to belay the first climber in our group, allowing one of the younger guys to climb first. He started up quickly enough, and before I knew it, he had hoisted himself over the lip and up to the top of the rope, sixty or seventy feet above us. Pretty good, for a first time on real rock. I eased him back down the cliff and let the next guy climb. Sooner or later, I was going to have to start climbing like everybody else. I watched a couple more climbers, tried to learn from their mistakes, and finally stepped up to the wall. The first few feet were obvious, and then there was a tricky little section where I couldn’t really see any handholds. I made it two-thirds of the way up the wall before I decided that it was far enough. Over the next couple of hours we took turns on different routes on the cliff. My favorite route seemed complicated right at the start, and I eased over a bit to the left, to see if things were any better over there. A couple more feet up, and then I rested on my knee, easing over to another A D V E N T U R E S P O R T S ledge. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece getting you just a bit closer to finishing. There was a nice crack going up to the right, and another that took me a bit left. And then, as I stood up on that last foothold, I realized that I could touch the carabiner at the top of the climb. I gave it a pat, took a nice long look around, and let my belayer know I was ready to get down. REI offers rock climbing classes on Mt. St. Helena as long as the weather is reasonable. Our group was a wonderful combination of four young gym climbers from three different countries, and two “older” men who were just there for the ride. The chemistry of the group and the leadership of Elijah could not have been more supportive and fun. And next time… 58 w w w . n A P A V A L L E Y L I F E m A G A z I n E . c o m
NVLife_JulyAug_2012
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