Climb on

On it's face, rock climbing is kind of a strange sport. You rig up a some complicated system of robes and metal devices so that you can scale a vertical wall. And once you get to the top, you just come right back down again. How anyone came up with all this is beyond me. But such is many kinds of sports.

And it's so much fun.

Some friends and I went to Yosemite on Saturday to give it a go. I have climbed on and off throughout the years, mostly pretty beginner stuff, so I was definitely the novice of the group. But I did manage — with a little more help than is customary from my friend who belayed me — to get up a two-pitch climb. (Belaying is what the other person at the top or the bottom does. It's basically feeding a rope through a device that they can use to stop the rope if you fall). (Oh and pitches are stretch of rock that you climb before tying off and starting over with the end of the rope). LIkely, if you don't know what I'm talking about, none of that made any sense.

There is something about getting to the top after working so hard to make it, with your muscles screaming and sweat steaming up your sun glasses. Anyway, it was a learning experience, and I'm sore today.

Lesson learned: The side of a rock wall is a great vantage point to see Yosemite Valley from.