Sport of Trust

One day, my landlord asked me if I want to join him for rock climbing on Saturday. Well, there’s no reason to say no since I have no plan for that day, but since I know nothing about rock climbing, and that I am afraid of heights, I was wondering if that was the right thing to do. Any ways, I took the challenge.






So off we went to Cleveland, GA where the cliff was. Oh wait, it wasn’t that easy. First of all, you have to hike for an hour up the mountain to get to the base of the cliff, then you have to hike across a platform of rock slopes using cables that have been planted to get to the base of the climbing site. At that point, I was really doubtful about whether I should have said no.







Basically, the cliff was on top of a mountain, and there was only about 3-6ft of flat land at the base of the cliff to hang out, then followed by a steep slope down the mountain.

Oh well, I was already there.

So everyone put on their harness while I stood there pretending that I knew what I was doing. So the first person to climb is responsible for putting in hooks that will guide the climbing route as well as setting up the safety measures. The lead climber will set up safety points along the way. This just means that the lead climber has to be very experienced.









And as I was standing around waiting for the lead climbers to get down, one of the lead climbers ran out of the rope as he was descending, and tumbled to the ground from about 15ft on the rock. Luckily, he was not badly hurt, but the shock of the fall made his limbs shake uncontrollably. For a rookie to see this before his first climb probably isn’t a good thing at all.

Oh well, I was already here.

So my landlord did one of the lead climbs and got back down. He then looked at me and asked me if I am ready…. Suuure I was. I put on the harness and my bike helmet(looks dorky) then he helped me with the ropes. I then put on a pair of old climbing shoes, which is best worn without socks and should be tight fit and made my first move, wondering what the height factor will do to me. The first step was tricky. There wasn’t much of a foot hold, but I managed to find a way up. Then it was now up to me to make my second move. Finding places to place my foot, and place to place my fingers, then finding the next spots that will help advance myself upwards. In the beginning, I was afraid that I won’t be physically fit enough to do this, but I was wrong. I quickly realized that it’s not about physical strength. It’s all about trust.



Trust of the rock.
Trust of the shoe
Trust of your fingers
Trust of the tinniest dents in the rocks to give you enough friction
Trust the harness, the rope and your belaying buddy.

It’s a sport of trust, which ironically is the biggest challenge of all things in this world.



It’s like the trust exercise where you fall backwards trusting that your team will catch you… except this time, it’s falling over a cliff.









Well, guess what, of all things to trust, I found myself the hardest to trust.

So I initially looked at the cliff and told my landlord that I am going to get to the half way point first then see how it goes. Well, I got the ¾ the route…. Not bad not bad. I made a second attempt, but thought I was done. So I got back down and played with the dogs that were running around like the rocky terrain were soft sponges. All of their tails were high up wagging, but mine was between the legs….















Anyway, the fun hasn’t stopped. My landlord decided to hike up to the top of the mountain because he’s never done that. I said sure! Well, instead of going by the proper route, one of the guys said we should just go the other direction and will get there soon. So we went, but it didn’t feel right.

I was right, there was no trail at all. It was rock climbing and bush whacking all the way. Yes the distance may be short, but we spent more time wondering how to get up there. I was pretty much on my fours utilizing my hands as much as possible. My landlord and another buddy were experienced climbers, so no problem for them. For me, I was grabbing onto everything I could, and it really didn’t help when all the bushes had thorns. Finally, we made it up there, with my hands and fore arms covered with thorn scratches and splinters. Not too bad, but it was irritating as hell. How did the top of the mountain look like? Well, it was just a bald spot where people can set up tents, and nothing else. So much for the effort huh? We then walked down on a fire road back to the car, sort of like an anti-climax.

On the way home, my landlord wanted to apologize if he put me through things that were too much for me. I said, you know what, if I didn’t come to this trip, I wouldn’t have done these things that would never have though of doing, so it’s all good.