Climbing Class 1

January has been quite a ride. I started the Mountaineerings Basic course and first 2 classes and field trips were around rock climbing.

At first I was really worried that we were starting exactly with the part that I was less confident with. However, thanks to my SIG (Small Instructional Group), I overcame the fear of heights.

My SIG organized few training sessions that helped me a lot to get the basics in climbing: belaying, climbing, rappelling, knots, belaying tie-off etc.

What do you need for this classes:

• Gear: please check my climbing gear page.

What you will learn:

1. The knots.At first I thought I wont be able to tie a knot. But then, I got so much into it. It started to be really fun when I saw that I was able to replicate all of them right away.
   • Here are some useful sources:
     • From RMI with videos
     • From REI with videos
     • 8 essential knots with images
     • Overview of knots with animation
2. Belaying top-rope:
   • With belay device PBUS technique: Pull, Brake, Under, Slide. See more on PBUS technique.
   • With Munter Hitch, see how to do the Munter Hitch,
3. Anchors
   • SERENE-A: Solid, Equalized, Redundant, Efficient, No Extension, Angle (below 60). More how to build anchors and anchor types.
4. Rope Ascend with Texas Prusik
   • See the Prusik Ascend Technique, and the how to do a prusik knot here.

Here are some pictures from my SIG training, where we had fun with rappeling off a building. It took me 3-4 trials to do it. I was keep getting up on the building using the ladder from the inside, and just looking down made dizzy and scared. Finally, with the help of the instructors, I realized that that was the best time to do in term of safety. Just believing in that made me do it. Also, I realized pretty fast that besides the fact that I had a mental blockage my body was pretty agile and the move was natural. YAY!

I was pretty proud of my first rappel and achievement!