Back into climbing!

I'm finally back into my climbing routine!! I went to do an introductory course yesterday at YMCA in TST. It was a 3 hour course with 6 people. It was alot of fun and very interesting. I learnt how to tie rope knots into my harness. I learnt how to clip the Grigri - a metal tool for belaying where you need to attach it onto the rope and connect it with a carabiner onto my harness when belaying.

Rock climbing in HK is very different to climbing at St Leonards. As you can see, the ropes just hang from the top. Theres nothing on the ground to attach to the harness. So, if you are belaying someone alot heavier than you - the chances are you will lift from the ground when you are the belayer - which is what happened to me! I learnt the technique to balance and to keep my feet on the floor an lean against the wall for support. After 2 hours of tying knots and practicing the attach the Grigri on the ropes, climbing and belaying, we had to do an assessment. This assessment consisted of making sure that you knew how to tie the ropes correctly, double check your partners carabiner to make sure it's locked and connected properly, how to control the Grigri to ensure your partner is let down smoothly, belaying and last of all - which is the scariest - learn how to fall.

Learning how to fall part of the assessment was when I had climbed up right to the top, the belayer lets go of 2 meters of rope. To a count of 4, I must let go, push both feet away from the rocks, have my arms out straight and let myself fall 2 meters down. It's scary when you know you need to fall. My heart was pounding very very quickly when I was counting to fall. It's hard to let go when I know i'm going to fall. I had to yell "fall" before I let go as well. The first attempt after I counted to 4, I couldn't let go. The second attempt, I didn't use my feet to push the rocks, so my shoes skidding along the rocks. If in a real life situation, you don't push yourself away from the rocks, you will scratch your face and body during a fall. Then the assessor very nicely gave me a third attempt. Thank goodness I manged to push myself out with my feet and let myself fall. A very scary but a great learning experience.

Then I had to swap. I had to belay a girl who was to fall. By her falling, I had to get my my feet ready so when she fell, I would push myself away from the rocks while still holding to the rope, I wouldn't hit towards the rocks.

It was alot of fun and we're going to make this our weekly activity!