Week 6: Out Climbing

Jason and I signed up a couple weeks ago with the outdoor recreation department on base for a rock climbing trip. As many of you know, we've been climbing indoors regularly over the last year or so, but this was our first trip climbing outside. Our leader, Matt, is an American, but has been living in Germany for many years. He has also been climbing for many years and so knew of a good spot (cliff? hill?) to take us for our outing. Most of the folks in the group had not climbed before, so the place that Matt took us was at more of a beginner level, named Hochstein, about 2 hours south of us and very close to the French boarder. 

Me, with very sore arms

Since Jason and I more-or-less knew what we were doing (mostly in reference to belaying), we were set up on the harder of the two climbs, with one of us belaying and the other climbing. Jason went up first, making it look easy, while I was belaying him with a Munter Hitch (also a first). The Munter Hitch is good to know in case your ATC is eaten by rabid dogs--or just falls out of your bag--so you can still climb as long as you have a locking 'beener.

Jason mastering the wall

When my turn came, it was painfully obvious that I hadn't been climbing in almost two months. I got up maybe 10 feet, when my forearms decided to cramp up. Damn. I came down, stretched a bit, then tried again, managing to get up to maybe 20 or so feet. We each tried the easier climb a bit later--the pictures are of each of us from that climb. Jason, again, made it look easy. I, on the other hand, had completely tired myself out fighting with the other climb and couldn't get past the first section. Ah, well. If we ever go back, I'll get it then.

We were climbing on sandstone cliffs. It made for some interesting features and a lot of dust. There were lots of little stones sticking out of the wall that you could use as footholds, similar to the foot chips in the climbing gym. In other ways, though, it was very different from gym climbing. The biggest was that there wasn't a marked path up the rock to follow. I found climbing very difficult because of this--you need to look at the climb very differently. It is no longer a matter of how do I get to that very specific next hold, but where on this entire wall do I go. Granted, there are specific paths up the rock that considered a certain rating, so there is some general idea of where you should go, but the options outside are much greater than in the gym. Overall, though, we had a really great time and will do it again next time it comes around as an outdoor recreation trip. At some point it would also be great to get some rope so we can set up our own top roping for a day out--and further down the road get lead certified, that will be a ways off though. (We also learned about a good indoor gym about an hour away--we'll have to get over there soon.)

We also went out for a bike ride, finding some great mountain bike trails near us. They are close enough to us to get out during the week, which should be a lot of fun during these long summer days. That reminds me--lunar eclipse this evening!