I'm BAAAAACK

Thank Christ for that, I've been to the wall again. It's been so, so long (a whole month) since the last time and it's good to be back. This time was slightly different however, 'cos I took a mate of mine. We had recently met up for a mutual friends Birthday and I got onto the subject of this awesome new sport I've been playing at, and it turns out she's scared of heights. Unperturbed, I told her she should most definitely come along to the climbing wall I go to and give it a shot. I think somewhere along the line we suffered from mis-communication because I think she was expecting ropes. And, come to think of it, I'm not too sure whether that was a good thing for her or not. If there are ropes, it's stands to reason that you're safe from falling to your death (or at least should be). But that in turns suggests you're going higher than you would bouldering. Either way, she turned up and was a true soldier. A trooper. She did totally awesome and it was one of the better trips to an indoor wall as a whole. Leonie totally rocked it, even if she did panic a little bit at the last climb. But before the last climb she did 7 others and two circuits of the traverse wall.

So, this post, I'm going to give you Rick's Top Tips For Trying To Climb When You're Afraid Of Heights.

Quite basically, the fist thing you've got to learn is how to jump off a wall. Not fall - jump. I made Leo go up 1/4 of the way and then jump down. The mats are soft, but if anyone is anything like her, it's the feeling in the belly that really gets you - and whenever you feel that you associate it with danger and therefore hate it. For most of us it feels weird but I don't even think about it/feel it anymore when I'm on a wall. It's a non-issue.
She did that a couple of times, and then I made her go 1/2 way, then 3/4 etc etc.. By the last climb she jumped off right from the top. Granted, it wasn't through choice that she did that. She got up there, was tired, realised she couldn't climb down again without letting go of some hand holds, had a little panic, and then just did it. She hated it. But she did it, and now knows that jumping from that height is safe as long as it's a choice! I don't expect her to be jumping off the top of all the walls she climbs but now she knows she's at least safe.

Edit - Dunno why I didn't post this when I finished it last time. This was my return pust too! anyway. Leonie has now been back 3x to the wall, and I reckon she's going to buy her first shoes pretty soon. I'm happy about this.

My hands, my hands, my haaaaaaands

They're so raw right now. Haven't been this raw since 'Nam (if 'nam was when I first started to climb) - And I reckon it's cos I've got new chalk. I dunno about this chalk, it's new and I'm not used to it and I don't like it as much as my old chalk.

What's in a chalk I hear you cry! Well, truth be told I don't know. What makes one chalk expensive and one chalk cheap? Packaging, more than likely, but there's probably a bit of science behind it too. All I know about chalk is they come in different packaging. I shall go into detail about this: now.

This is a chalk ball. It is a sack made of material that you can fill (witch chalk (or something else if you wish))

Loose chalk. You can use this as is, or even re-fill your chalk ball (see above) with it.

This is a generic picture of a man rubbing his hands with chalk. This shows you what to do with climbing chalk.

This is a chalk bag. You can put your chalk ball in this, amongst other things (marbles, possibly) There are handy to keep chalk off your other climbing gear.

Riveting, I'm sure you'll agree.. However mundane and boring it might actually be, though, chalk is quite a nice tool to use while climbing. It dries up your hands if they're moist. You don't want moist hands on rock. You could use something known as "pof" but I have no idea what that is so I won't bother going into it.

Anyway, tldr: The chalk I bought is different from my last chalk and my hands hurt and I think it's the chalks fault but I can't be sure.

I love climbing.