Cattle Stop

Flat mate John came home after a week long climbing trip with his girlfriend Briony. However, the first thing he wanted to do the next day was go climbing. So Gord, John and I piled into Briony's car and headed off to Cattle Stop. Which is a climbing spot up in the huge hills near Rapaki. We had an epic time while climbing. Yes, I wore a helmet the whole time (mom!) even though helmets are really only for the belayers in case of falling rocks knocked loose by the climbers. I was mostly top roping and the boys were lead climbing.

Check out the mountains in the picture, off in the distance. The clouds made everything look cooler.

Quick climbing lesson: Top roping is where you feed the rope through an anchor at the top of your climb and then you're belayed the whole climb. So if you fall, your belayer can catch you right away by holding the rope tightly.

Lead climbing is where you climb with the assistance of bolts that have already been placed in a rock wall. You climb up and clip your rope to each bolt with a quickdraw (climbing gear made up of 2 carabiners and a sewn loop of webbing). Every time you clip into a bolt, you have a bit of belay security and if you fall, your belayer can stop you from falling too far past the last bolt you clipped. Lead climbing is more difficult than top roping because once you clip into a bolt, you have to climb up to the next bolt and if you fall, you'll fall to the last bolt you clipped a quickdraw to and that can be  several meters depending on the distance between the bolts. John and Gordon both fell today while lead climbing. John fell about 2-3 meters and I didn't see Gordon's fall, but he messed up his hands a bit. When John fell it was pretty scary because it was a long fall. Gord was belaying and he went swinging up off the ground and flew into the rock a bit. This is one reason I'm scared to belay while they are lead climbing. They are bigger and when they fall I don't have as much counter weight.

They top roped 2 for me and one was a 17. This is pretty awesome because 17 is a much higher grade than I can normally climb. I had to get a little help at the crux, but I made it.

I also had my first lead climbing experience on a 13. It was an intense rush because clipping into a bolt is great, but then you have to climb higher to get to the next one and it's a bit terrifying. In comparison, top roping now seems less scary. I successfully made it to the top during my lead climb and then I learned how to abseil! Abseiling is rappelling. You don't have a belayer and are in complete control of your own descent. I felt very SWAT while I descended. I also cleaned the quickdraws as I lowered myself. Cleaning the equipment is important because you want to have all your gear when you get to the bottom of the rock. This means I unclipped the quickdraws from the bolts as I abseiled down the rock face.

While we were on the rock we were all unfortunately a part of a humorous event. I don't feel like writing it in this blog, but I can explain it to you if you care enough to ask.

Also "Sweet Home Alabama" came on itunes while I was typing this blog and it made me miss pulled pig BBQ with hot tangy sauce, coleslaw, hush puppies and sweet tea. Oh man, I miss the south and Carolina basketball.