2008 September 08 - WAC Climbing Class

I've got a little distraction going through the month of September that'll keep me pretty busy. I was going to use a weekend or two this month to scope out some of the sites that I haven't been to yet. Most of the sno-parks are located in the wild lands so there's good hiking and scrambling nearby, but I signed up for the Washingtion Alpine Club's intermediate climbing class and that takes up all the weekends this month. Loads of fun (typical assignment: spend 1/2 hour climbing a 40' 5.3 pitch placing a dozen or more pieces of pro, then rap down with an instructor getting a 20 minute lecture for each piece on how you would die if you ever fell on it, but how bomber it could be if you just move it down 1/16 of an inch; climb it again putting all the pieces back exactly how you had them the first time and rap down with another instructor to find out how great the placements are as long as they don't move down more than 1/32 of an inch.)




So I'm constantly terrified and I may never climb trad again, but at least after this class all my gear will look well used.