Wall Climbing

Today was one heck of a day. Tiring, scary, and loads of fun. Junjun, an officemate who reminds me a lot of my College Yearbook moderator because they’re both such sport/adventure freaks, invited me to go wall climbing.

He and his cute and chubby nephew Anton fetched me at Plaza Fair in his dusty blue Revo, and we hightailed it over to Rockwell to meet Karen, another officemate who’s also another Richter (Richter, by the way, is the name of my sport/adventure freak yearbook moderator).

We had lunch in KFC and were soon in Play Underground to register for wall climbing.

The cashier handed us each a pair of wall climbing shoes and a harness. Then we went towards the walls where a guide gave us instructions on how to use the harnesses, the proper way to strap the wall climbing ropes to them, and how to belay, that is, protect a fellow climber from falling using a rope.

Junjun was up first, in the easy climb, with the rocks all lined up in a straight row. It looked pretty easy, so I volunteered to go next.

But when I was up there, my fear of heights suddenly got to me, and I was seriously considering climbing back down when I was barely 1/4 way through.

But Junjun encouraged me to go on, and what do you know, I was able to get to the top. Once there, he told me to hold on to the rope, spread my legs and step on the wall so that I wouldn’t hit my face against it. Then he lowered me to the ground.

I was able to progress to the two next difficult levels later on, but halfway through the third climb, my arms gave way from exhaustion, and I asked to be lowered. The lowering that third time was scary, though, because the rope twirled me around and I couldn’t brace my legs against the wall anymore to prevent me from hitting it.

When our hour was up, we headed towards Mandarin Hotel Gym for a swim in the pool. I was asked to leave the pool, however, because I was not in a swimsuit. I decided to use the gym instead. But my muscles were so weary from the wall climb, so I just had light exercise. After everyone was through, I went shopping for groceries in SM Makati.

Yep, it was definitely tiring and a little bit scary, coz even though I knew I was safe, I still am an acrophobic who regularly gets nightmares of me falling down and waking up right before I hit the ground. But you know what? Facing your fear is fun. So next fear to face…the deep! So next year, take me diving with you, Junjun!