My First Rock Climbing Trip

It was Fall, the colored leaves fell slowly from the trees. The air was cool and the smell of cedar trees hung in the air. It had not rained in several days, making it a perfect day to rock climb. It was just a normal day in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  A beautiful day, how amazing it was to be looking over such a beautiful Forest. A Forest we had just hiked through in order to reach our climbing destination. Sitting on top of the Rock face, overlooking the Keweenaw made the whole trip worth it. As with any other trip it’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey.   

Our journey started at Michigan Tech University.  The three of us gathered around a pile of gear in small dorm room. Here we planned every detail of the trip. We checked our gear and prepared for the hike. We brought along everything we could think of that might help us during our day trip. Some of these items where, a medical kit, bottled water, phones, a compass, and a small amount of food. This was my first real rock climbing trip, I remember being really excited to climb real rock. I had been told it was very different than indoor climbing, and I was excited to find out for myself. My friend Evan had all of the rock climbing gear we would need , so that allowed us to go out on our own and explore. That also allowed me to progress a lot faster because I could go out with my friends more often.

We packed all of our gear up into two back packs. I got stuck having to carry the rope which was made into a back pack also. Walking down the hall of the dorm, I remember feeling pretty manly as we carried our rock climbing gear down the girl hallways. Although this didn’t work on the ladys, this wasn’t our main goal anyways. So we packed up all of our gear into my buddies white Subaru outback. He claims that it is the perfect rock climbing car, so we used his vehicle on all of our outings. The 30 minute drive to cliff drive went by fast. I found myself looking up at the cliffs and thinking, what did I get myself into. After all I’m not scared of heights, I’m just scared of falling. My mind was cleared of this thought when I looked down and into the forest. It was nothing I had ever seen. It was extremely beautiful. The path that we hiked on wound through the trees, and around big boulders.  As we hiked closer to the Rock face it began getting steeper and more rocky. We crossed small streams and small rock ledges. Until finally getting to our climbing destination.

We unpacked our gear and laid out the rope, making sure that the rope was not tangled. Rock climbers call this process flaking. My more experience friend Evan climbed the Rock face first. My other friend Bryan belayed for him as he ascended the face. Belaying is when you hold the rope at the bottom so that the climber doesn’t fall. My job was to climb up after Evan, and remove all of the anchors that he had set into the cracks of the rock. I was able to do this because after Evan got to the top he switched the rigging. At the top of the rock face was a bolt, which we were able to anchor from. This is known as top roping and is the safest way to climb. I proceeded slowly up the rock face, pulling out anchors and blocks as I went. The rock face was smooth for the most part. A large crack ran vertically up the face and met with a large overhang. I was able to wedge my fist into the crack and climb slowly up to the overhang. Now came the tricky part, you have to hang by your hands and try to get over the large overhang. This takes a lot of patients, because you have to find good hand holds. You start to learn very quick what is good and what isn’t. Certain parts of the rock crumble in your hands and shower down on you. However I was able to overcome this obstacle and make it to the top. Let me tell you what, sitting on the top of that rock. Looking out over the Keweenaw was so gratifying that it made all the hard work worth it. 

wc760

 "I don't want to write about climbing; I don't want talk about it; I don't want to photograph it; I don't want to think about it; all I want to do is do it."    — Chuck Pratt.