The Game of Climbing
Climbing may not have written rules, but it does
have a very strongly held code of conduct, for which each individual climber take a
personal responsibility.
Climbing is essentially about choosing a particular line or route, to the top of a
boulder, crag, cliff or mountain and then starting from the bottom ascending that route.
To do it properly nothing but the rock must be used for hanging onto and the route must be
climbed in it entirety. To stray onto an easier line next door means that you have not
succeeded in your chosen climb.
There is no one to
referee you. Only you and your partner will congratulate yourselves and only you will know
whether you actually succeeded or not.
What is climbing all about ?
A climber appears in the middle of a vast sheet of
smooth grey rock, vertical and two hundred metres high, this cliff sweeps down a jumble of
boulders cascading in chaos to the dark lake below. The observer sees the cliff as smooth
and holdless, impossible to cling onto, but to the climber the problem is very different.
A hundred metres up that grey wall, he is surrounded by a multitude of tiny holds, some
barely scratches on the rock, but each offering a chance to move a little higher.
He now has 3 problems to overcome:
Firstly, he must work out in
advance a string of precise gymnastic moves that will get him to the next large hold that
offers a rest.
Secondly, he must execute the
moves quickly so as not to run out of strength on tiny fingertip pulls, but carefully
enough so that he does not allow his body to get too far out from the rock and so load his
fingers too much. When he does move, he seems to flow upwards, body close to the rock and
weight always finely balanced over his lower foot.
Finally, the most important
problem is invisible to the observer. It's the battle in the climber's mind for mental
control. Each moves up will take him further from his last protection, already five metres
below. For every extra metre he now climbs he adds two or more metres to his potential
fall....!!! What if he had no strength to continue the climb..., no more protection
placements ?? All problem that would reduce the average person to a shivering lump of
jelly. To the climber up on that wall, even the slightest shiver of self-doubt would have
his feet skittering off the rock and into free fall..
This is what climbing is all about;
pushing oneself mentally to retain control and produce the courage to continue, working
out combination of moves linking holds. Doing all this in a magnificently grand and
impressive situations.
~ Mountaineering, a
personnal view~ by Wilfred Tok B.C.
Challenge the outdoor
life, sheer exhilaration, and what have you.....,..,.., the list goes on. These are some
of the answers when ask, what is atractive about mountaineering?
"It make you feel
alive with every breath", a famous mountaineer once remarked.
More and more people are
discovering that he was right, and mountaineering is no longer the rather esoteric,
unknown sport some 20 years ago. People's curiosity about mountaineering is
understandable; it is hard work, even painful, quite often dangerous, except for the lucky
elite, and rather expensive. WHY, then do people want to do it? It's a fair question
but there is no simple answer.
Mountaineering is
enormously diverse and perhaps this is the attraction. There are few activities that
combine so many different factors together. It is physically exhilarating and can be
competitive if you want it to be, but it is also a way of getting to the world's wild
places and simply seeing what they have to offer. There are tremendous views, enthralling
opportunities to see other cultures and to learn from them, and the most obvious of all, a
great sense of FREEDOM.
When so many of us spend
a lot of our lives constrainted by the commitments and complexities of modern life, the
freedom which mountaineering offers is a great lure. It also helps to put worries of
modern life into new perspective. After an extended period in the mountains,when you're
back to civilization; one's feel that life in modern living seem to be of secondary
important. Life is more complete, meaningful and a lot more simple on the mountain.
Perhaps, people of the 20th century need that.... who knows..??
Everyone has some
ambition, to gain someone's love, own something special, reach the top of a career or even
just to have enough to eat. When one wish is fulfilled another replaces it. So it is with
mountaineering, and just as in all desires. The initial concept of an idea, the hopes, the
plans, the small steps of success, especially after failure, are just as thrilling as when
the dream actually comes true. Reaching the summit is not everything. Whatever the
results, something is gained from simply trying to make it happen.
Mountains are all
individual, like people, each has its own character, shape, composition of terrain,
vegetation, animal life, type of rock, steepness and mood. Every side of a mountain is
different as well, and again like their mood can vary, particularly with the weather.
There are not many
opportunities to take decisions which can mean life or death; driving a car is the closest
most people get. I feel very strongly that we need to take responsibility for ourselves
and those around us in order to care about our environment, and we need physical and
creative challenge in our life, at whatever level, to be fulfilled. Mountaineering
provides that challenge, but the challenge is to yourself not the mountain.
Sport is about finding
out whether you can run faster, jump higher, work in better harmony as a team to score
more goals. Most sports use competition as the challenge to push personal standards and at
the ultimate level to break records. There is no such incentive of competition in
mountaineering; no goals are scored or points won. You have to learn to push yourself
through a desire to want to know more. This is what draws people back to the mountains
time after time. Despite the fact that the odds of injury and survival must have be
shortening, one has to go back.
"Life is short and
there has to be a reason to live beyond purely surviving".
I believe that fate has
a strong hand in our destiny, but always leaves us with a choice of whether to accept or
refuse the challenge. There are many occasions when to say 'Yes' or 'No' makes a great
difference in the future of ones live.... I am afraid that, rightly or wrongly, I have too
much curiosity often to say 'No'.
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me at wtbl@starhub.net.sg, I welcome any comment.
