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Published: February 12th 2007
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Today I got out and did one of the things I was really looking forward to in Yangshuo - Rock Climbing! In yet another amazing coincidence, I was left a short comment on this blog by a poster jess tipping me off to a great climbing company known as Xclimber, noting that for a real challenge, I should get to the cliffs. Little did they know, I had booked a half-day climb with the same company only 2 hours beforehand! Craziness. Now to the climb.
I arrived at Xclimber at 10am, ready to get to work. I was to be joined today by a slightly older man, who sat quietly on a couch inside with a look of doom plastered across his face. I gave him a Hello, responded immediately by a rather quivering Hola. My new bud, Felipe, was from Salamanca, Mexico, now out traveling Asia on his own. If you think not speaking Chinese would be difficult for traveling in China, try not speaking English as well. Now you have a problem. Felipe could get the basics, but not much else, and for rock climbing it meant a hard day was ahead. Now I understood the look of
doom.
Being my first time climbing on a real mountain, I was afraid I'd be in for some wimpy beginner course, really not getting to do much. Not the case. Upon arriving at the cliff face, self-confidence had already booked the next ticket to Beijing. A flat crag, the cliff seemed to be nothing more than a wall, devoid of any holds, platforms, and most importantly, ropes.
I was immediately reassured though when our guide, a twig at 5'8", shot up the face, placing three rope lines measuring 25 meters high each all in a matter of 15 minutes. That was too easy. The confidence was back. Each course was progressively harder, with the third and final requiring a full body hang as you made your way away from the main face and over a hanging buttress. Now that, that looked hard.
It was my turn on the easy one. After getting strapped in and making sure I looked the part of a professional, I immediately went at it. Probably a little too eager as my second step sent me slipping from the face, nothing too bad though as I had a firm grasp with my hands.
To be honest, I flew up that mountain, finding the climbing fun and holds easy to find. I reached the top in maybe five minutes, wondering how this could be considered so difficult. Bad idea.
As it turns out, this was indeed a baby course. Following Felipe's run up the course, during which my 40-year old Mexican amigo owned the mountain, a 7 year old girl stepped to the base. Cheered on by her mother below, she crushed our speed and manhood in no more than 3 minutes. So much for being a climber, and man...
Next up was the intermediate route. While the beginning was littered with foot platforms and solid grips, the top left me struggling with a vertical fault in the cliff face, in which I had to dig my entire arm between the crag just to catch myself from flying off. Still, at the end of the rope, I felt that this wasn't much either. I needed to climb. Felipe had his struggles with the middle rope, stopping maybe 10 feet from the top. I felt better about myself when the 7-year-old climbing goddess was for the most part pulled up by her support
down below.
And so it was on to the 3rd and final climb. Everything had seemed too easy before, so how much harder could this one be, right? Wrong. This beast of a buttress was absolutely a pain to get up. During my first attempt, I sailed off the face in Superman fashion as I had underestimated my grip on the rocks. Second time, no better as I clutched to the buttress, hands beginning to sweat, and eventually bailing from exhaustion. A break was in order.
I did not realize how absolutely tiring the first two "simple" climbs were. I was dead, my forearms in a perpetual flex and my fingers writhing in pain. I realized that nothing about the two climbs prior had been all that easy, I was just too excited to notice. Felipe, on the otherhand, knew when to quit. He wouldn't dare go for the third climb, preferring to munch on bananas down below. While I let my poor arms enjoy a break, two of the pros bolted up the same route, stopping just below the overhanging buttress. In a move ripped from Mission: Impossible 2, the two repeatedly attempted what was known as
a Dyno, setting themselves up underneath the overhang and catapulting vertically. Momentum would sling them up to the outcropping, and then a last second grasp of flailing arms would safely secure them to the cliff face. Oh come on!
When it was my turn again, a small group of tourists had amassed to watch my climbing prowess, or lack thereof. With forearms just numb, not in pain, I worked some magic in overcoming the free hang. Actually, not so much, as I would have definitely fallen yet again if my support down below hadn't pulled the rope so tight, I couldn't help but stay glued to the face. And that's how it went for the next twenty or so minutes. Me, slipping from the cliff, the rope bringing me back to it. How our guide ever did this without a rope hoisting him up is beyond me.
When I reached the end, I did the two things I had forgotten to do before: 1. Look down (scary) and 2. check out the view (amazing). Six or seven peaks shot up all around me, and from the middle of one across the way, the scene was all the more stunning. Light fog dissipated the sunlight into a giant sky of glowing white. While I'll always remember that scene, it lasted all of 5 seconds, as I was dead tired by that time. Who cares about views when you have no feeling in every inch of your body? I kicked away from the wall, and my support below took me on a harrowing descent to the bottom, far scarier than anything part of the ascent.
So now I relax, content in conquering my mountain, albeit a beginner's course. That's good enough for me though, at least for today. Tomorrow I'll make an early exit from Yangshuo to the northern town of Longsheng, home to the world-famous terraced rice fields. Should be something special.
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jess
non-member comment
climbing with xclimber -weird coincidence!
thats awesome you went climbing. Its quite a challenge. Im guessing u went to the wine bottle mountain. Hope u had a good day. I am going to china this easter to join a climbing course with xclimber as they offered me free accomodation with the course (its a month long arggh). im well excitied, but the muscles in my fingers arent! good luck with your travels!