Another day climbing in Ballikaylar
Current Mood:
Happy
I was supposed to diving on Saturday, but on Friday night the guy running the trip said that I couldn’t go because I was a foreigner and they needed to file some extra paper work because I was a foreigner. So at the last minute my plans changed. I ended up doing nothing on Saturday instead.
On Sunday, Izzy and I joined Cem (this is the Cem that works at the climbing wall we go to regularly) and two of his friends and went to Ballikaylar, the park we always climb at. The weather was absolutely perfect. Cool, but not so cool the rocks hurt your hands, and it was sunny. There was a refreshing breeze. We timed our climbs so that we could stay out of the direct sun light. Everything was just great.
Most of the climbs I did I climbed lead. That means the rope wasn’t set. I would climb a bit, find a comfortable place to hold on with just one hand, then use one of the clips on my harness to clip to the bolt, then run the rope through the clip. This way of climbing is more dangerous. Normally when you climb top rope, the rope is already set so that if you fall, you don’t really go anywhere. When climbing lead, if you fall right before you clip into the next bolt, you can fall down past the previous bolt and can bang yourself up a bit. I fortunately did not fall, but it was scary. On one of the routes, there was at least two meters between each bolt, so falling would have meant picking up some good speed before being jerked to a halt.
Anyway, here are some pictures. I am pretty sore still, but that won’t stop me from going indoor climbing this afternoon.
That’s me getting ready to belay one of Cem’s friends. My shoulder was killing me from a collision I had playing soccer the weekend before. I took 4 Excedrin and made sure to keep my shoulder warm all day.
It may be hard to tell, but this is the longest route I have ever climbed. It was exhausting, especially climbing it lead.
Triumphant at the top of the route from the last picture.
Izzy climbing the same route. He of course made it look easy. You can see how the rope hangs down because it’s not yet clipped into anything. The first clip is already in the bolt from when I climbed it. You can see it just above his head.
From that angle you can get a better idea of how long the route was.
This route is not one that we climbed on Sunday. I have tried it before and have gotten to about where the horizontal red line is. This is the route that Izzy says is a good measure of whether or not you are actually a climber. If you can climb this one, you are no longer a rookie. I think I will get this one next time.
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