Climbing!

My muscles are killing me.

Muscles I didn't know I had are killing me.

I may never walk again.

Still, today has been a most awesome day! Given that zoeimogen, the_local_echo and myself own a load of climbing gear (which we bought for descending canyons on the Colorado Plateau), it seemed odd to us that none of us knew anything about climbing, other than that it looked terribly dangerous and that people really ought to obey the laws of gravity, instead of sticking improbably to cliffs like geckos in glossy magazine photos.

To rectify this situation, and see about getting a bit of an introduction to the sport of climbing, we booked ourselves an induction session at the newly opened Harlow Climbing Wall.

The place impressed us with how modern, open and airy it was, with a nice cafe/reception/chill out area, changing rooms, showers, lockers and, of course, the climbing wall, which is in a purpose built building all by itself. We took along our own climbing harnesses, carabiners and belay devices, and they were kind enough to let us use them for the course after inspection.

After a warm-up session, which was disturbingly reminiscent of hated school P.E. lessons, we were taken inside with the other new recruits to be shown how to put on a harness, and how to tie a rethreaded figure eight knot on a bight. I already knew how to put my harness on and tie a rethreaded figure eight, but tying-in was new to me, and one of what turned out to be many subtle differences between the two sports. Here are some of the ones which struck me:

Things we learned at the climbing wall	Differences from things we learned about Canyoneering
One ties in to the rope (attaches it directly to the harness). This makes perfect sense - it's secure and one spends all ones time on the wall tied to the end	One would typically never tie into the rope. If one wanted to attach to the end, one makes something like a figure eight on a bight, and clips to the belay loop on ones harness using a screwgate carabiner. This is because it takes much loner to untie from a rope than it does to unclip a carabiner. Canyons tend to have water in. Being tied to a rope may prevent quick exit should one become, e.g. trapped under a waterfall. Drowning is a major cause of death amongst canyoneers
The climbing wall uses dynamic rope, which is quite springy. When/if one falls off the wall, the bounce prevents one from being cut in half	Typically, canyoneers use static rope, which only has a small amount of stretch in it. This is more comfortable and predictable to abseil/rappel on than dynamic rope. If you take a fall while canyoneering (at least at our level, which involves no climbing), you're probably doing it wrong.
The ropes are nice, reassuring, thick 10mm diameter and upwards. The first thing I noticed upon getting close was just how huge they seemed. These ropes inspired much confidence in me.	We're considered newbies for using 9mm rope. Long walks in the desert heat carrying lots of gear makes for a hot and difficult time. When the rope is hundreds of feet long, an extra millimetre in diameter makes all the difference, especially when it gets wet. Seasoned canyoneers tend to use even smaller rope - 8mm is common
Getting back down involves being lowered, by your partner on the ground, who has a belay device attached to them. It's like abseiling/rappelling, only you have to trust your partner to not drop you, rather than trusting yourself to not drop you. This freaked me out at first.	The person descending the rope has the belay device, and would usually slide down the rope under their own control, rather than being lowered. Nobody is really in a position to drop you - if you fall, it's probably your own fault.
The climbing instructor seemed to favour simple, lightweight tube-style belay devices, and jokingly referred to our larger ATC-XP tube-style belay devices, with their larger metal surface and grippy section for increasing friction as "gimmicky" (before raising the serious point about why we'd prefer such devices). The climbing ropes are huge, the climber is lowered slowly, two problems which face canyoneers here simply don't exist in this climbing wall scenario	We need the extra grip, because our ropes are thin, and we tend to do long abseils, which may even free-hang for long distances. This can make speed of descent difficult to control without the extra braking afforded by the ATC-XP's grooves. As one descends the rope for long distances, significant heat is generated. The larger ATC-XP helps radiate it away, although they are still hot enough to cause serious burns if touched at the end of a long drop.
We wear these really uncomfortable tight shoes which scrunch the toes up in the end, so we can put out weight on them	We wear footwear that is comfortable for hiking long distances in, and swimming, and hiking long distances after swimming.
Climbing seems to rely on strength quite a lot	Where possible, avoid the whole "up" thing, unless using the car
After a long day climbing, I ache everywhere and have no skin on my fingertips. I smell of sweat.	After a long day in the canyons, I ache everywhere and have blisters. I smell of whatever was in the water I had to swim through.

You get the idea - there are lots more little ones, but they all seem to add up to making two sports which use a lot of common equipment and techniques rather more different in execution than might first be thought.

Anyway, I think we all agree that it was terrific fun, and I take back any cynical scepticism I may have harboured towards the sport in the past. We have all become members of the climing wall centre, and apparently I gave "textbook answers" to the test they give you at the end (being able to recognise a bowline seemed to help). Other than a small wobble the first time I had to trust my partner to belay me from the top, my fear of heights didn't even come into play; not even when I managed (after falling off several times, wearing myself out, and getting myself up more by willpower than anything else) to get up here:

( Image under the cut )