Assignment #8: My Short-lived Rock Climbing Career- Kelly Landry

Fears: butterflies/moths, spiders, inadequacy, rejection

Annoyances: slow-walkers, chronic negativity

Accomplishments: completed entire Via Ferrata (8 level, easy-expert) climbing course in one (my first ever) attempt

Confusions: chemistry, physics, SCIENCE

Sorrows: the unattainability of perfection, poverty/inequality in the world, losing friendships/relationships because of time/distance

Dreams: run a 10k and/or half marathon (with about an 8min/mi pace) before graduation, travel, help others with and enjoy my job

Idiosyncrasies: washing and drying clothes (light and dark) on “cold” setting only, eating pb&j sandwiches in a specific way, eating things (such as blueberries and popcorn) individually/one-by-one

Risks: watching scary movies/shows alone

Beloved Possessions, Now and Then: books (then), friendships (now)

Problems: organization/time management

The most physically, mentally and emotionally tolling experience I can remember is completing the Via Ferrata at the Southeast Mountain Guides in Wolfe County, KY. I did it the morning after I had stayed up until 5 in the morning with some friends so I was already exhausted and mentally drained. We got there and it was not what I was expecting, I hadn’t asked too many questions so I was under the impression that we were going hiking. The “trail” was completed by rock climbing.

I am afraid of heights and love them at the same time. I have the arm muscles of a cucumber. These were definitely setbacks to my climbing adventure.

I went third in my group of friends because one of my best friends went second. Big mistake. This meant my pace affected the other 6 people behind me. My friend ended up being way faster than I expected and soon I couldn’t even see her most of the time.

About half way through I found myself basically isolated from everyone in my group. My best friend was far ahead, excelling at this and the friend behind me had stopped with someone else to take a break. We had been climbing for about 2 hours at that point and I saw most of the girls in our group had quit and gone down to hang out, I wanted so badly to join them and give in to my aching arm muscles and sore, blistering hands. Shut I couldn’t. I had made it half way so why not just finish? My competitive nature would not allow for me to quit, I wanted to complete the course.

At first I had tried to ignore the fear of falling to my death (we were tethered to the mountain but it didn’t feel adequate) and my extreme lack of upper body strength, but as I progressed the path got higher and my body quite literally could not pull itself up at times. I kept saying to myself, out loud like a crazy person, “You’re not gonna let a big pile of rocks make you cry” because I was very close to crying and giving up. My arms had never been that used and tired before, I could feel muscles in them I didn’t know even existed and it burned.

The last level you are essentially dangling the entire time unless you pull yourself up, this is what almost broke my will to live. I was stuck, no going back. A teenaged guy I didn’t know had started climbing right behind me which made me want to go as fast as possible but I couldn’t move, my arms wouldn’t pull hard enough. Turns out the guy was a boy scout, making me feel even more wimpy than before, but instead of being exasperated by my minuscule progress in the 15 minutes we’d been dangling next to each other he started to encourage me in response to my profuse apologies.

It took every ounce of willpower, bodily endurance and mental fortitude but I pushed through the last level.

In retrospect it was a fantastic experience, it showed me just how capable I am of doing things I set my mind to, regardless of physical and mental constraints. However, that trip was the entirety of my rock climbing career.