I am frequently advised to focus less on my lack of natural talent for all these reindeer games and more on minor accomplishments. So, here I go! Last weekend, I:
- Weaseled my way onto a climbing trip with a bunch of (awesome and accommodating) people I’d never really met. Given that I can contribute neither skills, nor gear, nor a car, this is, like … a 5.11c social maneuver.
- (Related) Simultaneously packed my bag and baked bribery cookies without setting my house on fire.
- Took three whole steps on a slackline. Eventually.
Also I have a new word, “cragro,” inspired by an observed dispute with another party’s snarling rope-gun over whether it’s acceptable to clip the first bolt of a route using a ladder (left in the bushes, one would assume, for that purpose). Climbing is full of such philosophical conflicts, and also, I’m beginning to notice, personalities inclined to hash them out with anyone in reprimanding distance. I’m not sure if it’s a mountain-biker’s habit of live-and-let-live or just British reticence on my part, but I find it very strange.
Anyway, fortunately our representative in this discussion had a sense of humor about it. When asked, “Well, why don’t you just do the whole climb carrying a ladder?”, he just clipped it to his haul loop and, um … did.
e.alia.salim 