Sun 15 Jun 2008
Just a post to remind me of my first big fall. My first fall means falling far down when climbing. Lead climbing. Fell 4 bolts. About 8 meters while 20 meters above solid ground. No I was not scared. I felt nothing. No fear. Nah, this does not mean that I am a daredevil or crazy it’s just might be the fact that I had no time for fear to sink in and tie a knot in my gut. I was going to share a shall foothold while caressing the limestone for a hold when all of the sudden,… zip… F… A… L… L…………. no one was expecting it to happen, they were all chatting below and my belayer was not aware too and gave quite an amount of slack. That was because I just clipped the second last bolt and trying to feel for a nice hold… a side pull and a sloper while changing feet… searching for a good foothold. It was a clean fall… and I remembered kicking the wall once before landing nicely with balls intact. I was actually happy for that fall and no shivers or trembles at all. I smiled waved and showed a good sign to the people below before having my daisy chain hooked on for safety. Everyone laughed. Belayer said sorry. I said don’t sweat it and don’t worry. It was a good fall and I feel liberated. I was no longer the boy who had never fell. Haha… shit. That sound’s wrong to my own ears now.
Location : White Wall, Batu Caves
Route : Kick A Cloud
Belayer : Nas
Witness : Ah Hon, Sherry, Adrian, Thomas and Sunny.
And I celebrated it with having a good time. The first was down the drain. My stupid look says it for me and I admitted that I had no idea. Took a deeper one next. Finish it with another short catch of breath. Keep it in. 1…2…3…4…5… Exhale. Aaa… c’est bonne La
Early dinner… think I am going to have packet of instant noodles. Am tired and hungry.
Bonne nuit. Pop gun my kap.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Hehe sounds exciting! Where did you guys climb? Actually you’re right, you can take a big ass fall and not feel any fear… because there weren’t time for your balls to even realize it! By the time you actually come to your senses it’s already over
On the other hand, the scariest moments are always the few moment or so BEFORE you expect to fall… when the arms are all pumped out and the fingers feel like jelly and your knees are doing an Elvis…
June 19th, 2008 at 9:19 am
@ mike tee
yeah bro. moments when you feel confidence slipping away with all those pumped out forearms and doing the Elvis… those are the scary moments. but i guess that’s part of the fun huh… getting scared and feeding off the adrenaline.
let me amend the post a little. i was in White Wall, Batu Caves.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Reminds me of the good old days… Got my palms sweating when I read your post!
Yeah, I like these kinds of falls - when you don’t have time to think about it. Or rather, you get to think about it on the way down.
BTW, I thought it was called “Kick a Cloud”. I remember because I couldn’t do the start - it’s got some great handholds but a really high foot hold - didn’t have enough upper body strength at that time to hoist myself up. The rest of the route was great though.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:33 am
@ Figur8
*blink blink*
yeah… only a fellow climber could relish that sensation… that warm fuzzy buzz.
I see that Mike Tee climbed with your group before. Though you no longer respond to the “climber” call to the rocks but the stories in your blogs says otherwise. Will be dropping by more often ya. Keep it up. I like.
Oh and I have edited the route name. Thanks.
June 21st, 2008 at 4:09 am
Ah… I would respond to the “climber” call, but I’m busy raising the next generation of climbers right now so for the time being, I’ll just have to live in the land of memories.
Yup, Mike Tee, aka Thin Man was one of the forerunners of the Rockrats. They were really the good old days.
Have loads more stories to post up and even more photos - all in good time.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hi Abner, where are you? Busy?…Long time no update from you Friend.