"Stop it - you're making me feel like a 13 year-old Catholic."
-girl at the rock gym, perhaps receiving too much advice on how to climb?
My climbing partner moved, and it is so sad! I am realizing that looking for a climbing partner is a lot like looking for a boyfriend. Here are the parallels:
1. Climbing partner moves = Getting dumped.
This wonderful person you've trusted with your life is suddenly gone! Who will ever understand you in the same way? Who else could push you toward success by telling you precisely where to put your foot, or at what angle you should grip?
2. Looking for a new partner = Dating.
Instead of giving up (on either romance or climbing), you decide to press on and look for another person to fill that void. You want to seem talented but not show-offy, projecting the desire for a partner without seeming too desperate, showing interest without being clingy. The hierarchy is still present - there are optimal climbing partners as well as sub-optimal ones, not to mention the ones that can actually be harmful. That cute female pediatrician climbing 5.12? She probably already has a partner. That sketchy guy spacing out on the 5.6? No thanks. Better look for someone in my own range...
3. The first climb = The first date.
Shit. Now that I've told her I climb 5.11, I don't want to fall on my ass on this 5.10. The delicate balance of being yourself... but being your BEST self.
4. Climbing outdoors = Having sex.
"Yeah? You want to? Really? Ooh, me too... OK, I'll meet you at the Starbucks at 7am..."
Lots of trust needed to move to this step, as well as some extra gear. You know, for safety. Herein lies the potential to really get hurt, whether dashing oneself on the rocks of romance or the rocks of... um... just the rocks, I guess.
Okay, the analogy breaks down at certain points... there's not really a marraige analogue, for example. And nobody really cares if your belay hooks up with another climber on a weekend when you're out of town. But you get my drift.
-girl at the rock gym, perhaps receiving too much advice on how to climb?
My climbing partner moved, and it is so sad! I am realizing that looking for a climbing partner is a lot like looking for a boyfriend. Here are the parallels:
1. Climbing partner moves = Getting dumped.
This wonderful person you've trusted with your life is suddenly gone! Who will ever understand you in the same way? Who else could push you toward success by telling you precisely where to put your foot, or at what angle you should grip?
2. Looking for a new partner = Dating.
Instead of giving up (on either romance or climbing), you decide to press on and look for another person to fill that void. You want to seem talented but not show-offy, projecting the desire for a partner without seeming too desperate, showing interest without being clingy. The hierarchy is still present - there are optimal climbing partners as well as sub-optimal ones, not to mention the ones that can actually be harmful. That cute female pediatrician climbing 5.12? She probably already has a partner. That sketchy guy spacing out on the 5.6? No thanks. Better look for someone in my own range...
3. The first climb = The first date.
Shit. Now that I've told her I climb 5.11, I don't want to fall on my ass on this 5.10. The delicate balance of being yourself... but being your BEST self.
4. Climbing outdoors = Having sex.
"Yeah? You want to? Really? Ooh, me too... OK, I'll meet you at the Starbucks at 7am..."
Lots of trust needed to move to this step, as well as some extra gear. You know, for safety. Herein lies the potential to really get hurt, whether dashing oneself on the rocks of romance or the rocks of... um... just the rocks, I guess.
Okay, the analogy breaks down at certain points... there's not really a marraige analogue, for example. And nobody really cares if your belay hooks up with another climber on a weekend when you're out of town. But you get my drift.
7 Comments:
At 7:45 PM,
Anonymous said…
You are so very cool. I wish I had the nerve to strap myself to a rock face and clamber up it. :)
(is a great big chicken)
At 6:28 PM,
zandperl said…
Honey, you know that after you left me, I'll never be able to find another belayer who can .. um, belay me the way you did! It's just not the same. No one else can point out where to stem just the right way, or demonstrate a heel hook without breaking their skin. I'll always remember the way you used to layback while crimping with both hands! I'd rather be alone for the rest of my days than climb with someone else. It's bouldering for me from now on! :'(
At 10:45 PM,
j said…
Aw, baby, you know I feel the same way. Nobody could push me through a crimpy overhung crux like you! Next time we're in the same neighborhood (on the same half of the country!), we're gonna have to hook up.
Heh... remember climbing at the Noho gym, and the weightlifters were right across from the climbing crag? I nearly fell off the wall laughing so many times because some meathead on the weight machines was grunting and growling, veins poppin' out all over! Heh. Those guys were dumb. :)
But as for you, baby... I'd rather free solo than put someone else on the other end of my ATC. ;)
At 8:59 PM,
zandperl said…
Hahaha! Aw man, you always give back as good as you get! *grin* Now I've got this image of you in your wedding dress wearing a harness. Don't think that'd've worked, but you could've certainly hidden climbing shoes under it.
At 9:39 PM,
j said…
I could've hidden the whole damn bouldering cave under that dress. It was HUUUGE!
Whoa, did you notice that the word verification thing on Blogger now has an audio component for the visually impaired? That's cool!
At 7:17 PM,
zandperl said…
Yeap. :) Almost makes up for crap like this.
At 7:09 PM,
j said…
Something kinda like that happened at ASU... they remodeled the elevators, but they put the elevator button panel up too high, so people in wheelchairs couldn't reach. Fortunately our department head's secretary (who was in a wheelchair) pushed the issue and got it fixed, pronto. But that should've been something that had been taken into consideration BEFORE any modification of the hardware was done!
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