Mountain Climbing
“Don’t worry, if you fall, the rope will catch you after the first ten feet.”
These words, while most certainly true, did nothing to ease my worry about crossing this gap. My skepticism, however, did not arise from mistrust of our guide, sketchy gear, or even a fear of heights. Rather, it came from the simple thought of succumbing to a grisly, rocky death, should I fall off the edge.
“The edge” being that of the mountain my family and I had set about climbing. We had arrived earlier that day, driving from our cabin in the Tahoe Taverns down to a popular shopping area seated near the base of said mountain. We pulled up to a small building, sandwiched between a convenience and clothing store, and gave the woman at the front desk our information. She handed us multiple pairs of thick gloves with flexible, textured plastic affixed to the palms and fingers, and then introduced us to our rock-climbing guide for the day. We proceeded to don bulky harnesses, helmets, and the gloves before walking up a slight incline to where a strange vehicle was waiting.
The front of the vehicle was that of a typical car, but the rest consisted of two rows of seats, back to back, facing outwards. There was no roof, nor any sides, so we were able to see everything around us clearly. This was fortunate, as the ride up to the base of the mountain provided us with a majestic view of the wild, lush landscape around us. I could smell the fresh, piercing scent of the pine trees swaying in the wind as we approached the climbing area.
Finally, we made it to the base of the mountain. Our guide showed us how to thread our harnesses onto the cable that ran all the way to the top of the mountain and back. Something interesting is that a lot of the outside of the mountain is made of decaying granite, which means that it will kind of crumble if you grab on to it. Obviously, something that crumbles beneath you probably isn’t the safest to climb on, hence the harnesses and cable system.
Anyways, once we were secured to the cable, we started our climb. I even got the honor of being second (after our guide)! After the first twenty feet or so, we started to get more accustomed to the feeling of climbing, so it was a little easier from there. The most difficult parts were when we had to cross over rifts between the rock structures, because even though we were attached to harnesses, it still felt dangerous to be jumping around when you’re hundreds of feet in the air. I found myself nervously clinging to my harness, and saw the others doing the same. We did eventually manage to become accustomed to these seemingly risky maneuvers, and the climb soon went from nerve-wracking to exhilarating.
That is, until we came to the biggest gap we had encountered, the one I mentioned at the beginning of this story. It was about two or three feet wide, but this high up it might as well have been the Grand Canyon. I stood on one side of the rift, running the countless scenarios in which I could fall off the edge in my head. Our guide beckoned me from the other side, but I was frozen, determined to stay on the nice little platform my family and I were currently on top of. I wasn’t sure if I’d have the guts to jump across, but finally, after some coercion and encouragement, I took some deep breaths, cleared my head, and managed to overcome my fear and leap across. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t die, but it was still pretty scary. However, this risk was rewarded when we made it to the highest point of our climb. We took a moment to sit down and drink some water as we looked out at the ground below us.
The view was absolutely breathtaking. We could see out over a massive expanse of trees and hills, a colorful patchwork of greens and blues. Large, fluffy clouds floated across the intensely blue sky. We were looking at the world from a totally different perspective; everything seemed so small below us.
“Wow,” I said, “this is incredible.”
“Yeah,” replied my mom, “I can’t believe how high we are!”
“And we’re not even at the top,” added our guide.
I wanted to sit there forever and just soak in the majestic landscape, but, sadly, we had to go back down eventually. This is not to say that the climb back down wasn’t enjoyable, though, it was actually quite fun, we were just sad to be leaving already.
Once we got back to the base of the mountain, we hiked a little ways down to the vehicle from earlier and drove back to the building we came from. We returned our gear, bought lunch from one of the nearby stores, and ate during the drive home. My family and I were really tired after hours of climbing, but it was definitely worth it for the experience and the view. I was proud of myself for managing to overcome my fear and finish the climb. All in all, it was a super fun expedition, and definitely the highlight of our trip!
