3rd of May 2014, A beautiful Saturday morning... I packed up my stuff and meet up with a friend of mine for the usual weekend climbing session. Knowing that my finger Right Ring Finger will not take anymore hard strain and forces, I packed up my jumars and static rope for some light jumar activities.
Reached Nanyang with a welcome McDonald's Sundae cone from a young lady name Samantha. I felt blessed surrounding with people whom cares about me.
While setting up my hammock, I asked Martin to set up a fix line for jumar activity. It's a very short jumar practice. Line fixed and I was lazy to do anything else, so I lie on my hammock and started playing music. Another friend reaches and I started teaching him the jumar technique with the etriers... Had a few ascends on the 7meters line and came down...
Walking out to my car, my dream girl arrived... Wow, it must be my lucky day... Greeted her and handed her a bottle of Leung Sum Sou(ginseng) which I bought the day before. And we headed to the climbing site again. Well, back to my hammock, chilling out. A new friend joined us for climbing session for the first time. I prepared a pair of shoe and a chalkbag for him and I hooked him into my Reverso.
He started climbing and I started belaying him. Quarter way up the route, he gave up. But the whole group of people was giving moral support and motivation to the friend so that he complete at least one climb before he leave and decides weather to continue or give up in this sport. And I pulled myself up as a counter weight in order to lighten his body weight. At the same time, I kicked myself on the rock surface enjoying my swing like a pendulum. 30mins passed and he finally made his way up.
So, Joc started leading Scotch on the Rock(extended), 6b... She fell on the second clip and I suspected something is not right with her today... As she proceeded to the 3rd clip, which is where the final crux is... For some some reason unknown even to myself, I asked her to come down while she was hanging on the 3rd clip. But she asked for another try before she gave up... However, things turned ugly when she was making her way up. It was already too late when I realize where she was.... She's already at the top edge of the corner of the Open Book climb. She was stucked within the corner and unable to come out. If she falls, it's going to be a real big swing... If she stays there, it's the matter of time her hands get pumped up and she'll still fall and swing.
Realizing that the situation isn't gonna get better, I immediately put on my harness and taped my ring fingers together with my middle finger as a support to my ring finger, and asked Wai to belay me... I didn't wanna waste time attempting scotch on the rock, so I just lead the route the new guy climbed which shares the same anchor to the first part of Scotch On The Rock(SOTR)... But it's gonna be a HUGE TRAVERSE to the anchor of the extension of SOTR. But there's just no time to waste, I just cross over and clipped onto the 3rd clip.... And there, I hold the quickdraw and pulled myself up to reach for the big jug, then 2 finger pocket, and finally the main jug we used to clip on the anchor...
Looking down to Joc, my heart shattered into pieces... Her face was pale, and she was sweating alot.... Tear was flowing from her eyes... and then mine... And her both hands were holding onto the top jug of Open Book, shivering.... I slowly took her rope and clipped it onto the shared anchor between the two routes and asked Seetho to tight her rope... The rope tightened and I asked Joc to come out slowly... Which she still didn't dare to move... And slowly, I hold her hands and pulled her out... And finally, she got herself out from the edge and lowered to the ground... Though on the floor, she was still stunned and unable to untie a figure of 8 knot. Knowing that she's on the ground safely, I unclipped her rope from the anchor and clipped mine onto the anchor...
Crap, looking at my rope, it's pain in the ass to retrieve the quickdraws due to the massive traversing I've made while climbing the route... So, the belayer lowered me and I pulled the rope to move horizontally in order to reach for the quickdraws. While pulling the rope, I realized that I couldn't really grap the rope tightly with my right hand... Gosh, I just further injured my tendon.... Maybe it was the adrenaline that kept me going and not feeling the pain... But now, the adrenaline effect has gone... Without caring much about the pain, I continue pulling myself to the quickdraw one by one and finally, I came down.
I went to Joc, looking at her. She was still in shock... I tried to comfort her, but she kept avoiding me... I felt a crack in my heart... and my eyed went watery... Anyway, she's safe now and I packed my gear and went to the car...
While walking under the rain, I made a decision to rest completely for some time... I understood that I have to rest early and recover early... There's someone I have to take care of...
And while writing this article, I'm already back to complete resting mode.
Thank you for reading... If there's any...
Have a great day ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment