Romancing the Wall the Extreme Way

MCAP Rock Climbing 101 (Indoor)

Venue: Urban Peak Climbing Gym, 4/F Lotus Mall
Imus, Cavite
Event Date: August 9, 2013 10am - 8pm

We arrived at Urban Peak around 11am. After fixing ourselves, our stuff and our mindsets, Marc allowed Nacho to climb first as the Spanish guest was getting impatient. After him, Marc asked me if I wanted to climb. I got excited. It was going to be the first time he would be belaying for me. I told him of that fact and he smiled.

I climbed the blue route on the farthest left of the gym with the 5.8 difficulty level. "Good boy!" he exclaimed when I reached the top. He had a funny way of telling me he was proud of me. I should get used to it, I thought to myself.

When it was time for him to climb, he did the 5.10 green route without any sign of hardship. It was the route that didn't get me three footholds higher the first time we went there. It was the route that even my then companion, Stephen, did not go any higher. Marc had a sense of humor, whether he was climbing or not. He tried to make us laugh by doing horrible positions while climbing and Joan and Jane would burst into laughter. I could only smile, worried that his tricks would cause him any accident. I would silently pray that they wouldn't.

When he got down, he asked me if I wanted to try the same route. Nacho expressed his desire to climb the same route Marc just finished. He didn't go as far as I did. He tried and tried and tried... Marc and Joan were giving him tips on how to keep his foot from sliding and where to grip or pinch, but he really couldn't do it. He lost all his energy before he decided to take a rest. When Nacho got off the rope, I asked Marc if I could try the route that he had earlier recommended did but didn't immediately take because I was too afraid to let him down.

Thrice had I fallen off the same holds where Nacho had fallen off. On the fourth try, I went past the difficult part through Marc's helpful instructions. It was a good thing that he remembered my handicap, he knew how to make me know he was referring to my "other left" limb. I was able to finish the route after a few falls on the rope. Even so, Marc still cried, "Good boy!" as he roped me down.

His second climb was the brown route in the middle, with Joan giving him tips on where the holds were. The holds were pretty small, almost unnoticeable, and they were too far from one another. When the other MCAPers arrived, Marc had to talk to some of them, so I tried the brown route with Jay as my belayer. The others were preparing to go on lunch, so there was practically no one to tell me where to go next. I didn't know if Marc was paying attention to the ones he was talking to or to me while I was climbing, but he didn't shout to me the next hold to grip on when I was looking for one. I finished to the top, all sweaty and was breathing heavily. When I got to the floor, I approached Marc and told him, "You weren't paying attention," which he replied to with, "I was watching you and you did great!" Plak. Plak. Plak. Ang sabi ng aking tainga.

Then, we had lunch. Nacho, Edwin, Jepoy and I had Korean. Marc and Jay had beef and broccoli. Joan and Jane had Chinese. When Marc finished his Coke, I told him that I wanted some Coke as well, so he bought us both solo bottles. After lunch, I had to accompany Nacho back to Metro Manila as he didn't know the way back. I told Marc this and I could see that he's already confident to leave me with the Spanish guest. It took me 28 oz of blood from the nasally-hemorrhagic conversation with the kind Nachito and an hour and a half to get myself back to the gym. Some more MCAPers arrived when I got there. Marc had just finished lead climbing on the route with an overhang, which I was unable to watch him, to my dismay. I learned later that he tried to wait for me before doing it but the pressure grew strong and he was left with no choice but to do it without me. He waited for me. Nice.

When I got back, the focus of the climb was on the bouldering routes with crash pads scattered in the area. In bouldering, the climber does not use a rope nor a harness. A spotter will give support in preventing a bad fall and crash pads are on the floor, just in case...

I was too tired from the trip to and from Metro Manila to try. After a few hours of watching the climbers try the yellow and green routes, with only a few successfully reaching the top, I tried the yellow route myself. I was able to reach up until the third to the last hold to tap. I heard cheers from the background, "Grabe, ang lakas nya!" I got self-conscious. Did they mean I looked masculine?

The day had to end and we were too hungry and tired to stay for more climbs. We had used up our grips. We washed up and packed and headed back to Roxas Boulevard to have dinner in a restaurant similar to Dampa. We had a dose of seafood delight. After that, Jeff dropped us all off at EDSA Buendia...

I went home with a jolly heart. I was just so grateful for Jay's initiative, for the cosmos' design of the circumstances, and God's faith in something that I was losing faith in. Walls. Romance. Bliss. What a great sendoff before my 11-day trip to Eastern Mindoro!