Abseiling...!!!

"If you can walk…you can abseil" that's what the brochure said…or something like that. On a sudden whim, I pick up the phone and register myself with the Australian School of Mountaineering for a beginner's course in abseiling. So rubbing the last dredges of sleep from my eyes I caught the 6 AM train to Katoomba the last Saturday of February (yes, this is a long overdue post). The train ride was actually quite pleasant…although I guess it would have been a lot nicer without that slowly growing ball of fear in the pit of my stomach. A few hours later I got off at the Katoomba station and walked out into a pretty little town that was just waking up a beautiful morning. Realising that I was quite early, I walked into a cafe nearby. Pretty easy to forget all those scary mountain side images that your mind has conjured up, when you're seated at a dew drizzled table having freshly brewed coffee under the clear blue sky. Well, I guess such moments of bliss are not be enjoyed for long, and so on legs that suddenly felt like lead, I made my way towards the climbing centre.

The climb group was a small one, five members including me and an instructor. After a brief introduction we chose our equipment...a helmet, a smelly right hand glove (to avoid rope burns...eeks!!) and a harness that made no sense whatsoever. Anyways no questions asked, armed with our equipment and an extremely large picnic hamper (...oh goody!!) we drove down towards the mountains. After a few brief instructions we donned our equipment...in my case, I managed to get tangled a few times with the harness and had to be helped out by the chuckling instructor. As it turned out the glove that I had picked out...the smallest size that I could find...was still a bit too large for my hand and kept slipping off. Too late to do anything about that, so looking like bunch of troopers we headed off on the trail.

Few minutes down, the narrow trail opened into a clearing with two cliffs in clear view. We were to descend the smaller one first...about 6 mts...for a bit of practise and then try our hands(& legs) on the higher one which was approx 15 mts. Didn't seem too bad until we turned around and saw the third target...25 mts!!! Okay...calm down...let's just focus on 6mts for now.. Turned out to be a piece of cake... this abseiling stuff is easy... whew... Moving on...15 mts...the bottom of the cliff is not really a pretty sight from the top...especially when in your mind's eye you can see yourself spreadeagled at the bottom. The trick is to descend as if your simply walking back wards….keeping your legs perpendicular to the ground...not that easy when the "ground" is really a rocky side. But somehow the knowledge that the slightest slip could either turn you upside down or could bang your face into the rocks makes it a bit more easier to maintain focus. Was a bit shaky at first, but I did quite well on 15mts as well.

25 mts doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, the sight of a huge rock overhang which we were told had to be negotiated by "sliding down till the tip of your toes, then letting go and swinging in" can make you go cold. The thought of doing that drained out all of my puffed up confidence. Nevertheless I did manage to sling in my harness and take a few steps off the cliff. Was it just a healthy respect for heights or was it a fear of bashing my head against the rock overhang, I'll never know for sure, but I pretty much hit the panic button and scrambled back up. After two more similar attempts, I gave up and sat on a rock stuffing my face with rice crackers while the other abseiled down.

With everyone in high spirits, we now move on to 35 ft...(yeah sure...big yayyee...) Any way after a quick lunch (the picnic hamper was really loaded) we made our way to another location. Thirty five freakin feet...we were standing atop a precarious ledge and couldn't even move our rubbery feet to take a peek down. I hung back, waiting for the other four to abseil down, trying to make up my mind on whether I'm crazy enough to try this. The shaken expression on another gal's face didn't really help...anyway egged on by the rest of the group (awesome bunch i must say...only wish they would pronounce my name correctly) I decided to give it a fair shot. To be honest, I think I did quite well...felt a lot more steady than on the 25 ft slope...At one point though, I lost my right hand grip on the rope (thanks to the large sized glove) and lost my footing. Must have slid down a couple of feet before I regained my footing.

Kept going steady again and then I saw my nemesis loom large right below me...a huge rock overhang... Sensing my fear (...and my pleading), the instructor yells out to carefully move to the right and slide down...not recommended though. Wasn't a wise move...should have listened to the instructor...anyway i ended up losing my footing. Involuntarily I let out a string of syllables that I can't really write down on a public blog...thats when I looked around and saw two climbers and another instructor a few feet away...grinning away at my outburst. Turns out I was only a couple of feet from the ground...

May not sound like much, but it felt like I could conquer the world after that. Like another fellow abseiler remarked, "You did this, now you can do anything!!!"

Six months down, the euphoria has disappeared, but I still have an awesome story to tell my little nephew. I won't be telling him the final bit though...we went on to 50 ft...didn't attempt that one though...saving it for my next stint at abseiling!!!