The unexpected climb.

Every once in a while, the un expected happens. Maybe this un expected could be a good thing, maybe it`s a bad thing. For some people, the unexpected happens more often than for others. I suppose, for someone who is traveling, someone who is in his 31^st day of being in a new country, the unexpected should most likely be a common, almost normal occurrence. And it is, most of the time.

                Last night, an unexpected opportunity, something I’ve never done in my climbing career was offered to me. Maybe to some what I`m about to describe wont sound overly profound. Maybe I am just not a good enough writer to put the experience into words, but I’ll try, because to me this was by far the most profound thing I have ever done in my world of climbing.

               

                Yesterday, I awoke to an empty house. I am starting to get used to waking up alone in Juan Gabriel`s house. What I`ve realized now, is that people, when in their own countries, their own towns or cities, these people have lives. Obligations, responsibilities and so on. Looking at my own life in the Kootenays, I understand this. Looking back to what my thoughts were just before I left Canada, what my expectations were, I was being naive. In my mind, I expected to find people that would have all the time in the world to climb with me. All the time in the world to camp, road trip, ECT.... Had I gone to a place such as California, Spain, Thailand, or any other major climbing destination, no doubt my expectations about finding people to climb with would be true. I had spent the summer in Squamish climbing with Cati, there were hundreds of people there road tripping, camping, dirt bagging. Hence, my expectations to find people to climb with no matter where in the world I ended up. So, After being in Ecuador for a month, a place where the climbing is vast, diverse, beautiful, a place that is well below the radar in the eyes of the climbing world, I accept and understand that if you want to climb in this country every day, or at least as much as your body will allow, more planning is indeed a good idea. Don`t get me wrong, I have met climbers, friends and companions in my month here. But they all have reasonability’s, they all have lives. Not once since I was here, have I met someone who is traveling to climb and only climb. I’ve met a fair share of tourists, but not a single climber. But I digress. That’s not the point of this post.

                So after waking up, realizing my climbing partner, Columbia Yon (pronounced John) was MIA and Juan was tending to his life in Cuenca, I went downstairs, made some coffee and toast, and pondered what I was going to do for the day. I watched a bad movie, laid in the sun room, twiddled my thumbs. After a while of doing nothing, generally feeling really… blah, I went upstairs, packed my dirty laundry and went to the town centre to catch a bus to Cuenca. I guess if I’m not climbing I should do the domestic thing and accomplish something…

                I arrived in Cuenca, dropped off my laundry at the cleaners and was satisfied that I could all get my laundry washed and dried for 5 dollars. I’m pretty sure a Laundromat would cost me more in Canada. I walked around for the afternoon, grabbed a bite to eat, and took in the Friday afternoon scene unfolding in the streets. This weekend is a special one for Cuencanos. This weekend marks the anniversary of their independence from Spain. Not only do people in Cuenca get a holiday, but the entire country gets a 4 day holiday. People from Quito, Guayaquil, Banos, and many other cities flock to Cuenca to party and celebrate. Some streets are closed, massive outdoor stages are set up, and from what I`m told, this is the busiest weekend of the year. So like I said, I spent the afternoon walking around, and taking in the scene.

               

                After people watching for a few hours I went to my usual internet café, plugged in my laptop and made some phone calls. I looked at some places in Peru while I talked to Cati on Skype and my mind raced with excitement as images of tall spires and big overhangs filled my screen.  At around 600pm I realized I was late picking up my laundry and boogied out of the café. My laundry was waiting for me, clean and still warm and then I caught a cab back to the bus terminal. I made it on the bus to Azogues, but when I arrived in Azogues, I realized the last bus to Cojitambo was at 700pm and it was 713pm. Ouch… So instead of taking a 50 cent bus I caught a 5 dollar cab. Not too bad, I thought it would cost me $20. After arriving in Coji and buying some cheese and bread from the store, I walked the 10 minutes to Juan’s and was pleasantly surprised to see lights on. Juan greeted me at the door as I walked in upstairs. There was reggae blasting from his room and I could see he had his smoke on.  We talked about some random stuff for a minute and I asked him what his plans were for tomorrow. Climb? He said maybe, he’s not too sure and in passing, he said “Yeah but I want to go tonight.”

                Thinking he wasn`t serious, I went to my room, unpacked my things and just when I was about to lie down, Juan came in and mentioned going on a night climb again. Realizing he was serious, with a slight sense of fear, I agreed. I have never been climbing at night, I have only been on a handful of multi pitches, and the route we were talking about climbing this particular night, was a trad route.  So, climb at night, a style of route I`m not used to. Fear, yes. Adrenaline yes. The route was 120 meters, 5 pitches, and 5.10d. I had climbed it once before so it gave me a little bit of comfort. The only thing that was really a concern for me was the last 60 meters of the climb were the hardest parts of the route. As well, we were going to simul-climb it which meant we would both be tied in at opposite ends of the rope and we would both be climbing at the same time. Juan would be the leader, place all the gear, and I would follow and collect all the gear. The idea of falling when I was 80 meters high while simul-climbing at night definatly made me nervous. But, like I said in the beginning, unexpected opportunities arise, and you have to make a quick decision about whether or not to accept. Scared as I was, I knew this was something I wouldn’t regret, and something id remember for a long time.

                After packing gear, eating a sandwich quickly and making sure I had batteries in my headlamp we walked out the door into the cool night and walked up the road. We switched on our head lamps when we got to the trailhead and I was happy my black diamond lamp was the best you could buy and would shoot a beam 100 meters. We walked up to the base of the climb in silence and I could hear dogs, roosters, crickets and loud Latin music coming from the town below. We took a small rest, drank some water and Juan pulled out a bag of what looked almost like bay leaves. These were no bay leaves, these were coco leaves. Calm the stomach, calm the nerves, reduce hunger, and reduce fatigue. Indigenous were using this plant for centuries, long before it was turned into the harmful drug it’s associated with today. We each took a big pinch, chewed them up and I stuck it in my cheek like chewing tobacco.

It was just after 9pm and we were ready to go. Juan started, I belayed him, and when he was about 50 meters above me he whistled which was my signal to tie in and start climbing. The first pitch was a 10a slab. Easy, except it was pitch black besides the light coming from the headlamp.  I heard nothing except my own breathing and the fading drone of the music from the town. It’s hard to explain the feeling of being on a rock face, in a foreign country, climbing in the pitch black night. Juan was so far ahead up the rock that we couldn’t talk. It was like I was climbing along. The thing with simul-climbing is that once we started, we would climb the whole 120 meters alone. We wouldn’t see each other until the top. Every once in a while I would be climbing faster than Juan and Id stop on some good holds, turn around and look into the darkness, taking in what I was doing, trying to capture the feelings and Images of the night into my memory. What a trip. The climb went well for the most part except for one confusion. I had heard Juan call down to me saying something about there might be a stopper that would be hard to get out. When I made it to this stopper I worked on getting it out, feeding Juan rope as he climbed ahead and I struggled. A few coils of rope that I had wrapped around me got stuck on my pack and as Juan climbed, they tightened around me chest and neck. I tried to tell Juan to stop but he didn’t hear mean, the rope getting tighter and tighter. There was nothing I could do but try to get the stopper out and hope that Juan wasn’t it too bad of a position up top. After what seemed like forever I got the fucker out of the crack it was stuck in, and climbed up a really technical thin crack to get some slack in the rope. In an awful position on awful holds I worked at getting the rope loosened and finally got it all sorted out. The funny part? This stopper wasn’t even Juan’s gear. It was some ones from a few days ago. The way he worded it to me, I thought it was his so I was determined to get it out… shit… Out of breath, slightly panicked, I cruised up the rest of the crack and realized there were no more holds, no more crack. Fuck. I had missed a crucial turn. I was supposed to make a big move left away from the crack, but had missed this and gone too high. Now, having to get myself some slack, I had to down climb this 10d crack. I was sure I was going to bail and having never fallen on a simul-climb, I was totally scared. But it was more of an adrenaline high then a scare. Hard to explain.  I got the slack I needed by feeding the rope through the giggory, and down climbed, all I could hear was my heart pounding, all I could see was the smooth rock that I was hoping the rubber on my shoe would stick to. I made it down, did the big move right and cruised up to a good ledge. I sat there for a moment, told myself to calm down, regained my composure and breath and continued. The rest of the climb was pretty easy, there was one hard part left and when I came up to it I chickened out and tried pulling on the cam to aid through it. However, when you’re supposed to layback off a finger crack with no foot holds, grabbing the piece of gear your supposed to be removing made it harder not worse. It put me out of position, and I had no choice but to let go and put my fingers back into the crack. I stood there, leaning back off a crack, looking up, wondering how I was going to do this. I honesty was doubting my ability to do it. I had done this climb once before, but it was in the middle of the day, during my few days in Cojitambo. After a long pause, I stiffened my grip on the crack, got my feet high, leaned way back, and climbed the 3 meters that seemed so impossible only a moment before. After this is was smooth sailing and I made it to the top shortly after. Out of breath, I met Juan at the belay station and we chilled and talked about what we had just done.  1.5hrs of life that I would always remember. Wow.

                We walked across the top of the mountain, and traversed the ridge in the dark. We stopped, got out smoke on and I could still feel my heart racing. Juan was saying that he loved this particular spot on the mountain because you can see Cuenca, Azogues, Cojitambo and another town. Earlier in my trip I had been told this mountain was sacred to the Canary people, people pre dating the Incas. I realized why now. It was right in the center of 3 valleys. Beautiful. We continued to talk as we sat in the cool air and Juan mentioned that at midnight it was his birthday and he was about to start his 50^th year. We both agreed that there isn’t a better way to start a new year of life. If I’m turning 50 and I have my health, I’m climbing, A family that loves me, I think I’ll consider this success.

                After a steep, slightly insane hike down the mountains south ridge, we walked through the empty town, mostly silence besides the dogs we were waking up with the clinking of out gear. We walked in the door to Juan’s house in one piece, and I went to sleep a stronger climber. In the begging of that day I had woken up without the slightest clue I’d be doing something that would change me. I had experienced dullness, boredom, frustration, fear, adrenalin and contentment all in the space of 24 hours. The unexpected happens no doubt to all of us. Opportunities arise. Sometimes fear or doubt may keep up from acting on the situation, but sometimes if you make a calculated decision, think about the benefits and choose to face this fear, the outcome is incredibly substantial and influential for the rest of your life. Goodnight.