Well it is very rare that i ever can say that I am not working for a month, but seeing the next bit of work I have is in June, then I feel suitably chuffed, that I don’t have to worry about looking after anyone other than me and Llion in the next month. My final weekend work was for Plas Y brenin on a rock developer course, not sure what it was meant to be but I ended up working with a lovely couple setting them up to go from single pitch climbing to multi-pitched climbing.
One of the wife’s worries was that she wouldn’t be able to hold a lead fall. Now given we were mainly climbing outside, I try never to encourage people to fall off outside, unless they really are starting to move up through the grades. As I wouldn’t want to fall off a VS! So given the rain today, we heading inside this afternoon, and after the husband decided that falling off the wall wasn’t his cup of tea, I climbed up, whilst he backed up his wife’s belaying for my peace of mind for a bit of clip drop action!
Now I am not being funny but as an instructor i rarely fall off, however I felt that I should make it look anything other than terrifying. So I headed up and jumped off the top of the wall with the last bolt by my face, not much of a problem, however I was definitely looking down to double check the belaying.
As I progressively made the falls bigger and bigger, I ended up bolt below my feet, looking down at the belayer, thinking ‘what the f*@$!!!! am I doing!’ as I launched backwards, whilst I might have looked like I had nerves of steal, I was crapping myself inside. Anyway, she now knows she can hold a leader fall!
Anyway I can barely hold back the excitement now, bring on the States. I am entering Obama Country.