Ascending Weekend - Sun Apr 23The forecast for this Sunday was half an inch of rain. It seemed most students had done their weather homework and opted for Saturday's class instead. However a dozen or so tried their luck. As it turned out, we only got a few false alarms in the form of some rain drops. Otherwise the day was fine and dry and we were all eager to rise to the occasion. Some students even tried a free rappel and halfway down, changed direction and ascended back up. This requires using multiple skills all at once. |
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| Chris making sense of the rope, looking for the other end. John is happily assisting by chatting with Yan. |
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| Before ascending we need to make sure the anchors are SRENE. John is showing Brenda how this is done. |
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| Rusty is demonstrating his original and patended method of how to double daisy the slings to the delight of Yan, Lein and Chris. |
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| Not all edges are easily accessable as Martin finds out, but it's there, somewhere. Just a little further down... |
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| Isabel is making sure her Kleimhesit knot is secure, under the watchfull eyes of Dick. |
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| Sometimes a small break is worth a lot, as Jeremy finds out. He has no intention of going anywhere. John, on the other hand, has no time to lose and quickly gets over the edge. |
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| In the mean time Syd and Jen are belaying the guys far above them, as a safety measure. However Jen is still at unease, wondering if Jeremy will make it. |
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| Kayla has decided to try her luck on the rappel-ascend exercise, plunging herself down the abyss in perfect butt first style. |
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| Reaching the point of mid-air direction change from a rappel to an ascend, there is a lot to think of. Hopefully the autoblock will work while tying the Bachmann and Kleimheist. |
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| Brenda is almost at the edge after a quick and eventless ascend. |
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| Chris using his behind-the-back belaying skills, while Yan trying a first ascend on an A2 level climb. Needless to say, he failed, but he still blames his brand new shoes. |
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| Still time for some afternoon climbing to Judy's delight. Martin is belaying her while Tom has lots of advice of where and how to go next. |