Hard Lesson

A Newbie Is Shown the Ropes And Carried Out On a Stretcher.

- Bryan Ball

The sound of rope ripping through Dan’s rappel device cut the air like a scythe. A scream echoed through the valley as he hurled toward me—a blur of a body and rope. He slammed into the ground and rolled to my feet. I stared at his blank eyes, searching for life.

“So, Dan, have you climbed outside before?” I had asked the day before.

Dan, sitting in the front seat of Tom’s van, had shaken his head.

“First time outdoors,” he said excitedly. “Don’t even know how to lead or clean.”

Before I could say a word, Tom spoke up from behind the steering wheel. 

“That’s fine, we’ll teach ya how.”

The comment surprised me. I had thought that we were only going to set up topropes for Dan and Sam, who was also a newbie.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to teach ropework later, and just worry about climbing on this trip?” I asked, concerned.

“Why?” Tom’s voice hardened against my caution. “We know enough to show them. It’ll be fine.”

Dan nodded, his eyes sparkling behind his wide glasses.

I held my words. This trip was Tom’s plan. He supplied the transport, ropes and all the gear.

The four of us were on our way to the Red River Gorge and the Bruise Brothers Wall, where we would romp up the crag’s myriad moderates, and introduce Dan and Sam to real rock.

The next day in the Red, we spent the morning huddled around a large boulder with two bolted anchors five feet overhead. Several crags in the Red have practice bolt anchors near the ground so you can learn techniques before getting on the routes, where the consequences of an error are serious. I stood aside and watched as Tom showed Dan and Sam how to thread and clean an anchor.