When we arrived (I was a bit late because I got lost and then couldn't find the crag!) there was a portaledge set up and dangling from some bolts in the wall. This was really exciting to me because ever since I've heard of portaledges and people sleeping on them high above the ground, I have been fascinated by them. They are really cool. But apparently a pain to set up if you don't have a ledge to stand on. While I was gawking at the portaledge (it is a collapsable, portable platform that you suspend to sleep on to do an overnight while rock climbing, in case you didn't already know that), Steve, our instructor for the day, started the class by asking everyone what their climbing expertise was. There were a few people like me who had never set their own protection before. That is when you use wired nuts (see the picture at above left) and cams (above right) to provide fall protection by slotting them into constrictions in cracks in the rock. That means you could climb and still be "safe" (as long as your protection didn't fail) a route that wasn't top-roped or bolted. Climbing like this is called trad, for traditional, climbing. It has the advantage over bolts that the rock isn't altered when you are finished, because you just take your protection out and no one can tell you were ever there. But this course was actually on aid climbing. That's when you have two web ladders, called aiders, or étriers (that's EY-tree-ay; see a photo below) that you carry up the wall with you. You clip one ladder into the protection as soon as you've set it and then climb up the rungs to get your weight off the other étrier, and then clip that one in. In this way you are able to climb rock faces that might be too difficult for your skill level if you tried to climb them unaided.
After an explanation of all of this and some instruction on setting protection, we watched an example climb, by Steve, and then we got to try it out for ourselves. We "ghost aided" where we did all the climbing but we were belayed on top-rope so if we fell we wouldn't really go anywhere. I belayed for Charis for a while (aid climbing is also fairly slow, as you work out what size gear you need and make vertical progress in slow steps up your étriers) until it clouded up and looked very threatening, and then we switched over so that I could have a try before it got too wet. I climbed about 2 meters up on the wall when it started pouring down rain. We had thunder and lightning, too. It was all very exciting. I kept on climbing because for the most part I was shielded from the rain because I was in close to the rock. I set a nut that seemed a bit precarious, but tested it and it held, so I climbed up on it and worked to set a cam above my head. I put one in that seemed to hold, but then the wired were bending and since it wasn't my gear I didn't want to damage it, so I went with a smaller cam instead. I tested this and it seemed to hold, too,so I climbed up on it, but then it pulled out and the nut I'd placed below it pulled out as well, leaving me hanging in thin air on my belay rope (good thing I had one and a good belayer, thanks Charis!) I decided that with me falling, the rain getting heavier all the time, and the lightning, it must be some sort of sign, so I was done for the day. We packed up the gear in the ever-faster falling rain, but by the time everything was stowed it had also decided to stop raining! A few of us headed to the local pub for a bite to eat for lunch. So we didn't get to practice a ton of climbing, and I also didn't get to try lying down on the portaledge, but it was still a good day all around. Steve has climbed El Cap in Yosemite, and I was telling him how when I was there last fall I was inspired to climb it. He told me to go for it - well I mean, to practice up and then go for it. Maybe one day I will!
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