Prevailing Over The Rock :: essays research papers

Prevailing Over The Rock   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  About year ago, I overcame an arduous rock climb appropriately nick-named â€Å"the subway†. I had flown up to the coast of Maine to be included in an Outward Bound expedition. After a tedious week of navigating a thirty-foot pull-boat, we arrived at Hurricane Island, which is the center of operations for the U.S. sailing expeditions of Outward Bound. It was around midday when I stood at the base of the rock face with the ten members of my team and two professional climbers. At the time, the only rock climbing experience I had was derived from a few unadorned climbs on an artificial wall. Those limited experiences taught me that rock climbing can be very physically demanding, strenuous, and sometimes, dangerous. It takes a lot of physical strength, as well as keen senses to locate and utilize footholds and handholds to successfully scale a mountainside. During a basic debriefing, one of the professional climbers informed us that the difficulty level of this climb was a 5.3. Sensing that few of us comprehended the rating’s significance, they explained that this meant that the climb would be a difficult one. Despite the warning, our group, which consisted of five males, three females, two instructors, and myself were anxious to commence our ascent. Few of us understood, however, of the turbulent challenges that lay ahead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At that point, each of us were issued a harness and a helmet and were told the proper procedures which we would have to follow. We were to scale the mountain one at a time, while two other members of our team were to remain at the base of the wall to maintain the rope. During this lecture, I asked one of the experienced climbers the significance of the name â€Å"the subway.† They told me that in order to overcome a certain overhang in the rock, it was necessary to grab a small fixation in the rock and pull oneself over it. They then continued to say that this process somewhat resembled that of reaching up and grabbing hold of the straps in a subway car, and thus, the climb had been deemed â€Å"the subway.† Though I could somewhat able to visualize what the climber talked of, I did not comprehended the difficulty that was involved. Nonetheless, I was soon to find out. When it came to my turn to climb, my preset determination drowned what little apprehension I possessed.