Vivere è come scalare le montagne
Vivere è come scalare le montagne… Non basta essere forti ma anche avere qualcuno all’altro capo della corda pronto a tenerti quando la mano si apre, il piede scivola o fai la scelta sbagliata… Solo così potrai cadere e ripartire… A. Zeni
“Living is like climbing mountains… It isn’t enough to be strong; you also need someone at the other end of the rope ready to hold you when your hand opens, your foot slips, or you make the wrong choice… only then can you fall and start again.” A. Zeni
By FARHA GUERRERO
What’s fascinating is that, although I’ve rock climbed very little in my life, I have come to see this sport as stemming from a sort of intuition as well as pensiveness. Some people call it movement that’s meditative. I’m starting to believe that there’s something quite philosophical, almost existential. I’d like to explain this in my own words, of course.
This is a sport I cannot really compare to any other.
Rock climbing, and especially sport climbing, is unique because at its heart, it is about a partnership between two people; a relationship. I wouldn’t even call it a friendship. It’s a climbing partner.
You literally hold your climbing partner in your hands. The responsibility is much greater than it appears. This partner is more than companionship. Your partner, while you are climbing, is belaying you, holding you in essence, ensuring your safety. If a climber were to fall from a hundred feet, the consequences could be dire, and so that responsibility becomes very real. There’s communication between partners, encouragement, and I would argue humility, which is unique in sport.
This relationship is not about dependency. It’s about trust, patience, and positivity.
Sport climbing is a minimalist sport in which one is propelled up steep rock faces. The angle is vertical enough that the safety equipment is necessary.
The only thing that a rock climber needs is a pair of climbing shoes with a good rubber sole, a harness, a rope, a belay device, a helmet, and quickdraws. It’s not an invasive sport in the mountains. It literally is human beings ascending a rock face.
Rock climbing, to many people’s surprise, is extraordinarily safe, even though it doesn’t appear to be. If everything is executed well, all equipment is tested, the right knots are employed, and the various attachment devices are used properly, there is very little chance of serious injury or fatal accident. Although the climber is seen as participating in a high-risk activity, the reality is that the climber faces very little peril. But what’s important here is to understand that the equipment is not used to aid the climber to ascend. Rather, the equipment protects the climber. Climbers are literally using their bare hands, even in the cold, on a steep rock face. Fear is deeply embedded in the sport. However, the climber knows how to manage this fear.
The movement upwards is what interests me, the idea of defying gravity. It is not the way human beings are meant to move in the world. The laws of physics are always against the climber the moment they embark on their climb, and the challenge they face is to move their centre of mass in a way that is harmonious up a vertical face.
The descent of a climber is also unusual, because when a climber descends, they lean freely backwards, in the harness, perpendicular to the rock, with their feet flat on the surface, and they walk downwards, facing towards the sky. It’s a beautiful experience.
A climber may only be working on something modest on each climb. It might be trying to get over the crux, the most difficult challenge in the climb.
But these modest efforts accumulate to something much deeper. A project could be a section of the climb, and the challenge the climber faces is how to memorize their movements and transcend beyond their limits.
In each climb, maybe one achieves only a slight progression. A climber could be working on the same project for a very long time, on the same vertical face that they come back to again and again. The sport becomes, above all, a sport of patience.
A seasoned climber learns to climb in such a graceful and beautiful way that it appears effortless once they achieve the goals of their project, and one does not see the hard work that goes behind the scenes.
So on a pure observational level, the climber may be achieving something quite modest to the observer, and yet, to the climber, the personal challenge is at an existential level that the climber creates for themselves, confirming the idea that rock climbing is unique, and that climbing, as Zeni says, is like life.