I’d finished up the last of the four days I was able to eke out in Kentucky, getting comfortable with climbing around the via ferrata course there. The next morning, I scooted out of the Red River Gorge area, and hit the asphalt for a 6 hour road trip over to the rolling hills of the far eastern side of West Virginia.
As I dipped down into a pastoral little valley, I passed a series of green fields, dotted with picturesque little barns, scattered up along side a winding road, flanked on the southwestern side by the mountain ridge that would serve as the setting for my ultimate test, not only of myself physically and mentally, but also of this competence-confidence theory I’d cooked up.
I’d gotten up early after having slept well enough. I prepped a few things and went for a cup of coffee. I dropped into the nervous chatty thing that I do, but I don’t remember my nerves being off the charts. Lol, I do have to admit to a certain amount anxious peeing before our guides got us outfitted with our climbing gear.
Our guides threw me and a couple of friends, Dan, from high school, the guy who prompted this trip, and, Dave, my college bestie, in with a handful of other folks onto an ancient green school bus and hauled us up a gravel road, dumped us out, and then lead our way up a path through the rocky-bottomed woods to the starting point of our climb. They gave us a few quickie instructions and, then, we headed… STRAIGHT UP!! No warming up, no easing our way into things, it was go-time!
This is what I had been preparring for!
And ya’ wanna know something surprising? It was a breeze!! A delightful, ecstatic, soak-up-every-single-one-of-the-easy-peasy-breezy-moments kinda breeze!!
Me and my friends climbed up and over and around the two jagged rock fins scratchin’ the morning sky, marveling at the ragged beauty as we popped out through a notch carved out of all of time, just for us, just for this moment.
I was so comfortable that I even navigated, 150 feet off the ground!! a chunk of the aptly named “toothpick bridge” BACKWARDS!!
The only challenge I experienced was from climbing up “the headwall,” 280 feet off the forest floor, and it came, mostly, from the difference in my equipment.
Everything was pretty much identical to what I’d used in KY, except the rest clip – it was necessary to twist a lock at the tip of the carabiner gate, in order to open it. It was difficult to make that move with just one hand, which, then, added an extra degree of difficulty that I hadn’t had to face before. Fortunately, I had prepped so well on all the other counts that it, and the extra couple hundred feet of heights, were really the only new things I had to negotiate. With a little sailor mouth, and a little encouragement from friends, I pulled it off!!
At the time, I was surprised at just how much fun I was having with all of it. But, then realized, I had done all the prep work, laid all the foundation for this experience, by tackling it in incremental baby steps, and that the easy fun I was now having was just the natural outgrowth of executing on my competence-confidence plan. I know, with absolutely certainly, that if I had tried to tackle this without having gained the previous experience, I would have spent my day on the ground, waiting for the guys to come back and tell me all about their adventure!!
Instead, this was my view from the top!!
And, THIS!!
Grateful, always, for the friends who make each adventure an AWESOME adventure – much love to Dan and Dave for all the memories!!
4 days of prep, 8 days on the road, and 1107 miles later…
I was weepy and euphoric and so very grateful – it had been a crazy fun ride with so many people I love and like, but iIwas pooped! Couldn’t wait to crawl my bruised, exhausted backside into a hot shower, and into my own bed!!
Until…
…. It’s time to tackle the next confidence-competence challenge!!
But for now, read up on my conclusions after this adventure at Via Ferrata, Debriefing
Smarter-Not-Harder U 