I have always thought that climbing seemed like fun, but never really sought it out. I had all of these doubts in my head. I am to big. I am out of shape. Blah, blah, blah. Well I finally set up a day to go climb. My friend, Bobby, was gracious enough to take my brother Adam, my friend Eddy, and myself to the limestone rocks just north on 299 outside of Redding. I have never really climbed before so I was excited, but didn't know what to really expect. Here is where it gets good!!!
We hiked up a short little jaunt to the rocks we were going to climb. But, oh no. We were not just going to get to jump right into climbing. Well what did you do then, you might be wondering. Oh, just a 150 rappel down a shear rock face. To be honest, I was terrified. I love sports, and I love adrenaline, but this takes the cake over anything I had done to this point. The shear terror running through my mind of something going wrong, and no more Ryan Reuther on this earth was in full force, but I am still here and better for it. To be able to look down 150 feet with nothing below you but air...awesome. I slowly lowered myself down and made it. Bobby will attest that my legs were shaking a bit when I hit the midway point that him and Eddy were chilling at. When I was done I looked up and could not help but think that from down below it did not seem that high. At the top however, is a different story. Okay, so with a rappelling session done, onto the rock climbing.
We got to the limestone we were going to climb and Bobby set everything up so we could get right to it. My brother Adam went first. He did a great job and made it to the top on
the first wall we climbed. We started on the easy wall. Thank God. Eddy went next and flew right to the top. It was cool to see Eddy and Adam both take so well to climbing. I was a little worried going in. I consider my brother Adam to be a better climber than myself and did not want to be shown up to much out there. I started the climb and instantly was hooked. The feeling of grasping the rock edges with your fingers, sometimes only one or two finger is crazy. Putting one toe onto a hold and lifting your entire body up to another level is hard at first, but really works!!! I made it to the top and man did it feel good. This less then in stellar shape body of mine made it to the top. Then I rappelled down. This wall was only about 50-60 feet high, so it was a cinch with the 150 rappel under my belt. We then moved onto a lot harder climb.. This was was an incline...not easy. My brother made it farther than us all. Eddy and I made it to about the same spot and I was good with where I got. It gave me something to shoot for. There may be a lot of shooting before I reach the top of that climb.To top it all off we drove up the road about 2 miles and went to some falls out in the middle of nowhere and jumped of into some amazingly refreshing spring water. A perfect end to our climbing adventure.
So again, I am hooked. I want more and cannot wait to push myself farther and farther each time I climb. I felt so alive and adrenaline crazed on the rock. Thank you Bobby for being such a great climbing host and showing us the ropes. I had so much fun and realized that climbing is something that I can and will continue to do. So look out all you boulders, cliffs, and any other rock formations out there. Ryan Reuther is on the hunt for you!!!
