Four … more … feet…
That was all that separated me from my goal. I was sixty feet up a rocky outcropping high in the Blue Ridge Mountains and sweating despite the sub-zero temperature and the eye-watering wind that blasted my face. Just four feet above me, at the top of this God-forsaken cliff, hung the carabiners - metal clasps through which my climbing rope was threaded. If I could stretch out my hand and touch them, the climb would be a success. All I had to do was push off with my left leg, fling my body up into the thin air, reach out with my right hand, and pray for survival.
Survival happened to be the number one issue on my mind at the moment as I twisted around and glanced down over my shoulder. Kyle looked pretty small from up here, about rabbit or groundhog size. I tried to remember whether I outweighed him or not. If I were to fall, would he even be physically capable of catching me?
“Hey! You got me?” I call out. Hoping he doesn’t hear the anxiety in my voice.
“What?”
“I SAID, YOU GOT ME?” Now I sound like a three-year-old standing at the edge of a pool about to jump to his Dad.
“Dan, chill out.”
I can hear the grin in his voice. Great, he’s laughing at me. I’m about to plummet to my death and he’s laughing at me. Perfect.
Game time. I know that when I jump my momentum will carry me up four or five feet before gravity takes over and I start my freefall. At that point, Kyle will need to cinch off the line in his belay device and brace himself to absorb the terrific jolt on the rope.
Three, two, one, JUMP! Left leg pushes off, body flies up through the air, right hand stretches, “…dear God, I pray that when I hit the ground that I will die a quick and painless death…”
SUCCESS! I slap the cold metal carabiners with my hand and as I’m rotating and falling through the air I look down and see Kyle expertly cinch off the rope and lean back. My decent slows and in less than second I am bouncing against the side of the cliff, heart pumping, and limbs shaking from the adrenaline rush.
“DAN! Look out! The rope's breaking!”
My heart stops and I thrash around trying to find a handhold somewhere on the cliff.
“Just kidding bro.”
Kyle is laughing again and I ponder ways to kill him when I get back on solid ground. Eventually he lowered me down and despite feeling a bit mocked, I gave him a bear hug, grateful for a skilled friend and rope that didn’t break.