le relais suisse

The swiss belay...

I would say it was definitely worth squirming through the hoards of people last Wednesday and Thursday at "le forum des sports." I would have expected the basketball or volleyball booth to be the ones most swamped with people trying to sign up for the year, but alas, I forgot that I live in Grenoble right now. Mountain town. Right. So climbing/alpinism definitely most coveted.

Again the "mal organise" curse haunted me, and as I circled the booth asking critical people critical questions, I found myself ejected from the booth comprehending possibly even less than when I had entered. The up side - many French natives were having the same problem, so at least it wasn't just my ignorance or the language.

I decided to come back the next day - lots of students were in a mad rush to sign up for the climbing club to get credit for their sports requirement. Not needing that, I had a little more slack time-wise. So next day I returned to find the booth people in much better temperament, and the hall much more navigable.

I joined both the climbing and alpinism clubs - why they're separate, I'm not quite sure (since one has climbing and skiing, and the other has ice climbing and canyoneering among other things), but I wanted to be able to try some ice climbing, maybe some canyoneering, and some ski de randonnee (where you climb the mountain on skis and then attach your heels to the ski and ski down) and still do lots of climbing too, so... and then I signed up for the ecole du glisse (snowsport school/club) so as to have more access to all snow sports (and better learn to ski). It's amazing how much access students here have to everything, and cheaply! So stoked.

Yesterday was my first trip with the climbing club - we went to a location I had already been to with my friend Nicolas (Mathilde's boyfriend, for those of you who remember her and/or him from the occ this summer), but I absolutely love it there, so I was fine with that!

It was a very interesting assortment of a few international students, some French students new to Grenoble, several long-time climbers, and even a few totally new to climbing! A Swiss geography student and myself had been the only ones on time, so we got to chat for a while waiting for everyone to show up. She thought I was French at first, which was exciting for me - but I make the same error with foreigners sometimes, too, so nothing to get too excited about. I ended up climbing with her for the day, and also with a very interesting and very handsome couple - a French girl and a tall guy from Reunion, the French island near Madagascar and South Africa. On another language note - this French girl thought I was German. Hm. I've actually gotten German and Swiss several times before. Interesting... Well, I'm getting closer to France at least lingo-geographically (and yes, I invent words in French, too. Some things never change.)...

It was very interesting being on the participant side of a trip for me... and genuinely so. Sometimes I'll go on Outback trainings as a participant, but I always at least know something about what we're doing, how it works, what to expect, etc. But here, now, I am genuinely a participant. It's an interesting insight into how it probably feels to be a first-time participant on one of our Outback trips. And as a note: all those cheesy, silly name games we enforce so diligently, definitely a must. The morning was so awkward, and it took half the day, and for some all day to break down some of those social barriers. After a day of climbing, the nature of the sport itself inevitably breaks down much of those barriers, and our guides definitely turned out to be super awesome, helpful, approachable, passionate climbers - but a little bit of structure in the morning helps make that transition a little smoother, I believe.

So anyway, back to the real subject of this blog... The swiss belay. The thought had crossed my mind, Hey, I'm climbing with a Swiss girl today - I wonder if they really do only use the muenter for a belay. But it was just a fleeting thought, and I smiled, thinking it was probably one of those stereotypes that gets stuck in foreigners minds, or maybe an old style.

So I thought nothing of it when I saw only a pear-shaped carabiner on Manuela's belay loop as I retraced my figure 8 and suited up for my first lead of the day. "Tu es prete?" I asked if she was ready for me to climb, and glancing back I see none other than the muenter knot! No way! Every day's an adventure, I thought, slightly baffled by this new climbing concept, but also excited to find out how well it lends itself to climbing and especially leading.

Pas de probleme. The only difference I discovered was that, as expected, the darn knot puts all kinds of twists and curly-cues in the rope. But functions just fine otherwise.

Slowly the day came to an end, and people left in shifts. Manuela, the couple I spoke of earlier, and myself were the last to leave. After the day, we were all, naturally, much more comfortable around each other, and it was lovely chatting with them on the ride home. Mostly, we were trying to figure out how the club works, and when the next outings are. Next week there's a Canyoneering trip. I had thought about going, but naturally climbing draws me a little more. My curiosity piqued, I asked what it was all about.

Reminds me of klerf-jumping, as described to me by a South African friend I met in Australia... the general concept is, quite simply, to descend a canyon. But what does this involve? you ask... well, a wetsuit for one. And shoes you don't care too much about. Hm, this is getting interesting. The descent involves, sometimes, rappeling down the canyon walls, traversing the stream, and best of all, jumping into deep pools of water - aha, there it is, one of my favorite things in the world!

So next week I will see if I can find the right building at the right time, and if I'm lucky there might even be someone there to sign me up for the trip. If not, the next blog will be about the circles and laps I ran trying to find it ;-)

Until then, if not sooner, I hope you all find yourselves well in California, or wherever you might be.