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Tackling Terror One Step at a Time

by Mario Currado, Copyright June 23, 2008, all rights reserved. 541 views

From 2006-11-17 Devil's Punchbowl

“Do you have any valuables, breakables, squishables, sharp things or explosives in your pockets?”  I ask the 9 year old boy standing in front of me as I help him step into the leg loops of a climbing harness.

“Uhhmm,” he replies slowly, searching for an answer as he watches a lizard effortlessly run up the rock in front him.  Being out in the wild is a totally new experience for this boy.  Getting geared up to climb the first cliff he has ever actually seen in person is sensory overload in and of itself.

Now his instructor is drilling him with a bizarre array of questions.  How is he supposed to answer when he can barely hear his own thoughts above the wind whooshing through the pine trees?

“You know,” I explain, “Stuff like diamond earrings or pearl necklaces that will fall out and get lost when you go upside down.”

He stares at me and blinks twice, dumbfounded.  Upside down?!  He clenches his clammy palms into fists then stretches his fingers tensely, wishing they were as agile as lizard claws.  I wrap the harness belt around the waist of his baggy jeans.

“Or stuff like coins and papery green cash that will roll down into stone cracks or fly away with the mountain breeze.”  His eyebrows rise with sudden comprehension, and he digs into his pocket, handing a wad of money to his best friend with threatening orders to keep it safe.

“Any I pods, cell phones or other fancy gizmos?”

Out comes the techie stuff.  I continue with my interrogation.

“Poison toads or soft chocolate bars?”
“Rattlesnake heads or throwing stars?”
“Snap Caps?  Shotgun shells?”
“Stinky bombs with dirty smells?”

Pockets emptied, I cinch the harness straps tight and tie the boy into a top rope belay.  He stares at the rope, and I can tell it looks like a measly fishing line to him.  “This is all that holds me?” he asks doubtfully.

I then reiterate the equipment talk, explaining how the rope could hold an entire class of students, and how a person can fall farther out of their bed than they can on a belay like this.  I explain that I am professionally trained and how the other instructors and I have belayed thousands of kids without a single incident.

Despite my reassurance, however, the boy’s doubts are growing.  I give him some chalk to dry his sweaty, shaky hands.

Even after being assured of the facts, however, most students are not fully trusting of the equipment, their instructor, or even their own two feet.  They are generally quite apprehensive, if not trembling with anxiety.  But with patient, nurturing encouragement and achievable goals, they build trusting confidence and begin to master the basic skills needed to enjoy the excitement of scaling stone.

Dealing with stress

This process of petrification, familiarization and adaptation is what is known as exposure therapy.  Exposure therapy - turning fear into fun - is a big part of climbing instruction.  It is not uncommon to have students who are terrified to tears of heights.  They come to climb for the sole purpose of overcoming their fear.

I start the fearful off in their comfort zone: standing on the ground.  From there, they learn to trust the belay system before they ever start climbing.  I have them lean back into their harness, putting their weight onto the rope above them.  With their toes against the base of the cliff, I give them slack until they are sitting on the ground.  We go through this until they are comfortable with it.  Then I have them take one step up the rock face.  We go through the lowering exercise again, and they learn to trust their feet on the slippery stone.  Step by step, they climb and lower, until they are able to comfortably enjoy climbing the whole route and also enjoy lowering back down.  This could take as little as a few minutes, or it could take days.  The important thing is to keep things positive.  This is the difference between adaptive stress and destructive stress.

Carefully controlled challenges free kids up to overcome problems and accomplish goals with excellence.  These mountaintop experiences encourage them to enjoy life to the fullest, and hopefully teach them valuable lessons about trust, determination and victory that will carry over into eternity.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.”  Hebrews 12:11-12

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