Full Circle Digital Magazine August 2013 | Page 13

F E AT U R E

•

G O SIA

L IP IN SK A :

T HE

FIR E

W ITHIN

On Half Dome in the Yosemite Valley, California; Picture Hector Pringle

Fear, the Teacher

Petite in stature and overpowering in mental strength, Gosia refers to the fear of heights as a minor setback to achieving the emotionally rewarding feeling of a successful climb. “The fear of falling is a universal human thing. I don’t know anyone who does not feel affected by it. Climbing makes you feel like you can tackle anything in the world. If something happens at work, you can tell yourself, you know you’ve been through worst, so you’re not going to stress about it,” she comments.

The feminine divine

The idea of a female rock climber would usually conjure up an image of an extremely muscular being in one’s mind, but Gosia has the petite figure of a yoga instructor and her femininity is unmistakeable. Her climbing ability lies in the fact that she does not discredit her capabilities due to her gender; she considers her feminine traits as a great climbing enabler. She believes that “endurance is a trait of females. We are much better at doing things for a very long period of time, instead of doing them more powerfully and quickly.”

Socially sound

For Gosia, climbing is a whole-being experience. It is occasionally competitive, but mostly about having fun. The social aspect of climbing with friends and the camaraderie of trying something together is more than enough motivation for her to reach for her climbing gear. She explains that relationships are often built and strengthened through climbing. “It’s actually quite an extraordinary thing how the people you climb with become really, really close friends, because you rely on each other”, she says.

Link by link

Gosia explains that climbing is not about being risky, strapping on some cables and taking a ‘leap of faith’; climbing is all about pre-calculating climbing procedures. “I sort it out like a puzzle. I first sort out moves and then I start linking; I’m really trying to do it all-in-one, without falling, till the end”. She finds enduring a climbing process, while managing to create a sequence without falling, to be a very empowering aspect of climbing.

Make a decision

Part of the whole

In addition to the social side of the sport, “the feeling of being connected to the earth and the outdoor world around you”, is one of the core reasons Gosia is passionate about it. She labels climbing as ‘addictive’, saying that besides the freedom of being in the outdoors, there is definitely a compulsive element to climbing. “It makes you feel part of something”, she adds.

In threatening situations, the best thing one can do is “calm down, look at your options, and see what you can do because you can’t hang there forever”, advises Gosia, and this principle is a good coping mechanism which could be applied to any life situation. “During unforeseen circumstances, a climber has to move and can’t just sit there indefinitely. In situations like these, climbers tend to spend more energy clinging onto the rock because they’re scared; therefore wasting more energy”, says Gosia. “I got into a situation in which I wasn’t feeling comfortable, and I couldn’t go back down. I basically got really scared. I melted, and I fell”, she said, “I almost hit the ground”. Lipinska credits her safety to the watchful eye of a guardian angel and a considerable amount of luck. These situations have thankfully got less frequent as her experience has grown.

FULL CIRCLE DIGITAL MAGAZINE AUGUST 2013