PULSE: What sort of teamwork is involved in rock climbing? JN: Generally you’ll have a rope team of two for most climbing. One person is on the sharp end of the rope. Their job is to find the route and put in protection along the way. The other person is belaying the rope from below. The belayer follows the leader after the leader gets to a belay station. Often the two people leapfrog, taking turns leading. Your lives depend on one another completely. If the belayer doesn’t do his job, you’ll likely get severely injured and probably die if you’re far from help. That type of trust generates deep friendships. Maybe not so much on easy leisure climbs locally, but when both of you are convinced you’re going to die and are relying on each other to tell you you’re
not, then things get interesting. PULSE: What is your largest achievement in climbing to date? Why? JN: For me it isn’t the height of the mountain or sheer difficulty that determines the value of an accomplishment. There will always be those who climb harder or faster than me who set the higher end of the spectrum of difficulty. I think it’s how you challenge yourself and overcome what is difficult for you that matters. Most memorable are the climbs that are the most fun! Usually that means there was some mishap or difficulty that wasn’t funny at the time but we can laugh about now. We never remember the trips which were smooth and uneventful, do we? One of the most memorable climbs I’ve had was a winter climb up Mt. Rainier via Kautz Icefall route. My buddy and I
were the only ones on this huge mountain, and we had our share of mishaps like falling into crevasses, running through a crumbling maze of fracturing ice towers, and losing our tent poles on the first day. But we made it to the summit d ???????????????????????????????????????AU1M??]????????????????????????????????????)8?
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