You have to experience it to truly empathise sometimes. Two things made me realise that this weekend. The first was when we went to Go Ape and some of our party suffered from vertigo. I’m sympathetic but struggled with understanding it, partly because while I was aware of the height I was entirely confident in the equipments ability to protect me.
The second point was just before the peak of Scafell Pike, there’s a short bit where you have ‘scramble’ up. Now, the thing is – I’d just spent maybe 15 minutes jumping from rock to rock without any real concern, my climbing skills are relatively decent and yet I was sat there being a little bit terrified. My concern is that I’d fall down the, admittedly steep side of the highest peak in England. It’s always been like that, the tops of mountains where the wind gets up I get this fear i’m going to get blown away.
In the end, going up was a little nervy but I practically ran back down the same bit on the way back.
May 19, 2010