On a Sunday, we pulled into a parking lot along the Turnagain Arm. It was a brisk, overcast day, with a blanket of clouds hovering over us and the mountains across the water. We parked & packed our climbing gear for what was supposed to be a ten-minute approach to the rock face.
Our guide, the outdoor climbing expert among us, took us on a scenic, hour-long hike which involved scrambling up piles of small rocks, hiking along steep hillsides high above the Seward Highway, and walking through one of Alaska’s many enchanted forests. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. A more direct approach would have gotten us there faster, but half of the adventure was finding the spot in the first place.
Once there, we readied our equipment and the climbing began. Being the most inexperienced, and most anxious climber of the group (I’d only started climbing two months before this), I posted up on the side and played the role of documentarian.
Eventually, everyone else had climbed and I was next to go up. I climbed down from the safety of my high perch of observation, put on my harness and climbing shoes, and applied chalk to my already sweaty hands. I tied my harness to the top rope and checked my belayer. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my body. I was ready to climb.
The rock was sandpaper-rough, still cold from the night before, and drier than a dad joke. Finding my grip was easy, and there were plenty of holds to choose from on the way up. It also helped that the wall was at an angle. I could rest by simply leaning against the wall if I had a good foothold. Chalk was almost unnecessary.
All those hours of training in the Alaska Rock Gym had prepared me well for this, and before I knew it I was half-way up a 30 meter rock wall, catching my breath and looking out at the mountains across the Arm. I climbed the rest of the way up, then put my trust in the rope and the belayer below to not send me plummeting to the earth. I leaned back, feeling victorious.
After a few more hours of climbing, and a very short hike down, we were back at our cars. When we saw how close we had been to the rock wall all along, we laughed.
The sun was setting as we drove back into town.
