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though i've been 'quick-updating' about our Rock-Week, it was such an awesome experience it needs to be penned down a bit more concretely somewhere... meaning here...
our initial reaction to the Rock Week was quite good... we were elated about the seeming absence of so many activities - no PT, no Drill, and nothing in the Yellow Time Tables about our evenings... and of course there was some kind of Rock Climbing... it couldn't be all that bad!
the first day started off with a drizzle... the rains, which had never even peeked a look at NPA until now, decided to make an appearance on the first day we had to climb 80-90 degree rocks... not surprising at all!! I'm sure the AD(OD) had something to do with it!! Anyway, the poor ITBP(Indo-Tibetan Border Police) guy had such trouble climbing up the Rhino(all the rocks are named, mostly based on their places in the extinction list) for the demo, we prayed ardently that the whole thing be called off till the sun was shining, the rocks were dry and maybe we could do this the next month...! No such luck! we were slowly introduced to the rocks, doing the smallest 20-30 feet ones on the first day...
we scraped knees on the Balanced Rock Climbing... chimney was a mysterious affair where we slipped helplessly, unable to get a grip on the rocks already worn smooth by the hundreds of amateur IPS feet having slipped there in the previous years... rappelling down was much smoother, only a few bruises...falling is always faster and easier than the climb up... i'm only talking about rock climbing... ;-) though HST put up a good show by spending a few minutes upside down, maybe preparing for a next question/doubt/ observation/comment... sadly, we missed the photo opportunity but it was a great lesson for all of us and after the initial mistake, we always had our handycams and cameras trained on him at full zoom for every climb and fall.... :-P
the next day was dedicated to bigger rocks... Tiger Hill, my favorite was conquered... it involves climbing up through a chimney, then climbing another rock using the knotted rope... two jumps over steep, narrow but deep chimneys in quick succession (when i'm sure i've seen it in my nightmares a million times) and finally you're on the highest point in the whole of NPA! you get to sit huddled up with the other 'waiters' for your turn... i've realized that the worst part is not the climb, nor the jump... it's the moments of wait when you watch your predecessor go down... usually it follows a similar pattern... ITBP guy telling him it's gonna be ok... there's the belay for safety... the bow-line is almost correctly done... the ropes are strong, the carabiner is going to hold... finally frustrated he yells, "even if you jump without anything, you're barely going to break a few bones!! that is, unless you land precisely on your neck!" and pushes you down without much ado!
ok, i got a bit dramatic there... actually, most of the time they were extremely encouraging and polite, except when i came back for the 7th time on Tiger Hill to jump and they were really sick of bow-lining me!!
what else? there was the stomach rappelling where you go facing down, the worst of them all!! i'm skipping the description coz it still gives me the queasies to even think of it, even now! there was the piggy-back... a practice to rescue people if need be... i was in great demand as the 'casualty' but thankfully my turn never came, and i am not complaining!! :-P
third day, we had building climbing... harder than it looked... we had to climb windows, pipes and walls and ledges to get to the top of a two-storey building... again, the walls were too slippery coz of all of us polishing it to shiny smoothness and a lot of colorful bruises and contusions were shown off in the dressing rooms yesterday as proof of that... there was the wall-rock climbing, where i still can't climb the overhang... but the jumping off of 50 feet ledge screaming commandooooooo is such fun, i decided to go back for a second helping...!
fourth day, we were taken out to Mt. Opera for some new, hard rocks! it was tougher than our petite rock-garden but i guess we've finally toughened up and conquered our fears, or just resigned ourselves to our fates which requires us to needlessly climb and jump off of things... like i was frustratedly whining to one squad mate who was pretending to sleep, i never even climbed the stairs at Infy, but waited for 10 mins for the lift to take me to the third floor office! and now, i use knotted ropes, windows and pipes to do the same!!! Irony must be god's favorite sense of humor...
fifth day was dedicated to learn 'anchoring' and demo practice... my squad had volunteered me for the sacrifice/Demo... though they claimed i have the minimum bruises, i have a nagging doubt they might have ulterior motives! i got to do the Demo on Tiger Hill (just to get to position requires me to do chimney, knotted climbing and jumping over valleys...) and by the time i realized what a short straw i'd drawn, nobody was willing to swap!! I practiced 5 times... each time getting worse... the last time i jumped i slammed against the rock in the first jump, turned around 360 degree, before finally descending for the second and third jumps... Vicky sir (ITBP) warned me I'd have to jump without the safety or the harness if I came back a next time! So, thus confidently prepared, i waited my turn... we had the Demo at 7:30pm... i am unsure if i am allowed to swear as fluently as i'd like to at the person who decided that! he apparently couldn't have ever foreseen that it would be pitch dark at that time...! though there were lights towards the stage side, climbing on to the position was horrid! but as four of us (seat rappellers and side-rappellers) waiting our turn, it was a good moment... we watched the Hyderabad city lit up in yellow lights... Sobah educated us about the Orion and how they found their West, to pray, from it... Dorji offered to jump down and get a camera to capture the whole thing and had to be dissuaded... what do you scare a person with when he himself offers to jump down without the safety ropes! Imported Troubles!!! the music from down below, the stars above and not too bad a company... that was a good moment... :-)
and then, the demo started... people were climbing, chimneying, rappelling... finally it was my turn... i wore my gloves, checked my seat harness, the thumb knot on the bow line seemed a little loose... i walked backwards, got into position, and jumped!... 'crunch'... i knew i'd landed wrong... the left ankle had taken too much weight... anyway, the second jump is easy... and third jump... i was on the ground, someone was untying my bow line... i raised my hands that i'd successfully landed... and it was over!!!
Another exciting, memorable week at NPA...!!
though i've been 'quick-updating' about our Rock-Week, it was such an awesome experience it needs to be penned down a bit more concretely somewhere... meaning here...
our initial reaction to the Rock Week was quite good... we were elated about the seeming absence of so many activities - no PT, no Drill, and nothing in the Yellow Time Tables about our evenings... and of course there was some kind of Rock Climbing... it couldn't be all that bad!
the first day started off with a drizzle... the rains, which had never even peeked a look at NPA until now, decided to make an appearance on the first day we had to climb 80-90 degree rocks... not surprising at all!! I'm sure the AD(OD) had something to do with it!! Anyway, the poor ITBP(Indo-Tibetan Border Police) guy had such trouble climbing up the Rhino(all the rocks are named, mostly based on their places in the extinction list) for the demo, we prayed ardently that the whole thing be called off till the sun was shining, the rocks were dry and maybe we could do this the next month...! No such luck! we were slowly introduced to the rocks, doing the smallest 20-30 feet ones on the first day...
we scraped knees on the Balanced Rock Climbing... chimney was a mysterious affair where we slipped helplessly, unable to get a grip on the rocks already worn smooth by the hundreds of amateur IPS feet having slipped there in the previous years... rappelling down was much smoother, only a few bruises...falling is always faster and easier than the climb up... i'm only talking about rock climbing... ;-) though HST put up a good show by spending a few minutes upside down, maybe preparing for a next question/doubt/ observation/comment... sadly, we missed the photo opportunity but it was a great lesson for all of us and after the initial mistake, we always had our handycams and cameras trained on him at full zoom for every climb and fall.... :-P
ok, i got a bit dramatic there... actually, most of the time they were extremely encouraging and polite, except when i came back for the 7th time on Tiger Hill to jump and they were really sick of bow-lining me!!
what else? there was the stomach rappelling where you go facing down, the worst of them all!! i'm skipping the description coz it still gives me the queasies to even think of it, even now! there was the piggy-back... a practice to rescue people if need be... i was in great demand as the 'casualty' but thankfully my turn never came, and i am not complaining!! :-P
third day, we had building climbing... harder than it looked... we had to climb windows, pipes and walls and ledges to get to the top of a two-storey building... again, the walls were too slippery coz of all of us polishing it to shiny smoothness and a lot of colorful bruises and contusions were shown off in the dressing rooms yesterday as proof of that... there was the wall-rock climbing, where i still can't climb the overhang... but the jumping off of 50 feet ledge screaming commandooooooo is such fun, i decided to go back for a second helping...!fourth day, we were taken out to Mt. Opera for some new, hard rocks! it was tougher than our petite rock-garden but i guess we've finally toughened up and conquered our fears, or just resigned ourselves to our fates which requires us to needlessly climb and jump off of things... like i was frustratedly whining to one squad mate who was pretending to sleep, i never even climbed the stairs at Infy, but waited for 10 mins for the lift to take me to the third floor office! and now, i use knotted ropes, windows and pipes to do the same!!! Irony must be god's favorite sense of humor...
fifth day was dedicated to learn 'anchoring' and demo practice... my squad had volunteered me for the sacrifice/Demo... though they claimed i have the minimum bruises, i have a nagging doubt they might have ulterior motives! i got to do the Demo on Tiger Hill (just to get to position requires me to do chimney, knotted climbing and jumping over valleys...) and by the time i realized what a short straw i'd drawn, nobody was willing to swap!! I practiced 5 times... each time getting worse... the last time i jumped i slammed against the rock in the first jump, turned around 360 degree, before finally descending for the second and third jumps... Vicky sir (ITBP) warned me I'd have to jump without the safety or the harness if I came back a next time! So, thus confidently prepared, i waited my turn... we had the Demo at 7:30pm... i am unsure if i am allowed to swear as fluently as i'd like to at the person who decided that! he apparently couldn't have ever foreseen that it would be pitch dark at that time...! though there were lights towards the stage side, climbing on to the position was horrid! but as four of us (seat rappellers and side-rappellers) waiting our turn, it was a good moment... we watched the Hyderabad city lit up in yellow lights... Sobah educated us about the Orion and how they found their West, to pray, from it... Dorji offered to jump down and get a camera to capture the whole thing and had to be dissuaded... what do you scare a person with when he himself offers to jump down without the safety ropes! Imported Troubles!!! the music from down below, the stars above and not too bad a company... that was a good moment... :-)
and then, the demo started... people were climbing, chimneying, rappelling... finally it was my turn... i wore my gloves, checked my seat harness, the thumb knot on the bow line seemed a little loose... i walked backwards, got into position, and jumped!... 'crunch'... i knew i'd landed wrong... the left ankle had taken too much weight... anyway, the second jump is easy... and third jump... i was on the ground, someone was untying my bow line... i raised my hands that i'd successfully landed... and it was over!!!Another exciting, memorable week at NPA...!!
