Silurian

#1

“Either works,” Jessica had replied to Beatrice. “My parents and family use Jessica more but a lot of the people I climb with call me Jess.”

((Jessica Romero continued from Ordovician))

She was thinking about some of those people at that moment as she stared at the rock face in front of her.

Their travel had been paused so they could rest. Jessica was on watch and had decided to keep her mind and body active, hence the staring at the rock, because she was going to attempt to climb.

If she had been with her friends, Matt, Utami and Dez, they would have also been giving advice, pointing out holds, maybe even made attempts at it first. Although, traditionally she always went first. Matt always joked that she was their canary. She’d been climbing outdoors for so long that if she couldn’t get far or start then it wasn’t worth their time. He would have likely been making jokes about how the weather shouldn’t have been an issue for her since she came from Glacier National Park. He always insisted that because she’d spent so much time there as a child she may as well as hailed from the park. But none of them were there, no Matt to give advice, no Utami to eagerly cheer everyone on, no Dez to bring his large smile and good spirits to every attempt, no matter how many times he failed. Instead it was just her and the rock.

Truthfully if they had been there, they would have told her that it was a stupid idea. It was obviously dangerous, and not even just because she could have injured herself. If someone with a gun and band intentions came along while she was on the rock she would be shot and that would be it. But she hadn’t climbed in two weeks, which might have been the longest she’d ever gone and she didn’t want to resign herself to never climbing again. That didn’t sit right with her.

So it had come to be that she was staring at a rock wall partway along the mountain and miming potential moves in the air, figuring out the beta she wanted to use for the route she was inventing in her head. Stepping towards the craggy face she reached up and tested the grip of a particular groove in the stone, seeing how deep it went and how smooth it was.

Satisfied with what she was feeling she nodded and stepped back. There was no real goal in mind for what she wanted to do, she just wanted to climb and see how far up the side of the cliff face she could get. Although with that in mind she had set an upper limit on how high she could reasonably go. She was still responsible for watching Beatrice’s back, just like Beatrice was responsible for hers. Also realistically she was going to get far without chalk and while wearing hiking boots.

Regardless, she stepped up to the rock face again and set one of her left foot on a slight outcropping, then placed her hands out at about shoulder height and in line with each other on two nice edges that she’d spotted. Once she was satisfied with her hand position she crouched down until her arms were fully extended and taking her weight, then quickly kicked her right foot up onto the wall. While the boots were horrifically big and bulky they did at least have somewhat of a decent grip thanks to their tread. But she knew better than to rely on them. Still hanging all of her weight on her arms, Jessica stepped her feet further up the rock, alternating one being set and one moving, then once she had set into more of a frog squat position pushed up and shot her right hand up into the hold she had tested. For a brief moment her hand began to slip back out but she pressed her fingers down hard to create enough tension to keep herself in place. She bounced her right arm a couple of times to ensure her grip was good then stepped her right foot up onto the hold her hand had vacated.

All in all it was going better than she had expected. The next move was easy enough, a easy pinch grip with her whole hand around an outcropping of rock that anchored her in place as she brought her left foot up onto the hold her hand had been on and bringing her feet in line. The pinch grip she held felt stable enough so she left go of the edge she’d been using with her right hand and searched out the next hold. It was a bumpy looking sloper that she’d need to set herself on to progress. She reached up and placed the flat of her palm on the top of the slope and slid it around the cold rock to find the best spot and then once satisfied pressed down as hard as she could, locking out her elbow and shoulder. As she pressed herself up she brought her right foot up and once again set it where her hand had been but immediately the bulk of the boots betrayed her. The large tread sliding straight off the small hold, Jessica knew better than to fight the inevitable and pushed herself clear of the wall as she fell, landing and rolling onto the floor.

But when she stood up for the first time in a long time she had a real smile on her face, it was a rueful one, and she shook her head at the boots she liked so much betraying her, but she felt good about something for the first time since she had woken up. For those moments she had been on the wall it had just been her and the rock, everything else had melted away into nothingness. It had been liberating.

Jessica stepped closer to wall, mapping out the path she had taken and letting out a laugh when she saw a much easier foothold hiding under a small overhang. She’d been tricked by the rock. If she tried again she’d be able to get a more solid base to better attack the sloper, or maybe even reduce the need for it entirely.

She never made that second attempt.

Instead she gathered up her things and returned to Beatrice.

Jess didn’t want to ruin the purity of what she’d had.

((Jessica Romero continued elsewhere…))