July 19,2015
It's been no secret that I wasn't looking forward to this weekend's Mastery Test challenge: Moaning Cavern. This challenge involved a 200 foot repel into an open cavern, 165 feet of which was a free repel, dangling from a rope and harness. The rest of this adventure was spelunking through caves underground from the cavern we repelled into. While I wasn't thrilled or excited about the prospect, I knew I would do it. I wasn't too worried about the repel; it was the spelunking. I was pretty sure I was claustrophobic. The basis for that was my dislike of narrow tunnels on water slides and my inability as a child to go into the small space between the walls in a friend's house. As an adult, I'd really had no opportunity to test it out. Having gone through a couple of MRI's I thought I might not be as claustrophobic as I thought, but I wasn't entirely sure.
I'm happy to report that the repelling was great. There was one rather tense moment of stepping off the first ledge to begin a short free repel, but once that was done, the rest was really quite amazing. I made it a point to keep my eyes level with where I was hanging in the cavern so the distance down wasn't really a concern. As I lowered myself, the part of the cavern I was looking at lowered so I wasn't worried about how high up I was.
Much to my surprise, I didn't freak out in the tight spaces in the caves. And some of the spaces were really tight. We crawled through on our bellies, or backs, head first at times, feet first at others, with not much wiggle room. Our guide Tim kept reminding us that if at anytime we felt uncomfortable, we needed to let him know. Except for getting tired at times, the narrow spaces didn't scare me. I will say that at one point I was ready to have the tour end. Not because I was freaking out, but because I was tired. There are points for early exit, but once you're passed that, there is no turning back.
The final task was to climb up a 40 ' chimney within the cavern floor and slide down the face of one of the walls of the main cavern. By the time we got to that part, I was exhausted. I stood at the base of the chimney, looked up and told KJN Paul I didn't think I could do it. It required climbing using foot and hand holds to pull me up. There was a rope that could be used with hands or feet, but that seemed a bit too precarious for me. KJN Paul kept assuring me that I'd find a way; I keep assuring him I wouldn't. My initial fear was slipping and falling; there was no safety rope. My other fear was finding foot holds and hand holds at manageable spacing. Tim had assured us these were readily available and easy to find but I wasn't finding any. After stepping up on the first foot hold, it took some time to muscle the courage for the next step. Everything seemed out of reach and I worried that I was so tired I couldn't hold on and pull myself up. And the rocks were slippery. KJN quietly and patiently assured me I would find my way, but to do so I had to move. I tried using the rope as a ladder and I was able to move another step higher, all the while telling myself I couldn't do this. There really was no way out but to go up, and at some point I realized the space was small enough that I could lean my back against the rocks and give myself some extra support. The chatter in my head stopped and I focused on climbing. About that time the hand and foot holds did seem to be closer together and I was able to make my way up. As in the cavern, I tried to keep my eyes level with where I actually was rather than looking down or up. When I could see the light through the top of the hole and could hear familiar voices, I knew I would make it. That was the most incredible feeling in the world. What had seemed so impossible, really wasn't. The last part was to slide down a wall in the main cavern. For this portion a safety rope was tied around my waist and I held on to a knotted rope to lower myself. I couldn't believe I had done it.
I didn't think I'd say this either: I'm really glad I did this. It was an amazing experience on many levels.
This week I went to one private lesson. I kept up with all my push ups ( 900) and rode my bicycle rather than running (24.7 miles). The only other thing I was short on was sit ups( 830).
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