ON THE ASCENT

Rock climbing is surging in popularity, thanks to its physical, mental and social benefits

- MATTHEW TOSTEVIN

AS A RELATIVELY NEW climber, I look up and think, There’s no way I’m getting up this. The limestone arches overhead in swirls of gray and rusty brown. Look closely, though, and it is carved and pitted with features where white chalk marks from the fingers of previous climbers show the ghost of a way up.

The only way I can climb is to start. To think of the next places for my feet and for my hands, not the finish point 65 feet above—or anything else. I listen only to my breathing and my belay buddy, holding my life through the belay device on the rope between our harnesses. Clipping the rope to bolts set in the cliff face, I maneuver over a jutting fold. It goes surprisingly well for 50 feet. Then the footholds seem to run out. And the handholds. My fingers press on dusty wrinkles of rock, but my arms are bent and burning. My heart drums in my ears.

I know what comes next. There’s just time to yell: “Falling,” My experienced belayer, Sophie, catches me on the rope as I jolt to a stop a few feet below where I was clinging on.

I rest my tired arms and racing mind. Look around. I see another way up, to the right. No rush. Try again. This time I make it to the anchor point at the top. I feel relief and no little sense of achievement. I’m sure the view from the top here in Geyikbayiri, Turkey, is fantastic, but right now I'm happy for Sophie to lower me to the ground. I’ll be back another day to “send” the route without a break.