Overcoming your fear

As a sport, rock climbing can be very liberating, exhilarating and challenging. Part of the attraction is that you have to find a way around obstacles.


My introduction to rock climbing began at a shopping centre. Nestled among the top-notch restaurants and jacuzzis at Wafi City's pyramid is a climbing wall. It's where the region's climbers hang out, when they are not hanging off ropes half way up a rock face.

There I met my teacher, the UAE's most established climber, John Gregory. I was instantly struck by how well he looked. Clearly the endless weekends escaping into wadis and mountains was doing some good. This mountain man instantly intrigued me. Little did I realise on our first meeting how I would have to learn to trust him with my life.

Within minutes I had stepped into a harness and was looking up at a seemingly unscalable vertical wall. I put a tentative left foot onto a small hold on the wall then pulled myself up by my hands. A few metres up John asked me to try being lowered down before I got too far up. I had to release my hands and lean back on the rope John was holding onto and walk down the wall. Letting go went against all natural instinct, but it was a great sensation.

Now it was time to get to the top with no stopping. Choosing which hold to use as a support was taxing. Suddenly I heard the Velcro on my harness rip loose. I couldn't help but imagine myself plummeting to the ground. I didn't panic as John had forewarned me this was perfectly normal and didn't mean danger. At the top I looked down for the first time. I couldn't really believe I had got up so high. On the ground John congratulated me.

"You are a natural". I didn't believe him but was pleased. Next was an even harder wall. Half way up my arms felt very strained and my legs were shaking. I though I was about to fall.

"Keep going, this is just a difficult bit, once you are past it it's easier," John shouted up at me. So I stretched up with my left hand. The tops of my fingers found a thin place to get a grip. I had to trust it would hold, and then use all the strength in my fingers to haul myself up. It worked but soon after I gave up. Back on the ground, I felt disappointed but John continued to encourage me. "For a first go you really were pretty good. Most people take ages to get up that high."

"But I was frightened of that overhang, I felt I was going to fall off the whole time."

"Well that is fear and in climbing it is something you have to overcome. You have to trust the people you are climbing with, but it is very hard to start with."

Wadi Bih

I could have stopped there, having ticked the rock-climbing box. But I was intrigued to try climbing out in the wild. A few days later we drove into the dramatic scenery of Wadi Bih, with its towering cliffs. John stopped by a rock face. With seemingly no effort he climbed it to set the route. Within moments he was down. I put on some climbing shoes, a harness and attached myself to the safety rope.

I was making good progress until I came across a boulder, which was quite smooth, and slightly overhanging. Feeling around with my right hand I thought there was nowhere I could get leverage and made the fatal mistake of looking down. I was pretty high up, with a sheer drop beneath me. I could feel the adrenaline coursing around my body, already my legs were shaking. I firmly told myself to calm down.

John shouted that I needed to move around to the right then continue up. It would involve me taking a sideways step on virtually nothing. I took a breath and followed his instruction. John was right and I was quickly able to get over the bolder. From then on the climb went better but I never lost the sense of danger. Having pushed myself over the boulder and lived was a real high.

John and his partner Dee Mcenery were very kind saying I had done well. I knew in myself that I had very nearly freaked out. So when John suggested another climb, only slightly harder, I was a bit sceptical. Although, my highly developed sense of self-preservation kicked in. But pride spurred me on.

This climb was different. There was a deep crevice running up it. I had to push my feet flat onto the rock either side of the crevice to stop myself from falling. As I moved higher I began to have faith in the grip on my climbing shoes and the ropes. It was exhilarating. I not only survived, I started to enjoy it.

It is very important to climb with responsible people because you have to trust them with your life.