Page 74 of Valley Girls
“Yes,” Rilla gasped. “I almost died.”
“I am so impressed you didn’t immediately jump off. That would have been it for me.”
Rilla kept trying to catch her breath, knocking back her helmet and wilting against the wall. It cooled her back and the wind gusted against her face.
“I can see why Petra and Adeena kept climbing with you. Try not to hang on bolts or gear though, okay?”
“Those bolts are not actually helpful,” Rilla said.
“Yeah and if you pull on gear, you just get it stuck or worse, pull it out.”
Rilla blanched. She hadn’t even thought of that. If she’d been leading, that would be a big fall.
“Plus, it’s not clean climbing.” Caroline shrugged. “It’s bad form to get in the habit of that.”
“Oh. I didn’t ...” Rilla blushed. “I didn’t realize.”
“You’re a beginner. You didn’t know. Petra had the responsibility of telling you, and maybe she did and it just got lost in other information. But if you want to keep doing it, you should know clean climbing is the rule.” She smiled and looked up. “The next pitch is a good lead for you. It’s easy and ledgy.”
Caroline explained the pitch in detail, using the route map to show Rilla how to read both the route and the map. But when she reached for the gear on her sling to hand over to Rilla, she froze.
“Wait. Where’s the ...” Caroline paused and yanked the bag toward her, combing through the top. “Did you put that big nut in?”
Rilla’s heart stopped. She remembered Caroline handing it to her. She remembered having to hold it while the smaller pieces went on first. She remembered ...
“Fuck,” Rilla breathed.Oh no.Tears stung her eyes.
Caroline glanced at her. “What?”
“I put it on the ...” Rilla licked her lips. “On the picnic table. I forgot to ...”Oh god. “Pack it.”
Caroline groaned and leaned back.
Lauren echoed in Rilla’s head.You need to learn to apologize.
But it was just a mistake. It wasn’t ...
It was totally her fault. Rilla squeezed her eyes shut and winced, forcing the words out. “I’m so sorry.”
Caroline just laughed. “Ah, don’t worry about it. We can make it work. Look.”
Rilla opened one eye.
Caroline was pulling two smaller nuts out and held them up. “You’d be surprised how often this happens—something happens—and you need to figure out how to use the gear you have, instead of the gear you need.” She laid the nuts on top of each other, their flat sides flush. “Just stack them to fit into the space. You’ll need to be careful it’s in there. But this will work.”
“I’m really sorry,” Rilla repeated. It was easier now that she’d said it once.
The harness cut into her legs and her back. Her arms below her elbows felt useless. Sweat rolled between her breasts. But she clipped the first bolt and scrambled up to the ledge she’d be following, a long string of rope behind her.
This part wasn’t climbing—not technically. It was mostly walking up a rocky ledge to a pair of bolts that waited at the end. But with each step, Rilla felt the edge. Like the ground below, she heaved as she moved, and at any second she could be shrugged off the cliff. Her legs felt heavy. Each step got smaller and smaller until she found herself stopping.
Deep breath.
She was okay. She was doing it.
Her fingers shook. She checked her knot, and kept on. In a few minutes, Rilla clipped the bolted anchors with an intense surge of relief. With the relief came the accomplishment, and the pride and the glory and the wonder of doing it, and it was wildly fun again.
Caroline explained how to place gear along the next pitch she led, and Rilla listened with serious attention. All she wanted in life was to make it out of this climb without embarrassing herself any further. It went about as disgustingly and terrifyingly as the rest of the climb, but itwent.
