Trip Report On June 7 & 8, 2008, I led two teams for the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh Rock School Graduation Climb.
Toni was my second/co-leader. We drove to Seneca together on Friday the 6th to get ready. Toni had not done any trad climbing yet this season, and we both felt that we should practice multi-pitch trad climbing together before taking on a student.
Upon our arrival, the thermometer on the Front Porch read 98 degrees Fahrenheit. The bad news was that it would stay this hot all weekend. The good news was that it didn't rain for once on a Seneca weekend!!! I particularly liked that, since I am not a happy camper under the best of circumstances, and rain definitely puts a damper on sleeping in at tent for me. No rain was very good.
We decided to warm up (ha) on something on the East Face, since the Sun had come around to the West Face by the time we got going. A fave of ours, since it was the first trad climb we ever led together, is Worrell's Thicket. I led up; then we made our way across the Broadway Ledges together, roping up twice for small, harder sections. I led up East Face to Gunsight Notch, and then after Toni joined me, we belayed each other passed my anchor to the rappel tree on top of Banana for our descent.
On Saturday our student was Jess. I was sure Old Ladies would be the right climb for us. It is easy and not too exposed. After breakfast at the 4U, Toni and I picked up Jess in the campground and off we went. Jess had no trouble walking up the stairmaster and making the scrambles to the start of the first pitch. I took time talking to Jess and Toni before we started, going over what the climb entailed and what we would do, what I expected Jess to do, and how we all would communicate. I would lead the climb on two singles, with Jess tied in on the yellow rope and Toni on the orange rope. Toni would belay me up. Then Jess would come up and unclip her rope, yellow, while leaving orange in the pro for Toni. Toni would climb up last and clean the pitch. We would repeat this procedure on all three pitches of Old Ladies. Jess did a great job and made it to the somewhat exposed belay stance at the end of pitch #1 all smiles. She was telling us about her husband, Jeff, who was on another ECP team, and she hoped he was having a good time.
After copious rope management and switching gear, I headed into the second pitch. It is mostly a traverse, with one move at the start. I usually climb down from the belay station, then place a piece in a flake, and pull that one move into the traverse. This time, I was concerned about protecting the traverse well for Jess, and, after stepping up on the flake, I placed another piece, my green DMM cam, high above the flake. All went well for Jess; she came over to the second belay and continued to be all smiles. Toni, on the other hand, took a lot of time coming over. Since we couldn't see her, and the batteries on our radios had died Friday night, it was not clear what exactly was delaying her. When she finally joined us at the second belay, she told us that she had tried for a very long time, but she just could not get that green cam out. I thought that I might have placed the cam too high for her to reach comfortably, considering she is about a foot smaller than I am (see picture). We knew that there was another ECP team behind us that had queued up for Old Ladies, and we hoped they would see my cam and get it out.
Off we went into the last pitch. Jess got to be surprised when she topped out. Her husband Jeff, who had just made it up the final pitch of Old Man's with his team led by Bill, was waiting to greet her. Oh, romance on the rocks! After a bit of chit chat with the other team and some rest, our team carried on toward the summit, leaving one rope and most gear behind. Then our team happily summited.This is when major delays started to set in. There were 5 other teams on the summit. Bill's team which included Jeff, and Bob's team which included Olga, were up there with us enjoying the view while writing in the summit register. That was 9 people. Then 2 teams passed through from the north, while yet another ECP team tried to come up from the south. It was a major congestion. I have no idea how long we sat on the summit, but I do know that I got serious sunburn on my shoulders and that I did run out of water there. Finally, it was our time to descend from the summit. Bob graciously offered to give us all a belay. I was grateful for that since the unroped downclimb from the summit continues to make me feel nervous. Thanks, Bob!
Then it was time for the double-rope rappel off Traffic Jam. Aptly named, we encountered more congestion. There was a team climbing the Traffic Jam climb also, and I waited to go through to the anchor, belayed by Toni, until they were well off the ground. Then, before I could belay Jess over to the anchors, yet another team decided they were in such a hurry to descend that they needed to pass our team, and use the tree instead of the anchor bolts to get down to the Neck Press anchors. Once they had cleared out of the way, I belayed Jess and Toni over to the Traffic Jam rappel anchors. We all looked at the setup and ingrained into our minds – pull orange! Toni was the first to rappel; her job was to clear the rope and to give a fireman's belay to Jess who would go second. With a 220 foot rappel to master, Jess once again showed the true spirit of a Rock School graduate and got it done in style. I was to go last, but it turned out another ECP team had patiently been waiting to do the final pitch of Old Man's while all the rappelling was going on, and they requested to come up next. I agreed, and waited for their team to make it passed me. Finally, it was my turn to get off the rock. When I touched down, I had been 3 hours without water (although I did get some sips from Toni who still had some), and I was ready to be done and get my team safely all the way to the parking lot.
Toni and I headed straight to Harper's General Store to purchase some ice cold beer. Being a German, I believe beer works best for serious re-hydration. Pack in hand, we transported ourselves over to the swimming hole, where we met up with Jess, Jeff, and a lot of other hot and sweaty happy climbers for a well deserved cool down.
While none of our other ECP teams retrieved my DMM cam on Saturday, I was lucky enough that it was still on Old Ladies on Sunday, when Jeff B. and his team climbed the climb. Jeff did get it out and returned it to me. Thank you so much, Jeff.
Sunday would be a shorter day for Toni and I, since we planned to drive back to Pittsburgh. Jess and Jeff decided to leave in the morning, foregoing climbing on Sunday, and for a while, we thought we would be without a student. But then, Olga decided to join us. She reasoned it would be a good experience for her to climb with a different team on day 2 of her graduation weekend. So we had another all women's team!
Considering departure times and temperature issues, I decided against a summit attempt (Olga had summited on Saturday and was happy with that). Instead, we would just do the first pitch of Totem, the Buttress. I led up, and, using just one rope, belayed Olga up tied in to the middle, and then Toni, tied to the end, all the while enjoying watching Sid leading Candy Corner and Jim and Erik leading Roy Gap Chimneys. We had a good time hanging out in the anchor and talking with Olga about setting up toprope (we agreed we had enough time to do the climb again).
By the time all three of us had rappelled back down, Erik and Rick had cruised on over, waiting for their turn on Candy Corner. They asked us if they could take a run on our toprope. We readily agreed, under the condition that they would allow Olga to belay them so she could get additional practice in. So they did, and Toni and I in turn backed up Olga's belay while they did the climb. Time was running out once all of that was done with, and we decided that Toni should just go up and clean Totem, while I belayed. To keep things interesting for Olga, I handed her my rack and sent her off to place some gear at the bottom left of Totem and towards the Cave. Toni and I would later come and critique the placement of the pieces. Think “Rock Idol”, or “Project Rock School”.
I believe Olga really got a kick out of that. She set to work with great determination and joy. Olga did a fine job placing several cams and nuts. She parked my purple DMM cam so well, that we all fiddled with it for the longest time before I managed to get it back out. All's well that ends well!
Note on Olga – not only is she a good climber, she is also VERY funny. And for a non-native English speaker, she does verbal humor beautifully! We were entertained a great deal by her various insightful and offbeat remarks.
On our way down to the parking lot, Toni and I introduced Olga and Erik to Dr. Bob's pagan ritual of thanking the Rock Goddess for letting us climb safely another day (Jess and Rick had been inducted earlier). It involves dipping a body part into the creek. Thanks, guys, for agreeing to giving thanks in this way. Another good day of climbing was had by all!
It was my pleasure to meet and climb with Jess and Olga. Thanks Toni, Jess, and Olga, for trusting in my leadership and for showing me such a good time. Thank you Phil, our long-time organizer, and Jeff B., for putting the teams together for this trip. You did a fine job.
Leadership Reflections
Trust is important, in climbing and in leadership. As leaders, we must have trust in ourselves. And we have to trust in each of our team members. As team members we have to have trust in our leader and also, in ourselves, and in our peers.
Trust takes time to develop. It builds incrementally and accumulates the more interactions we have with one another. We know from experience to which extend we trust a family member or a friend. But how, then, as in the trip described above, can we trust a complete stranger, and how can a stranger possibly trust us, especially under circumstances that involve physical danger?
The ability to develop trust quickly can be important in assuring a positive outcome of our joint ventures. It is therefore worthwhile to inquire how trusting may be expedited.
Interestingly, recent research on trust finds that it is a chemical reaction mediated by the molecule oxytocin (yep, our feelings are run by chemicals in the brain). Read in “The Neurobiology of Trust” by Paul J. Zahn in Scientific American (2008, Vol . 298, Issue 6) about research using the “trust game” that is beginning to uncover how the human brain determines when to trust someone.
The bottom line is this: give trust to someone, and that person will very likely reciprocate and be trustworthy (in 98 % of cases in lab studies, not bad!). This occurs thanks to an increase in oxytocin levels generate by the initial act of trust.
The implication of this research is that we can jumpstart trust among our team members, by simply “trusting forward”.
Giving our trust to others, versus making others earn our trust, is a strategy for team building worth exploring in the field. Stay tuned for updates!
To Grow List
Give trust to your team members
Explain the process, and your expectations of everyone's responsibility in it
Help your team visualize a positive experience
Engage in continuous and honest two-way communication with your team
Behave trustworthily.
Wonderful Trip Report, Regina -
ReplyDeleteThe factual report was excellent; I enjoyed reading it. But the Reflections on Leadership and discussion of developing trust were EXCEPTIONAL! and should be incorporated into any lead-climbing instruction program.
Actually, I think there is more to it than what you posted. The climbing school course emphasizes safety and makes it clear that one objective is to gradually enable the students to judge what (and who) is or is not safe. Trust could have been jeopardized if you had performed in ways that the new graduates perceived as "unsafe."
You mention "explaining roles." Those explanations are important, and they include explanations of your decisions that may differ from what the new partner knows and considers "trustworthy." The use of double ropes - would be a case-in-point.
Also, you were not complete strangers to your students. Toni had been a regular, known instructor in the classes through the whole program. By the way, I was especially impressed by her exceptionally helpful and considerate-of-others participation throughout. Those qualities generate trust.
Another way in which you were not strangers - You had been designated leaders by the school - specifically by co-director Jeff. That gave you a leg-up on being seen as trustworthy by your student.
All that aside, your reflections are still on the mark. I have teamed up with self-designated leaders who were COMMPLETE strangers to me, and it was their
communications and actions on the spot that generated trust between us.
Thanks for the report.
Phil Sidel
Very good report Regina!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading it, not only to hear your experiences at Seneca, but to relive my own!
I agree with what you said about trust!
When I went to seneca Rocks, I drove down with Bill and Jeff Baxter. Listening to the two of them talking about the weekend ahead, their experiances in the past and the way they answered my novice questions, all gave me a great sense of trust in them. After arriving on Friday we headed to the Rocks to do some climbing. I felt very confident in them and because of that, in myself also. A lot of my own confidence came from the feeling of trust I got from them and the trust I had for them! We climbed and didn't have any problems and I hope I lived up to their expectations. I know I sure enjoyed myself!
The next day, I climbed with Bill again and Phil Sidel. Phil has always given me a sense of trust. I can see how he is concerned for the students, the club, the school and this flowed over to me. We had another good day of climbing, it was hot, I got some sunburn, we had a problem with excessive time on the Rocks and I, like you, ran out of water at the top. I was REALLY dehydrated when I got back to the ground.
But, never once did I have any doubts to anything any of my climbing partners told me to do. It always agreed with what I had been taught, and this helped to make my climbing at Seneca such an enjoyable time. Trust is such a powerful thing!
Next time...I'll take more water! Live and Learn!
Phil B.