Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2006, Qupperneq 26

I don’t see anything wrong with the fact that
rock climbing is considered a pastime activity,
rather like how I don’t see anything wrong
with pouring milk onto bricks in the hope
that they will alchemically transform into
diamonds. I don’t see anything wrong with
it, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I got a
decent glimpse of the world of the madmen
(and madwomen) that call themselves rock
climbers when I tried a bit of it myself one
beautiful afternoon in Hvalfjörður.
I had always imagined rock climbing to
be a bit like those scenes in the old Bat-
man serials with Adam West, where he and
Robin fired a grappling hook into the upper
buttresses of a building and climbed steadily
up while discussing their plans once they’d
reached the top.
The rock, as it happened, was one of those
weird, random slabs of stone that you find
scattered randomly throughout the country-
side. It had a nice view of some cabins and a
semi-distant valley that I was rather enjoying
when the instructor handed me a harness and
said:
“So. You wanna go first?”
I swallowed. “Uh, sure. Why not?” and
put the harness on.
I had seen some other climbers on our way
to our face of the rock, and had by now come
to assume that it wasn’t quite as easy as it
looked. I was not, however, expecting it to be
utterly impossible. What little purchase there
was to be had on the rock face was rough, cov-
ered in f laky, dried moss and altogether very
dissimilar from the Gotham City skyscrapers.
I was also forced to wear rubber ballet slippers
that made thong underwear seem loose-fit-
ting and comfortable, and large, menacing
bumblebees hovered nearby with ominous
buzzing sounds.
I took the opportunity to do what city
kids do best in the countryside, gripe my ass
off, much to the amusement of the rest of the
climbing party below. My experience was
further enriched by what happened when I
was about halfway up: I looked down. When
you’re concentrating that much on what’s
in front of you, it doesn’t really occur to you
that you’re steadily gaining altitude, and my
downward glance and subsequent realisation
that if I fell I could possibly sprain, fracture
or even break something was a difficult mo-
ment.
But I put those thoughts behind me and
realised that my harness was tied through
a hook and led straight to the well-muscled
hands of the instructor, so if I lost my grip,
the worst thing that could happen was a mild
concussion and the loss of my sense of smell
when my skull hit the rock. With this in
mind, I made it to the ‘top,’ which was basi-
cally a point about twenty feet up on the face
where the hook was. I took a short, panicked
breath and tried to enjoy my view despite my
abject terror. After a moment, I called down
to the bottom:
“Um, okay, so how do I get down from
here?”
What happened next can only be de-
scribed as a leap of faith, where I trusted my
120 pounds to a thin rope, a man I’d just
met and a weird tool he had tied to the rope.
I gingerly made my way down by sitting
very awkwardly in my harness as he steadily
brought me down to the sorely-missed ground
below. My hands coarse and aching, my
knees still shaking and my dignity in tatters,
I calmly sat down for a cigarette and tried to
think up an excuse to not go again, while at
the same time waiting very impatiently for
my next turn, finding it perversely funny how
human nature can drive you to do immensely
stupid things just because the only alternative
is to feel really dumb for not doing it.
And amazed as I am to say it, I feel that
were I ever offered to go rock climbing again,
there is a better-than-average chance that I
might not just snort and find myself some-
thing better to do. On the contrary, I might
even seriously consider going. In fact, I may
even say yes.
Trip provided by Arctic Rafting, www.arcti-
crafting.com.
“I was also forced to wear rubber ballet slippers that
made thong underwear seem loose-fitting and comfort-
able, and large, menacing bumblebees hovered nearby
with ominous buzzing sounds.”
Outside Reykjavík
Mind the Menacing Bumblebees
Rock climbing in Hvalfjörður
by sindri eldon photos by skari
“And amazed as I am to say it, I feel that were I ever of-
fered to go rock climbing again, there is a better-than-
average chance that I might not just snort and find
myself something better to do.”
Hvalfjörður
Experience Viking-Age Reykjavík at the
new Settlement Exhibition. The focus of
the exhibition is an excavated longhouse
site which dates from the 10th century
AD. It includes relics of human
habitation from about 871, the oldest
such site found in Iceland.
Multimedia techniques bring Reykjavík’s
past to life, providing visitors with
insights into how people lived in the
Viking Age, and what the Reykjavík
environment looked like to the first
settlers.
The Settlement Exhibition 871±2
opens on 12 May 2006 at Adalstraeti 16.
Reykjavík City Museum
www.reykjavik871.is
Step into
the Viking Age
0