So I did this today…
In my new series, the protagonist is an avid rock climber. He “free solos” which means he climbs without equipment, nothing but a bag of chalk. I’m not that crazy, so I was belayed for safety, but in the name of research I did climb 200 feet up the nearly vertical face (70-80 degree pitch – rated 5.8 for those of you who know what that means) of Lover’s Leap in South Lake Tahoe using nothing but my hands and feet.
This was my first serious rock climbing experience, and frankly I still can’t believe what I did. My instructor, M. "Petch" Pietrolungo, just climbed up the cliff face like he was walking to the store – and then I followed. Unbelievable. I was expecting to start with some rocks, and then a hill, but Petch took me straight up a granite monolith.
Turns out you need two things to do this: 1) the right shoes, and 2) the ability to remain calm in an insane situation. Fortunately I gave Kyle Achilles both those things in the series.
Those are my feet, with Petch down below. This is about 100 feet, btw, we went twice that far before I'd decided I'd gone high enough for my first day. What can I say, I'm no Achilles.
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I find it interesting that you were writing convincingly about free climbing without ever having done it yourself! If it wasn't a hobby, how did you come to choose this as one of Achilles' skills?
Hi David,I'd done some climbing, the peaks of Mount Olympus for example, and repelling in the Army, but I'd never before combined the two. Although I'd often wanted to.
For Pushing Brilliance, I did do a lot of research. When you look at the videos of what the pros (like my fictional guy) actually do, it's mind blowing.
As for selecting climbing, I spent a lot of time developing the Achilles character before writing the first novel. I wanted someone different from the pack, but no less impressive.
Thanks for your interest,
Tim
