[nabs-l] Blind people rock climbing

[David Andrews]

I don't have any tips, I have never done it -- 
but I know that students at the Colorado Center 
for the Blind have done it.  So, you might ask on the CCB Alumni list,
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ccb-alumni_nfbnet.org

Dave

At 11:20 PM 3/29/2011, you wrote:
>Hi all!
>
>So my fiancé and I recently took up rock climbing and have been going to a
>local rock gym weekly for the past month or so. We go with friends, but we
>are the only two in the group who are interested in top-roping. We're both
>blind, and we take turns belaying for one another. I know a fair number of
>blind people rock climb, so I was wondering if anyone has any tips or
>techniques that you use when you climb, for any aspect of the climb?
>
>How do you choose a path up the wall? There are paths marked with colored
>tape, but this is useless to us, so we just wing it and feel out our own
>paths, but on harder walls this can be tricky.
>
>How did you get the hang of belaying? Did you use any special technique to
>determine when and how quickly your partner is climbing, like maybe have
>them wear a bell? Or were you able to tell how quickly to go just by feeling
>the slack in the rope? Our guide advised us to just take up slack when we
>feel slack, but I've noticed my partner sometimes doesn't feel when I get
>higher, and the slack in the rope makes me nervous.
>
>When belaying, how did you prepare to handle falls, since you wouldn't be
>able to see when your partner starts to fall? This makes me most nervous,
>and I've been told I keep the rope too tight at times for the climber
>(especially a male climber) to move comfortably.
>
>Right now I'm going with the advice that this will all come with practice,
>but I wondered what experiences other people have.
>
>Thanks,
>
>-Jamie