Page 90 of Free Fall

“I know it’s safe with ropes. I just get vertigo from the exposure.”

“Right.” Rye rubs his chin, feeling his new hair growth. “That does make it harder.”

“I hear what you’re saying, though. It would be good for me to see him in his element so I understand more fully what he’s capable of. It’d soothe me.”

“Or it could make things worse.” Rye puts his hands up in a “don’t shoot” position. “There’s no saying what you might think or feel about it. It might give you too much to imagine at night when you can’t sleep. It really could go either way.”

“Thanks,” I say with a smile, but can’t help adding sarcastically. “This has been a very helpful conversation.”

Rye chuckles. “I’m sorry. I worry about him too.”

“Does he worry about himself?”

“I think so. He doesn’t want to die. But maybe you should ask him about the climb, have him review the pitches with you, explain why he is or isn’t worried about different parts of them. Knowledge can ease the anxiety of ignorance.”

“Or ignorance can be bliss.”

“Yeah.”

Pete comes in the front door and sees me sitting with Rye and checks his watch. “Don’t you have some hours to make up from when you took off early last week?”

I smile at him winningly, but he just rolls his eyes and motions for me to join him. So I press Rye’s hand and say, “Thanks for talking with me. Gotta get to work.”

“No rest for the wicked,” Rye says.

I don’t think I’m wicked, but as I gather my things and go change into my work uniform, I wish I were a witch or wizard who could put a spell on Dan to keep him safe on the wall as he climbs.

He’d hate that, though. He wants to send the route completely on his own.

Me? Well, I just don’t want to lose him.

*

Dan

“You’ve never beeninterested in this before.”

I’m a little skeptical. It’s not that I don’t want to show Sejin my plans for Heart Route, but his sudden interest is noteworthy, and my experience with people is that when something is “noteworthy,” it also means “trouble.”

“It’s important to you, and I’d like to know more about it.”

“Hmm.”

I go ahead and get out my notebook with all the topo and beta for the route, and also my Yosemite Big Walls Guidebook. I crack it open first. “So, this is Heart Route,” I say, running a finger over the line on the photo showing the twenty-six pitches that I’ve etched into my own heart and mind through repetition over the last three years.

I’ve gone over the same terrain again and again, usually alone on the wall since most people have little to no interest in this magical route for some reason. Probably the difficulty with the dyno and the roof, and probably because there are more famous routes to master first.

I explain all of that to Sejin. “That’s part of why I picked this one. It’s ignored.”

“Twenty-six pitches? What does that mean?”

“A pitch is a section of rock, basically the length of one rope. A single pitch climb is one rope length, and a multi-pitch climb is multiple rope lengths.”

“So, this is twenty-six rope lengths?” Sejin touches the red line on the photo of El Cap.

“Yup. And what you and I have done together, when we’ve gone out at night, have all been a single pitch or less.”

“Ah.” Sejin frowns slightly, touching the line again. “What are the hardest parts?”