For The Credit!
Round one; the family portrait:
The first climb of The D was not done by me, back when I was still counting on my fingers and thought talking to a boy was a real adventure ( ... and no, that's not last week) the real ninjas were at work. To find how it's done, that is with drills, ropes, repelling, police and strip searches, check out DS, Marshal, QX and Snapps, see the links at the bottom of this page.
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My first climb of The D, a far less elaborate story,
but one to tell none the less, involved pee, sweat and tears. Having woken in
the Catas, the day began quite groggy and slow, pottering about underground,
then by night showing ourselves, scurrying about like hedgehogs. Once
organised, we made our move. Over a river overhang and a tall fence, with the
help in Paris' finest fire safety precautions Explo, Wasp and one other who
will remain unnamed for now, began the climb. Explo and I solo-free climbing
the two first levels, Explo setting up ropes for the other two while I ran
round so excited I could have wet myself. Eventually we re-grouped and
ran under the spider-leg like stone struts of the Dam. With a lack of a fitting
harness on my behalf, and a lack of a head for height for wasp (always shocks
me to think he's petrified of heights with all he's done) the group began to
separate, Explo, the ninja spider monkey that he is, continued the solo-free
climb to the top with all the ropes on his back to set up for the secret member
to follow. This seamed an appropriate time for Wasp and I to concentrate on a
family portrait, and to chill out and to enjoy Paris at night in all its glory.
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A second visit was due, with a fitting harness! This time with one of the original climbers, and being roped in at all times. With the help of QX I made it to the rooftop that I had desired for so long via a completely different rout. Using as much safety equipment as necessary, we climbed the actual structure, gripping stone work and this time running up the spiders’ legs.
Thanks again to all involved in the initial climb and
both times I got up there for making these amazing climbs, experience and view
of Paris possible.