No, the title is not NOT referring to the AC/DC song. When I told my friend Eileen that I was in Advanced Rock, she told me to sink the pink. I was puzzled by the comment, but I think I get it now. She was referring to the Size 0.5 Tricam from Camp, which has a pink sling. This is the only rock protection piece that I know of that has inspired a poem, Charles Danforth's Ode to a Pink Tricam.
I have brought this up because the Pink Tricam played a big role for me this weekend. I have been getting a taste of lead climbing this week. Thursday I started a Lead Climbing clinic at the Club Sport rock gym as part of the Advanced Rock class. We didn't do any climbing, but we practiced on a fundamentals such properly clipping in (important) and lead belaying. Then on Saturday we had a field session where we did some simulated lead climbing. Our task was to climb halfway up the vertical wall at Rocky Butte and build a multi-directional anchor. Using this anchor we would rappel back down. The climber would be backup by a belay through the top rope anchor that we built up above. While we climbed up we would periodically place rock protection. Climbing up rock is hard work, I discovered that placing protection is even harder. The first time I was attempting to do so I was struggling, but my belayer encourage me to hang in there. I saw a horizontal crack so pulled out my pink Tricamp, slipped it in snug, and clipped in. Success!
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