First, the weather has been absolutely beautiful lately, which is why I’ve been climbing whenever I have a free moment. Sheep also think the weather is beautiful, and have been grazing near the cliffs we climb.
Me and sheep
I'm not 100% sure how this match with Anya even started, but apparently I lost
Marina washing her hands in the river after a day of climbing
Like every week for the past month, I’ve been visiting schools to show a video and pass out flyers for the climbing wall. I’ve discovered that there’s about a 1:10 ratio on flyers to show ups. I keep thinking that we’ll get overwhelmed on any given Saturday at the new trainings, but even if 40 kids say they’ll come, only 10 will show up. We average 8-10 new students each Saturday training, which is a good number considering the wall is fairly small. After a rotating roster of instructors, both friends, other Volunters and people from Polissya, my instructors have settled to three: Marina, Anya and Tanya. They are now veterans and at the last training I let them handle it from start to finish. I am becoming obsolete!
Marina teaching students
Anya teaching students
Students climbing
Why all girls? Um, because I'm working towards gender equality in the sport. And it's empowering to women. And, well, let's be honest, there can never be too many hot female climbers in the world. Eight months ago, none of these girls had ever climbed before and now they teach others to climb every week. Cool, huh?
If it makes anyone feel any better, I also have a special class after the Saturday trainings with five boys, they're just not as photogenic, as was proved when we all went to a club after climbing last Saturday:
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Found a new cliff in Zhytomyr last week. I’ve heard that there are five, but no one seems to know where they are. Lisa—-who was visiting for the weekend from Kharkiv--, Anya, Igor and I followed rumors that there was one along the Teatriv River and found it. It’s small, the flat remnants of granite quarrying, but in a beautiful location, back in the woods and just above the dam built across the Teatriv river, where water overflows it into a waterfall. The bolted routes are hard: between 5.10c and 5.11a, but we were able to anchor a rope to a tree so that Lisa and Igor could do some of the easier routes.
Igor on top of cliff, overlooking the waterfall
Lisa climbing
Getting back was an adventure. Rather than walk the mile back to the bridge we had used to cross the river, Igor suggested we cross on the rocks in front of the waterfall. He said he had done this before, but apparently that was in late summer when the water was lower. It was only when we were a quarter of the way out that we realized that too many rocks were underwater to make the crossing without getting our feet wet. Igor and I just plunged on, soaking tennis shoes and boots, respectively, but Anya and Lisa decided to take their shoes off.
Lisa and Anya taking off their shoes
I'd like to point out that Igor is helping the girls while I'm off taking pictures. Quite the gentleman I am, huh?
Lisa and Anya, halfway across
At one point Lisa dropped a shoe and I had to jump into the river, up to mid-calf, to retrieve it. I gave it back to her, tossed the backpack full of gear to Igor, several rocks away with fast moving water between us, and rather than wait, he put the pack on and started walking. I heard a yelp and turned around to see that Lisa had dropped her shoe into the water again and it was now beyond my reach, floating off down the river. I heard another yelp and turned back to see that Igor had fallen into the water halfway up his chest, completely soaking the backpack full of climbing gear.
This is the last picture of Lisa with both shoes
Igor, pulling himself and all the wet gear out of the water
People fishing on the banks were watching us like we were complete idiots, which, of course, we were. Lisa had the worst of it. By the end, she had also banged her shin and it was freely bleeding and had to walk back to my apartment in a pair of climbing shoes, getting blisters in the process. Still, she had brought two pairs of shoes with her from Kharkiv and thankfully didn’t have to buy a new pair to go home.
For her, it was an interesting introduction to Zhytomyr.
Almost to the other side.
People fishing and watching us