In December 2023, I was invited to join my friends in a rock-climbing session. These friends enjoy rock climbing and would either meet up once in a while to go rock climbing together with their friends or climb by themselves. We had a conversation earlier and they said they would get me to join when they go for the next round. When my friends first invited me along for rock climbing, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to feel my way up and around the wall. Now that I am Deafblind, the range of activities I could participate in is limited. But since my friends made the effort to work out how I could participate, I decided to join them for some fun.
Imagine as a blind person, one cannot see the climbing holds to put their feet and hands so someone would be shouting instructions from the ground. Now, for someone like me who is Deafblind, how would I be able to find the holds? I could scan the holds for my hands by feeling around but for the feet, they are really tricky to locate. I scraped my shins a few times during the climb!
That was also my first time climbing a wall at a shopping mall with proper shoes, unlike the first time I tried rock climbing a few years ago. I was just wearing a regular pair of sports shoes then, which was different from rock climbing shoes. Proper rock-climbing shoes are narrower, tighter and less cushioned, so your feet could grip the holds better.
My first try at rock climbing was one of those activities organised for a group of blind youth to experience camp activities like sitting round a campfire, pitching and sleeping in tents, trying ziplining. That was a lower climbing wall, and the holds were closer together to locate. Being up there all alone and unable to hear anything, the instructor had to climb up and try to reach me to check on me. Then I decided to be led down to save the instructor from having to climb up after me. Rock climbing is hard work. The holds are of different sizes and shapes, some smoother than others, easier to hold on to. It relies a lot on the strength of your arms and feet to keep you on the wall.
As for this time, I was attempting to climb the wall with the assistance of a friend who was beside me and the instructor on the other side. Earlier, we worked out some signals on how to go up and down by tapping my shoulder and foot. Being able to work out a system for them to communicate with me was important because I could not be carrying my electronic devices up there with me. Having a mutual understanding also helps with better communication in the absence of my devices. With this communication system in place, it allows them to guide me, warn me, and keep me safe. My friend would be tapping my left foot, for instance, so I know we were looking for holds for the left foot to reach next. She then guided me to use that hold to bring myself up.
Everyone was very patient in explaining the process to me. First, they measured my feet to get the right pair of climbing shoes. It was then followed by a safety briefing by the instructor. While the instructor was speaking, my friend was typing out what was being said, and I was reading her messages on my braille device. They assisted me in getting into the harness, and we tested out two belay systems.
The manual belay system was handled by another friend who was responsible for holding me still and letting me down when I wanted to descend. The second type was a magnetic one. When it detects that the climber is going to fall, that tension would trigger the system. It was scary because you needed to want to fall by kicking away from the wall. Once you are away from the wall, the system will detect the start of a fall and slow you down, rather than in a freefall where you immediately hit the ground. When I was up the wall, I was worried. What if I couldn’t hold on and lost contact with the wall, would I be able to find back the holds? I was on the manual belay system so if I were to lose my grip, I would be dangling in the air. It was also scary thinking that I was high up this wall, away from the ground, and I just kept wanting to go up as much as I could, then get down. Sometimes, I also panicked when I felt like I was losing my strength, so I tried to focus on my breathing and the process of climbing.
I managed to climb the wall a few times. Each time when I came to a point where my position was all twisted and I had no way to lift myself up, I would be calling out to be led down. My friends were commenting that I was climbing the wall too quickly and that I should be using my feet instead of my hands to pull me up.
As compared to the first time when I tried rock climbing, where I was looking for the holds by myself, it was less stressful this round because someone was beside me to guide me up and down. I had better control of my position. With the comments given by friends on the more appropriate way to attempt to climb, if given a chance, I would like to try climbing again. Climbing the wall with friends who would be by my side to guide and assist me, working out a system to communicate with me in the absence of my communication devices, trusting my friends, each aspect made the experience easier and enjoyable.
Tan Siew Ling is fully Deafblind, having lost both her sight and hearing to a neurological condition, Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). She carries a screen reader with a Braille display, which she fondly names it as “Bear Bear”, everywhere she goes. Her humour, wordplay, and love of puns keep friends on their toes. She enjoys reading books in her free time and loves to pen down her thoughts, often on a whim, which can be entertaining at times, on her social media. When she is not writing or reading, she can be seen doing insanely 72kg leg presses or swinging a 20kg kettlebell to and fro. You can find out more about Siew Ling and her journey here.