I love all outdoor sports, but climbing and skiing above all. However, in early 2017, I fractured my collarbone in a skiing accident. Fortunately, a week before departing to Auckland, my orthopaedic surgeon cleared me for all athletic activity. Thus, when I first arrived in New Zealand, I wanted to run, jump, hike, ski, and climb everything. When University began, I joined the University of Auckland’s rock climbing club, AURAC. I made an instant connection with some amazing Kiwis from the club: James, Steve, Anita, and Hamish. We free-climbed at Wharepapa, Maungarei Spings, Ti point, and so many more beautiful places New Zealand had to offer. The type of free-climbing I participated in is known as sport climbing.
In America, when I sport climbed outside, I was shaky, sweaty, and overall not confident in myself or my ability. I was afraid to take safe one meter falls, I was not confident in my technical knowledge of the sport, nor was I relatively good at the sport. When I first began climbing in New Zealand, I was exposed to an inviting and friendly climbing community. The constant encouragement and “no big deal” attitude contributed to a change in thinking. After my experience in New Zealand, I have new sense of confidence. I believe that this change in character occurred from one five-minute experience at Ti Point.
Ti Point is a rock climbing area only accessible during low tide. Anita, Hamish, Steve, James, and I had been climbing for a couple of hours when James and Steve decided to take a path above the cliffs and see if they could find a new climb and then abseil back down. About thirty minutes after they left, I yelled up to see if everything was okay, but with the sea roaring next to me, there was no way I would hear anything. I wanted to make sure everything was okay, so I ventured up the path they took with an extra rope just in case the two were stuck. When I got to the top, I saw Steve “belaying” James, who was traversing across the top of the cliffs with a 60-meter drop below. Steve was not anchored into anything, nor was the rope. Therefore, if James fell, James would take a massive swing, with Steve being the last anchor point of the pendulum. In addition, if James fell, the only thing stopping both of them from death would be Steve’s ability to hold James’s huge fall, with his feet only shoulder-width apart. It took only two seconds to realize the gravity of the situation. Instead of panicking, something switched on inside me, and I stayed calm and collected. I told Steve that I needed to put him on anchor, to ensure someone’s life, and quickly tied him into a single-, and then three-point anchor with my extra rope. As I finished, as if in slow motion, I saw the ends of the rope in Steve’s belay device almost slip out. I ran over, grabbed the rope, and quickly tied a knot so the rope could not go through his belay device. I then yelled at James to anchor into anything he could. James snapped out of a daze, seeming to realize the danger he was in, and tied onto a Pohutukawa tree. From there, James safely abseiled dow,n and everything ended up fine.
The constant exposure to bold climbing and bold people probably led to this crucial moment of innately feeling calm in a stressful situation. Yet something switched in me during my stay in New Zealand that allows me to be present in these stressful situations. I was awoken by my experiences. Ti Point helped teach me some more technical knowledge, but most importantly, that I could do the things I thought were impossible.
Ari Asarch is originally from Denver, Colorado. Ari is completing pre-med courses and majoring in philosophy. He enjoys skiing, climbing, and outdoor activities in general.
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