No character in this story was under 18 when they had sex.
I will leave it to the reader to decide what is true and what is fiction. I have been around long enough to know that each person decides what is true or not based on their own experiences, and NOT based on what is actually true.
Chapter 41 -- Tammy
I had a really heavy load of classes going into my final year at BYU. There wouldn't be much extra time for extracurricular activities ... at least not activities that required a lot of time for planning. I would still have time for the occasional rock climb or spending time with whatever special girls I came across. Then again, it is sometimes time-consuming finding a special girl, but not always. Sometimes things just fall into your lap. Those are often the best.
I was up in Rock Canyon doing a little bit of climbing when she literally fell into my lap. When I arrived at the canyon, I was alone, so I was just doing a traverse across the lower part of the Ed &Terry quartzite slab (so named for a route right up the middle of the slab. As I picked my way through tiny holds, a girl I had never seen before came up to watch me. The next thing I knew, she was following me across the slab using holds that I hadn't even seen.
"You're good," I said. "We don't get that many girls climbing up here."
"Thank you," she replied. "I just started climbing this last school year. I came up here to Rock Canyon hoping to find a climbing partner because there are some routes I want to try."
"OK," I said. "I'm Pete, and I would climb with you, if you want."
"My name is Tammy," she replied, "And I would love to climb with you. Do you have much experience here in Rock Canyon?"
"Yeah," I answered. "I have climbed most of the routes in the canyon. What route are you interested in?"
"I want to lead The Flakes (a route on the left side of the Ed &Terry slab)."
"You want to lead it?" I asked. "Do you have any experience leading?"
"No," she said, "But I have climbed The Flakes once before, and it seems like leading it is the next logical step."
I replied, "Leading would be a logical next step, but I would recommend that you try an easier route, such as Ed & Terry, for your first lead. The Flakes is a tricky route with questionable placements. It would be easy to get messed up."
"Nevertheless," she continued, "That is the route I want to try. Will you belay me?"
"Yes," I answered. "I will belay you."
I had my rope and climbing gear with me, so I set up a belay at the start of the Flakes route. As Tammy studied the rock face, I anchored myself by placing a couple of chocks in a crack and tying myself to them, Chocks are angled pieces of metal attached to short slings. At the base of the climb, there was a sharp pinnacle of rock sticking up out of the ground. "Not a real good place for that to be," I thought to myself. "It would be bad if you fell on it."
A belay is used to keep climbers from falling to the ground if they slip. The principle behind the belay is that, if the leader periodically places protection on the way up the cliff, and then slips, the leader will only fall twice the distance the he or she has climbed above the highest piece of protection...plus about ten percent for rope stretch when the rope becomes tight. Therefore, if the leader slips ten feet above a piton or chock (assuming it holds), they will fall ten feet past it plus two more feet before the rope stops him ... a total of twenty-two feet.
"Belay on," Tammy said as she started up the rock face. One final check of her equipment and she was on her way.
"On belay," I returned to signify that I was now belaying her. She climbed steadily up the face, picking her hand holds and footholds with care. Twenty feet from the base, a previous climber had placed a permanent bolt in the rock and attached a hanger to it. This was the most secure placement a climber could get. Tammy clipped into it with a carabiner and ran the rope through the carabiner. Ten more feet of steady climbing brought her to the bottom of the flake, a large slab of rock with a crack running behind it from the right.
Tammy placed a small, wired wedge chock into the crack, tested it for downward pull, and clipped the rope into it with another carabiner. Now she had two pieces of protection. Again, she climbed, walking up the almost vertical wall to the right of the fake as she worked her hands up along the edge. Upward, ever upward, Tammy went, using the opposition between her hands and feet to keep her on the rock. Ten more feet and she arrived at the top of the flake. Here, the crack had thinned dramatically, and Tammy chose a knife-blade piton to drive into the crack. She attached another carabiner to the piton and clipped the rope into the carabiner.
"Pete, I'm getting a little tired," she said. "I'm going to rest for a second." She stood on a small knob, breathing deeply and shaking her arms and legs one at a time. Tammy was trying to increase circulation to bring much needed oxygen to her muscles. Then, after a short break, she was climbing again. Using small holds in the rock, Tammy worked her way up toward a narrow ledge until she could reach up and put her hands on it. The face on either side of the ledge was smooth and devoid of holds; but she thought she saw an easier route to the right.
"I'm too tired to mantle up onto the ledge, Pete," she said. "I think I'll try to go around it to the right."
"Don't do it, Tammy," I yelled back at her. "There's nothing there, and you'll just wear yourself out further."
Unfortunately, she was determined to try. Tammy ventured out onto the right face, trying to find a small hold that nobody had ever seen before...one that would allow her to avoid the difficult move onto the ledge. Carefully, she gripped tiny irregularities on the surface, searching for the hold that she could use to pull herself up...but there wasn't one. After several minutes of frustrating exertion, hanging on with her fingertips, she moved back to the base of the ledge. She had been tired before...now she was exhausted.
