CRS3

When I was in my late teens I used to be a passionate rockclimber. I lived in Colorado at the time and my best friend(still best friend to this day) would often go out to Red Rocks or somewhere in Manatou Springs and rockclimb.
We thought ropes were for the whimps so we never used them. Well, one morning we decided to try and tackle this pretty advanced slope without the help of cables or ropes(testosterone raging). We got about halfway(100yrds with 100yrds to go) and we realized we were stuck. It was straight up and straight down. No foot/hand holes in site.(I must interject the rock in these places were like clay.It could crumble right in your hands). Well, we started getting a little worried since no one knew we were up there. Not just worried,we started crying realizing the danger we were in. Then, to make matters worse, it started raining. We were just hanging there trying to figure out what we were going to do when we came up with a solution. We created,
what we still refer to to this day as "The Basic Rule of rockclimbing" If you follow this one rule none other applies. And you can rest assured that there will be no death and no injury. The basic rule we came up with is, ready?
"DONT FALL" Follow this simple rule and everything will be ok. Our tears went from tears of fear to tears of laughter,down right hysterics.After about 15min of uncontrolable laughter we inched our way down. We had about 15-20 feet left to the bottom when we both slid(not fell) down the rest of the way. I broke my ankle and he had 17 stitches in his arm. During the course of our lives we have reminded ourselves often of the basic rule used in different situations. So Im going to use it for Drinking. DONT FALL! PERIOD!
I feel better. Thanks for letting me share
---J