I’m standing at the base of a cliff. There is a rope attached to me via harness and ATC. Said rope goes up the cliff from where I am to the person climbing above me. I’m trying not to look up for two reasons. 1. My neck hurts from looking up and 2. Mooseknuckle. Suddenly a shriek pierces the air and brings my attention up as my body reflexes to brace a fall. Fortunately the scream was all that was needed and the climber continued upward.
Billy Goat Hill is a bitch of a climb on the backside of the Zen. To get to the bottom of BGH you have to climb the Zen which is a challenge in and of itself. Once at the top of the Zen you get to descend for a few moments only to have to climb Billy Goat Fucking Hill. The approach to the hill is steep and then levels out just enough for you to think that you can get some speed for the finish. But the Goat doesn’t give up that easy. To clean this section of unexplainably stupid trail, you have to make a nearly 90 degree turn at the exact moment when your legs are maxed out from the climb. And you have to make that turn in loose, rocky conditions.
Screaming increases your chances of coming through dab-free.
One of my elementary school teachers, I don’t recall which one, tried to teach us that screaming was ok. She explained the release of pent up energy, the stress level drop and she explained it through stories that we could understand. And then she would have us scream. But not an extended “I’m screaming to scream” scream, no a short yelp of a shriek. Energy needed to start at our toes and move through our bodies up and out of our mouths. Once we were done with this exercise, we were all pretty quiet for a while. I think she was on to something.
Grunts, groans, shrieks, screams, crying, audible noises that mean nothing but tend to be our most innate form of communication. Think about making love, our most intimate reaction with other human beings and mostly we just groan and moan, and it is enough. It is pure expression. It’s instinctual. It’s just something that happens.
Through exhaustive research I have found that all you need to get an elementary school teacher to curse like a sailor, is to put said teacher on the end of a rope up a cliff. Once fear is introduced and things feel out of their control, their inner sailor will curse their way up the cliff. Try it, you will not be disappointed. And once you belay them back down the cliff, they will have no memory of the words that streamed so effortlessly from their mouths.
Screaming helps. Any one who has experienced that moment when you either did or did not and it wasn’t a silly literary question, knows that at that point sounds exude from your body and you have no control over them. They usually are yelps or shrieks and often accompanied by curse words. But they are necessary and they always help.