Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You, Week II [Monday, Period 4]

[atreideslioness]

When students arrived in the Danger Shop today, they'd find it set up for rock climbing.

"Hello, students," Ghanima said briskly, giving some handouts to the TAs. "Today, we study mountains and rock climbing."

"The important thing to remember about mountains is that each one is different, depending on the size and location," she said. "High mountains, and mountains located close to the Earth's poles, reach into the colder layers of the atmosphere. They are consequently subject to glaciation, and erosion through frost action, and such processes produce the peak shape for which mountains are known. Some of these mountains have glacial lakes, created by melting glaciers. Mountains can be eroded and weathered, altering their characteristics over time, so even if you've been to an area once, it may not be the same as before."

"Tall mountains have different climatic conditions at the top than at the base, and will thus have different life zones at different altitudes. The flora and fauna found in these zones tend to become isolated since the conditions above and below a particular zone will be inhospitable to those organisms. These isolated ecological systems are known as sky islands and/or microclimates."

"Mountains are also generally less preferable for human habitation than lowlands; the weather is often harsher, and there is little level ground suitable for agriculture. At very high altitudes, there is less oxygen in the air and less protection against solar radiation Acute mountain sickness, caused by hypoxia - a lack of oxygen in the blood, affects over half of lowlanders who spend more than a few hours above 3,500 meters, or 11,483 feet."

"Today, you'll be learning how to scale these majestic landmarks." Ghanima gestured to the gear and the walls. "There's easy, medium, hard, and expert trails here today, you just have to follow the color-coded tape paths. Or, you can try making your own goals. Race each other, work in teams, or get a feel for some of the unconventional maneuvers you might have do in order to move about a mountain."

"I just ask that you warm-up on the easy and medium trails first, no matter how advanced you think yourself. I don't want anyone getting hurt during the second week of classes."

[Ya'll know the rules. The OCD is up, so you're free to roam!]

Comments

The Gear!

[atreideslioness]

Socialize as you get suited up! Try to figure out what everything does! There's a programed NPC that can explain things, or Ghani can try to answer your questions for you.

Re: The Gear!

[puppy_fair]

Zack really wasn't sure what the point of all of this equipment was, but then, Zack could handle a good chunk of the rock wall with a running leap, too.

Even so, he was gearing up. Falling from up there would probably suck, right?

Re: The Gear!

[endsthegame]

This could really prove to be useful, so Ender listened carefully while he got his gear together, absorbing every word and adjusting where he felt it wasn't quite right.

Re: The Gear!

[momslilassassin]

Ben pulled on the gear and smiled to himself. Most of the time his experience had been with a tow cable around his waist to stop from killing himself immediately. This felt a little more secure.

Re: The Gear!

[saikyou-no.livejournal.com]

"Ben," Kenshin said quietly, approaching his 'big brother.' He wondered for a moment if he should ask about the handouts, but decided that it could wait. "All this equipment seems like-" he frowned "-too much."

It couldn't be only he who thought so, could it?

Re: The Gear!

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled. "It's for class, so they can't exactly teach the people who've never done this before how to go up a cliff face with just their hands and feet. This way you can learn without getting hurt."

Re: The Gear!

[saikyou-no.livejournal.com]

"...This teacher is a lot kinder than Shishou," he commented.

Re: The Gear!

[momslilassassin]

"She expects you to learn, and quickly," Ben said, which was why he'd taken every class Master Atreides had offered, "but there's nothing you can learn if you've broken a foot going too fast."

Re: The Gear!

[saikyou-no.livejournal.com]

"I guess that makes sense. ...More sense than the way Shishou did things."

He still didn't think he'd need much - if any - equipment, but he figured a length of rope and a few anchors wouldn't hurt. If he needed them, they'd be there. If not, they wouldn't get in the way.

Re: The Gear!

[momslilassassin]

Ben was starting to form a serious dislike for Shishou.

"The easier way doesn't mean it's bad," he said with a small nod.

Re: The Gear!

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She had never studied this particular sort of equipment, but she had enough knowledge of the physics and the mechanics that she managed to figure out what she was doing by listening to the 'instructor'.

Re: The Gear!

[future_sandworm]

Leto examined the equipment available, and picked out what he needed.

Re: The Gear!

[solo_sword]

With something like this, Jaina was actually willing to listen to the explanation of how everything worked. It was just that she was already assuming she knew what everything did before it said anything.

Re: The Gear!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela shrugged into the gear with practiced ease. It wasn't precisely like the stuff she was used to, but it was close enough to be extremely familiar.

Re: The Gear!

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave her a gleeful look. "Finally! Rocks! Woo!"

Re: The Gear!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's like they know we've been practicing," Triela laughed.

Re: The Gear!

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave her a mischievous look. "And want to do it again, when the construction's gone. But I've been wanting to hit the Rocky Bits forever, so this'll be great practice." She carefully shrugged on her harness, and started checking the fittings. "This is something I should mention in the next Reserves meeting too."

Re: The Gear!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"We'll have to do that sometime, for sure," Triela grinned.

Then she blinked. "Reserves?"

Re: The Gear!

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"You didn't hear about this?" Dinah blinked, then carefully attached her carbiner. "Leto and Arthur and Reno organized it, only a few weeks ago. Well. No Reno now. But it's to get people working together in groups again, if there's another invasion." She tilted her head. "I figured you knew about it and just weren't interested."

Re: The Gear!

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri spent some time looking over the climbing gear; she'd rarely used as much stuff as this before, and really, when she'd spent a third of her life climbing all over the place in parts of Yavin 4 that she wasn't supposed to know about with little more than a light grappling line and sometimes not even that (she had so not been a model student, what with all that sneaking off) it seemed like a little bit much.

But, she supposed, if she was going to be the TA for this class she should probably use the stuff, so . . . looking it over and picking out what she was supposed to need it was.

. . . oh, but if you thought she was putting on shoes, you were delusional.

Look, if there wasn't actual ice here, it wasn't going to happen.

[OOC: Woulda edited that hours ago, but argh nothing all day but tiny phone internets.]

Re: The Gear!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Okay, the gear was... mostly confusing. The most she'd ever used before to assist in climbing was a length of rope.

She also wondered if Blind Seer would need to 'suit up'.

Re: The Gear!

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

"Want some help?" K-Mart offered when she saw Firekeeper looking at everything.

Re: The Gear!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Would not mind," Firekeeper admitted, desire to get going already winning out over pride.

[ooc: sorry, did not see this until now! D:]

Re: The Gear!

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

"You're going to need this, this, this, that..." and so on, until K-Mart had pointed out and pulled together everything the other girl needed.

"Okay, now to get you actually suited up and all that."

[ooc: hee, is all good.]

Re: The Gear!

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

Eleanor looked at the gear with some apprehension. Even with the handouts for reference, she was having a hard time figuring out what went where.