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 Activity: Rock Climbing!

[atreideslioness]

Mod your course! Go it alone, have a race, try a few different tracks!

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

Like Lady Ghanima had asked, Zack was making a beeline for the medium trail, first. He'd get in his warm-up, and then he'd give the hard or the expert trail a shot.

This was fun.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela started up the medium trail not long after Zack did, which allowed her to watch him in action. He wasn't bad, she decided to herself, and once they'd both finished it she looked over at him. "You want to race up the next one?"

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

"I'm headed up the expert one next," Zack said. "I don't mind a race, if you're up for it!"

It'd let him get to know his classmates better, right? Right!

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

She grinned. "I think I'm up for it." Right or not, she was confident that she'd win.

"I'm Triela," she offered. Couldn't hurt to be polite, after all.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

"I'm Zack! Nice to meet you, Triela!"

It wasn't that Zack wasn't confident that he'd win, really. It was more that he didn't care one way or the other if he did or didn't. He'd get up to the top, and he'd have fun doing it, and sure, he was pretty awesome at this kind of thing, but that wasn't going to make him all cocky or anything.

Much.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"See you at the top, then, Zack." And with that Triela was off. She wasn't pushing herself too hard so her opening leap was only about ten feet before she caught a handhold and started hauling herself upward.

She was fast. She had some experience with this sort of thing, and she was incredibly strong so she could grab onto the tiniest of hand-holds. Unfortunately she wasn't especially tall, and some experience wasn't the same thing as being experienced.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

Oh, hey. That was a good leap she made! Zack made one to follow, about the same height, and he was scaling the wall right after her, grinning and putting that extra height of his to some use, skipping the odd outcropping here and there where he could reach.

"You're a good jumper," he noted as he caught up to her, grinning.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

She glanced over her shoulder at him, not totally surprised since she'd seen him on the easier trails, but a little surprised nonetheless.

"You're not so bad yourself," she managed, trying to pick up the pace a little bit to overcome his height advantage.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

"Where'd you learn to climb like this?" Yes, Zack was making small talk during a race while hanging off a vertical rock-climbing course. It was what he did. "I'm a country boy, so terrain like this isn't all that new to me, you know? This is pretty fun!"

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

The fact that he could make small talk and still keep up with her wasn't really saying much for Triela's chances of winning. Unless he let her. Her breath wasn't short yet, but her tone was tight with concentration when she answered.

"I train for this sort of thing back home. Never know when you'll have to climb a cliff and shoot some people at the top."

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

"Oooh, so you're a fighter, too? I don't really shoot people, myself. Normally, I'm doing this with a sword, instead. And sometimes it isn't even people at the top, either."

Monsters were more fun to slice at, though.

Zack? Still keeping up, yes.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"A sword?" Normally Triela would sound unimpressed. After all, guns were so much more efficient. She couldn't quite muster up the proper tone at the moment, though. That was because she had pushed up the pace again and that required most of her attention.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[puppy_fair]

"Yep, a sword!" Zack glanced over to see that she was pulling ahead, which simply wouldn't do! He couldn't carry on a conversation if she was way above him, after all. And so he picked up his pace just enough that he was nosing ahead of her again. "It's SOLDIER issue. And I'm pretty good with it, if I do say so myself."

It made more sense to use a sword in his line of work. Too many monsters were damn near bulletproof, and it was easier to equip materia into his sword, anyhow.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"We don't really do much with blades where I'm from," she said, voice even more strained as she tried to pick up the pace again. This time she was taking bigger risks, using her mechanical strength to throw herself past hand holds in an effort to make up ground and sort of duplicate his height advantage.

Moving in a way that took her completely out of contact with the wall's surface might have been no big deal if she had been a real expert, but it was definitely risky behavior for someone of Triela's skill level.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[momslilassassin]

Ben warmed up on the intermediate course before heading to the expert trail to see how far he could stretch himself without having to rely on the Force.

Using the Force felt a little like cheating and Ben was one stubborn kid.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona started on the medium trail, figuring she might as well learn how to do this in case it came up at a later date and life never seemed to hand you the easiest path.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[future_sandworm]

He was used to climbing the rocks around the Sietch, but as Ghani had pointed out, every mountain was different. When picking a path, Leto tried to find one that was different from what he was used to.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[solo_sword]

Jaina really should have started out on the beginner trail. She actually started out on the medium one instead. She'd love to just jump right into it, but this felt like a good compromise.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah started the medium course, even knowing she should probably start the beginner's; she was going to take it slow, was all, and really get the hang of it first.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[saikyou-no.livejournal.com]

Though he was certain he could handle the more advanced courses (after what Shishou ad put him through, he had better be able to handle them), he took the teacher's advice, and started up the 'medium' trail. A warm-up never hurt anyone.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper and Blind Seer obligingly 'warmed up' on the medium trail before trying a harder one.

The wolf-girl was not in possession of a spider's grace when it came to climbing, but she performed the task well enough.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

While it seemed the majority of the students were headed for the medium course, Eleanor went for 'easy'. Primarily because she'd never done anything like this in her life.

Lots of manual labor didn't necessarily count as experience for something like this.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

K-Mart headed for the medium trail. She'd warm up happily, but by God she was going to go for the hardest warm-up possible.

Re: The Activity: Rock Climbing!

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri probably should have started with the beginner course too, yeah, but nobody else was, so . . . not to be outdone, she hit the intermediate trail first. She honestly found the extra gear cumbersome, and Riina thought it was purely ridiculous, but Riina could go suck void for all Tahiri cared right now; she was in a good mood, dammit, and not even her unwanted little friend was going to dent that today.

By the time she'd gotten to the top on the intermediate trail, she thought she had the hang of the gear, so off to the hard one it was.

Definitely different from the sort of climbing escapades she'd had in the past, but fun anyway.