My fingers are aching, my arms are stretched to the limit and my legs are spread in opposite directions ? revealing more than I would like for those below ? I've never felt more alive!

Truth be told, the wall is not high, but for a brief moment, I feel like a real climber. And just like that ? I am hooked!

Before being invited by CityROCK to take part in their introductory course I had never really looked at climbing as a pastime, let alone a sport that I would be interested in. I have memories of gym class and a dodgy climbing wall embedded in my head, but after completing the course I know that I will be back to hit the more difficult climbs.

When you enter the indoor climbing centre in Observatory, two things hit you ? first the wall-to-wall climbing? uh, walls, and then the sense of community. That camaraderie is extended to anybody new and it immediately makes you feel welcome. It is not surprising when you consider that you are literally putting your life in the hands of the people you climb with.

CityROCK has 450 square metres of vertical and overhanging climbing surfaces. There are 27 set routes of all grades ? some suitable for beginners and others best left to the real climbers.

Fourteen of these routes are lead-able while the balance of them are dedicated to top rope climbs. There is also a 150m? bouldering cave, which is crafted and sculptured with cracks, handrails, slopers, crimpers, underclings and bulges ? not to worry I didn't understand any of the lingo either, but I still managed to hit the wall.

Removed from the main area of climbing is a dedicated area designed for teaching courses to beginners ? which is where I found myself with three other wannabe climbers.

According to our instructor, before CityROCK there was nowhere to learn the sport in a safe environment. Until founder Steve Horowitz open the indoor climbing centre in Observatory your only option was to hit the mountains and learn through trial and error. Of course, in climbing you seldom have a chance to make more than one error?

Quite admirably ? and perhaps a little foolishly ? Tiaan (our instructor) learnt the trade from a book! It took him six months to perfect the basic training (it takes him less than an hour to give us the low-down) necessary to climb alone. He laughs when he tells us how there were times when he was halfway up a mountain and his friends below were arguing amongst each other about how to belay him down again.

The intro course, quite understandably, focuses on safety procedures along with the basic equipment (harness), knots and belaying techniques.

At first glance it looks pretty technical and when we started talking about 'carabiners' and 'belay devices' I was a bit worried, but it is not hard to get the hang of and within 20 minutes you should be able to tie a perfect 'figure eight' and have the belay technique down. Basically the climber has one end of the rope secured to his harness, while his partner on the ground (the belayer) has the rope locked into a belay device. As the climber goes up, he feeds the rope through to avoid any slack.

Once the instructor is happy that you can belay without your climber dropping to the earth with a sickening thud ? it is time to climb! Being that climbing is a partner sport, you will take turns climbing and then belaying for your partner.

I was the second to climb and after the first guy shot up the wall like a rock-spider, I was plagued by visions of making it halfway up the wall and then dropping off. But the training wall is a cinch for every aspirant climber and few would battle with it. The wall is just the hook to get you going back for more and more?

  • For more information on CityROCK and the courses they offer e-mail: info@cityrock.co.za / telephone (021) 447 1326 / visit the CityROCK website.