First of all we need experience, that of course was the easy part!. All we had to do was take a short (10 hour) bus journey into Hospet and then hop into Hampi, cross the river and walk into the mass of pinkish granite boulders, formed an estimated 2300 million years ago.
Armed with rubber-soled climbing shoes and crash pads, we headed for the unknown, (apart from the fact that it was known, because many climbers including the worlds best have explored these areas and, in 2008, Rohit Chauhan produced a Hampi climbing guide....... but apart from that it was unknown to us.....)
1. Suggestions
Next comes the ‘project’, of which there were many possilities. Dotted around the landscape, the projects came in the form of natural lines, cracks, distinctive features and sequences of chalk marks. As we stumbled upon each one it was apparent that there was an inhibition to act, to pursue, arising in a flood of suggestions: some that considered more than one course of action, which line, which way to the top. Interest begins to gather as personal and group projects emerged.
2. Intellectualisation
The movement required is intrinsic, engaging with these established boulder features to redefine our evolutionary mechanisms; convincing our minds that falling is not a bad thing. When the project gets complex (the projects in which we aim to participate) we start to intellectualise; to define the problem, to raise the important questions about the sequence in which we move each hand and each foot, how do we sustain our balance, discussion of the consequence of falling, the arrangements we make to position the spotter (a person ready to catch you when you fall), to arrange the tactics of when to apply all the energy we have and when to take opportunities to hang in stillness, knowing when to give up and when to try again.
3. The hypothesis
Once we have gathered this information we are able to create a hypothesis. We convince ourselves that this boulder, this line, this situation has become an opportunity. A calculated opportunity to get to the top!
4. Reasoning of the hypothesis
This hypothesis can be developed further by gaining more information, asking more questions, and beginning to understand our own ability in context of the problem. This line of thought often happens on the walk out of the boulder field in the evening or at first light whilst passing around a small pot of chocolate porridge.
5. Testing the hypothesis
These projects very quickly get your heart pounding, your blood pumping, and make you shout outrageous thoughts. Fighting with the rock or dancing in collaboration with it, emotions often take their toll. In these moments we are simply doing – testing the hypothesis - otherwise know as ‘climbing hard’!
Self motivation plays its part, becoming almost as important as the support from the group... the cries from others encouraging you to continue can be heard from all around, some times attracting attention from the locals: ‘VENGA’ ‘YOU HAVE IT SARA’ ‘SORT YOUR FEET OUT’, COME ON!
The sequence of events are not restricted to order. Dewey did not see them as linear, they could be collapsed or expanded, but offer an outline for what he referred to as ‘reflective thinking’. Some projects took days to accomplish, others not so long. But for each comes a sense of joy, a joy of completion. It is hard to explain this feeling of completion, especially when you know that you were unable to accomplish the project on the first attempt, but after 20, 30 or even 50 tries, in the end you managed! Happiness comes from the knowledge that your finger tips can now rest from having been embedded in the hard sharp crystallised granite. Incomplete, they remain a ‘project’!
We now wait in anticipation to see if these experiences will enrich the next, which of course is another of Dewey’s fundamental notions of learning.
Click here to watch the students' video.
Inspired by the Hampi second year climbers
Words by Andrew Hepworth
UWC Mahindra College Outdoor Programme
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