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The snap of the gate after you clip,
The clink of your ATC as you take in slack,
Your partner’s focused, pre-crux breaths,
The swish of the rope gliding through your gloved hand and the soft scrape when it snags slightly whilst sliding over the schist,
the synthetic snap of helmet buckles,
the jingle of knocking nuts,
the clank of colliding cams,
the conversational crickets hiding in the pine needles, the cheeping finch perched overhead, and the chattering chipmunk scampering through last autumn’s maple leaves:
These are the small sounds of climbing.
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