The Climbing Wall
A free B1-level English story for language learners, readable online in 4 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A girl who is afraid of heights freezes halfway up a climbing wall until she learns to think only about the next hold.
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Manon had never liked heights. She didn't even feel comfortable on a tall stepladder. So when her friend Sanna invited her to a party at a climbing gym, Manon almost said no.
"You can just watch," Sanna said. "But I would really like you to try."
Manon thought about it all week. She didn't want to ruin her friend's day. She didn't want to be the only one sitting on a bench. On Saturday, she put on rented shoes and a harness that felt too tight around her legs.
The wall was twelve meters tall. The other guests climbed it as if it were a staircase. Manon went up slowly, one hand and one foot at a time. For the first few minutes, it was easier than she had expected.
Then she looked down. The floor seemed very far away, and her friends looked tiny. Her fingers began to shake, and her legs stopped working. She was halfway up the wall, and she couldn't move.
"I want to come down," she called. Her voice sounded thin and strange.
"That's fine," the instructor called back from below. "You can come down whenever you like. But first, tell me something. Can you see the yellow hold above your right hand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Forget the rest of the wall. Don't look at the top, and don't look at the floor. Just put your hand on the yellow one."
It sounded too small to matter, but Manon did it. Her hand closed around the plastic, and it felt solid.
"Great. Now find the next hold. Only the next one."
She did it again, and then again. Each time, the instructor gave her only one job. She stopped counting how high she was. After a while, she realized that she was breathing normally.
Then her hand touched a big red hold, and there was nowhere left to go. She had reached the top.
She hung there for a moment and kept her eyes on the wall in front of her nose. She didn't look down. The rope lowered her slowly, and she kept looking straight ahead until her shoes touched the floor.
Only then did she turn around and look up. The wall was enormous.
"Did I really climb that?" she asked.
"Every single hold," Sanna said, and handed her a slice of cake.
