Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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First ascent.

Descended. The first recorded recreational rock climb.

So I began to suspect that I ought not to go on but then unfortunately tho’ I could with ease drop down a smooth Rock 7 feet high, I could not climb it so go on I must and on I went — the next 3 drops were not half a Foot, at least not a foot more than my own height but every Drop increased the Palsy of my Limbs—I shook all over, Heaven knows without the least influence of Fear. And now I had only two more to drop down—to return was impossible—but of these two the first was tremendous—it was twice my own height, & the Ledge at the bottom was exceedingly narrow, that if I dropt down upon it I must of necessity have fallen backwards & of course killed myself. My Limbs were all in a tremble—I lay upon my Back to rest myself, & was beginning according to my Custom to laugh at myself for a Madman, when the sight of the Crags above me on each side, & the impestuous Clouds just over them, posting so luridly & so rapidly northward, overawed me.

I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance & Delight—& blessed God aloud, for the powers of Reason & of the Will, which remaining no Danger can overpower us! O God, I exclaimed aloud—how calm, how blessed am I now. I know not how to proceed, how to return but if I am calm & fearless & confident—if this Reality were a Dream, if I were asleep, what agonies had I suffered! what screams!—When the Reason & the Will are away, what remain to us but Darkness & Dimness & a bewildering shame, and Pain that is utterly Lord over us, or fantastic Pleasure, that draws the Soul along swimming through the air in many shapes, even as a Flight of Starlings in a Wind.

References

[1] https://www.gethistories.com/p/the-birth-of-mountaineering-1802