NEW HEIGHTS
Fit City takes a trip down a 38-story building
I really do feel like Wonder Woman up here, creeping down the shimmery skin of a 38-story high-rise building in downtown Austin.
Except, of course, for my legs, which are shaking so badly I could probably hitch them up to a generator and power an entire city full of lights for 24 hours.
I glance over my shoulder, without looking down. The Frost Bank tower rises like a giant nose-hair clipper toward the sky. A turkey vulture rides a thermal in my peripheral vision. I wonder if anyone’s conducting a business meeting in one of the offices as I dangle just out of reach and, if they are, what they think of my red, white and blue spangled superhero costume.
A few weeks ago, I agreed to rappel down the W Austin hotel as part of Make-A-Wish’s annual fundraiser so the nonprofit organization can grant wishes for seriously ill children.
I ignored the fact that I’ve got a fear of heights so bad I once crawled on my hands and knees for an eighth of a mile along a vertigo-inducing trail at Glacier National Park. I’ve scuba dived with hammerhead sharks, run in a naked 5K race and zipped down a luge track face-first on a fast-moving sled, but a fear of heights is my Achilles’ heel.
I’ve declared 2017 my Year of Adventure, though, so here I am.
It wasn’t easy getting to this point. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest as an elevator whisked me to the top of the building, knowing I’d be using a harness and carabiners for the trip down. After a quick session on a low wall to practice proper rappelling form, I headed toward a spiderweb of ropes and pulleys that, I was told, guaranteed my safety. As I waited, I made small talk with Kathrin Brewer, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas.
“Oh, you’re afraid of heights?” Brewer said. “That’s a bummer, because this is really high.”
No kidding. I decided I wouldn’t look down and vowed to get off the building as quickly as possible, preferably without wetting my pants.
Someone handed me a pair of blue booties, which made me look like a surgeon headed to the operating room. They’d