Maggie's First Multi-Pitch

Ryan “Dirty” Carey. He certainly was. The big, bushy beard covering his face conjured images of men in red flannel shirts with axes slung over their backs hiking off into the woods to build single room log cabins.
Ryan had a degree in outdoor education from Plymouth State. Quite a good fit for him, especially today, for he was going to be leading Maggie on her first multi-pitch climb. They would be climbing the Cannon Cliffs in Franconia Notch State Park.. This particular route (called the Whitney Gilman) was one of the easier ones (only a 5.7 out of 15), but it was still over 400 vertical feet. This necessitated the multi-pitch approach.
Maggie would be tied to Ryan with a long climbing rope strong enough to hold a piano. Ryan would start climbing first, placing gear into the rock, creating tie off points. The rope would attach to these points so; if he fell he would only fall as far as the last attachment point. Once Ryan reached the end of the rope he would secure himself and Maggie would climb up to him, removing the gear from the rock on the way. After she met him the process would repeat until they reached the summit.
Maggie barely knew any of this before today; her climbing experience was limited to man-made climbing walls of only a few stories where someone on the ground below you had the other end of the rope. Now here she was, staring up a vertical 400 foot granite wall. It was a beautiful late August day and she was still sweating from the hike up to the cliff’s base. After a short briefing Ryan began the climb.
It was a popular spot and other climbers were around them. Ryan reached a small ledge and secured himself. It was Maggie’s turn to climb. It wasn’t too difficult. She had plenty of indoor practice, and she was in good shape. She made her way up the granite wall, removing gear from it as she reached the attachment points. Before long she was on the first narrow ledge with Ryan.
Normally it would be her turn to lead, but because it was her first time Ryan was going to lead the entire climb. She handed him the gear and he began climbing once again. Awhile later they reached their third or fourth anchor ledge and stopped for a break. Maggie was a little confused. She didn’t know what she was supposed to clip in to. She had just unclipped from the rope and was sitting on the ledge. There was nothing between her and the ground 400 feet below. Another pair of climbers joined them on the curb width ledge.
They were two old guys: veteran climbers. They explained that this was one of their favorites and they were climbing it for old-time’s sake. One of them was looking down at Maggie’s harness, a quizzical look in his eyes.
Here she was, over 400 feet in the air, sitting half way off an 8 inch wide ledge with absolutely nothing holding her to the wall. The man grabbed her leg, pinning her to the cliff and quickly clipped a bunch of carabiners and ropes to her harness, securing her to multiple attachment points.
At the time she didn’t really think much of it, but later she realized how dangerous the situation had been. One slip and she would have been a goner. The rest of the climb went off without incident. She had done it. Only her second outdoor climb and her first multi-pitch.