Climbing the Walls

Funny thing happened today.

Our four-year old was invited to a 12 year-old cousin's birthday party.  

It was at a place called "Rockville."  It's a climbing wall in a very borderline part of town.  I guess when you need a huge warehouse type place for cheap, that's where you find it.

The place was crawling with teenagers, some parents (surprisingly few), Zelda and I, and Neve.

I put a harness on, but I had NO INTENTION of getting off the ground. I am in awe of Jeff and Beth and Jason, and all climbers. But scared silly of heights. The pic of Beth on The El ... I can't even comprehend it.

So everyone was running around doing their thing, climbing, rappelling, belaying.  I was surfing the skinet on my phone, looking at pics from FIS and others snagging turns at Stowe and Killington. Really wishing I was up on the Whiteface access road with Matt and Fuje.

I wandered over to this really low wall that had no setup for belay, and had a pad underneath. I grabbed on an sorta pulled myself up:



I gotta admit ... it was pretty cool. I was only a few feet off the ground.

Sneakers have to be ridiculous for climbing when they are brand new. And mine are hanging by a thread.

I went to the front desk and got some climbing shoes.

I asked about the easiest pitch, and went for it. Actually was only scared on the descent, as I had no idea about how to get down.

Basically I didn't look down, until my I got to the top of my third and final ascent.  The modest height was intimidating, but I looked away, and was fine.  



Awesome workout. It's easy to understand why climbers are so buff.

 

Harv climbing the walls when he can't ski is nothing new.  

Harv, you're so modest.  You scampered up that slab like it was Sunday stroll in the park.  

Funny coincidence, Harv: we celebrated my kid's Birthday on Sunday, October 17 at Gravity Vault (Upper Saddle River)

Kids had a blast, each one had a chance to climb more then 7 times. Me and another dad took a 1hr instruction - $50 for an hour for both of us. My hands gave up after about 5 climbs.

Denis.N wrote

Kids had a blast, each one had a chance to climb more then 7 times. Me and another dad took a 1hr instruction - $50 for an hour for both of us. My hands gave up after about 5 climbs.

Denis it looks like you were scampering right up. Of course it never occurred to me to take a lesson...

I went for it three times... could have squeezed out a fourth, but I didn't see any reason to push it.

Time to try to get into some kind of shape.