Rock Climbing

We had the best time at our rock climbing lesson.  This is something that I have always wanted to try, but have never had the opportunity to because we do not live in a location where climbing is possible.  We signed up for the "discovery" lesson, which lasted for four hours.  After getting us fitted for shoes, helmets, and harnesses, the guides took us on a short hike to our climbing location.  We started off with the basics of how to get strapped in and secure ourselves.  We did it ourselves each time, but they always double checked everything before we were allowed to climb.  I really liked that they taught us how to do all of the knots and security procedures instead of just doing it for us.

This is what our climbing area looked like- several ropes set up next to each other with multiple climbers and belayers going at the same time.  We all had to learn the basics of hand and foot position before we went up high, but we were climbing before we knew it.

We were in a group with several other people and four guides (one of whom had to leave after about two hours).  Since we were climbing using a belay device, it was important that some of us "students" learned to belay.  Otherwise, we would not get many climbs in because you can't climb if you don't have a belayer. I made two ascents- the first on a challenging (for me) route and then the second on an easy one.  I seriously couldn't believe that I made it up the first route.  It was really tough.  After my two ascents, I took a lesson on how to belay, and that's all I did after that.  Once Olivia and Owen saw that I could give them a belay, I spent the rest of the morning doing just that so that they could get in a lot of climbs.

Brian got in a couple of good climbs.  All of his were on the more challenging ropes.  He even made it through a difficult pass where he had to jump from one place to another.

We discovered that both of the kids loved climbing.  Owen had a rough start because he tried to go up one of the harder ropes first and then got upset when he couldn't make it up all the way.  After a pep talk from his dad, he tried the easier rope, was successful on that, and then had no trouble for the rest of the day.  He even made it up the rope that had tripped him up in the beginning.

Olivia was a little climbing machine.  I think that she and Owen went up almost ever rope.  They would come down from a climb and want to go right back up.  The guide was like "Don't y'all want a break?" , but they just wanted to get right back to climbing.  This is why I had to learn to belay.  We've created two little climbing monsters.






The climbing lesson was a highlight of our trip, and we will definitely be looking to do other climbing excursions in the future.