The Boulder Room

We started out the March break with a road trip up the 401 to visit my brother. Faith has been talking about climbing with her Uncle for about 6 months now, so we picked this weekend to try an indoor climbing gym. Duncan is an excellent climber, and has the muscles to prove it. (Faith still talks about him picking her up with his little fingers.)

So, on Saturday afternoon we headed out to The Boulder Room with Duncan, his girlfriend Michelle (who is fantastic, btw), Faith, and Blake. We all got strapped into our climbing harnesses, which requires that you have no issues with personal space as it's a puzzle to figure out how to do it the first time unless someone helps you strap in.

We started out with some little climbs. Faith went up the wall first and got about 10 feet up before deciding down was better. Then it was my turn. I'm not sure how far I got up before it hit me that I was clinging to the side of a wall, and that no matter what I logically knew about safety equipment, it felt like I could really fall. So, down I went.

Blake went next but lasted about 5 seconds as he didn't like the whole slipping and swinging on the rope. But, his harness was extremely useful for grabbing him when he took off around the gym.


Eventually, after trying some cave climbing, Faith worked her way up the wall to this (and then a little higher):
She decided that coming down on the rapel line was much more fun that doing the work of climbing up. But she had a great time!

It took me until my third try to get all the way to the top of the wall (about 30 feet). It actually felt fantastic! Michelle and Duncan were coaching me all the way along, or I wouldn't have gotten up the route. But apparently the secret is that it's all in the legs. Don't pull with your arms, push with your legs. Easy to say on the ground, harder to do 25 feet off the ground when you're looking for a stupid little hold to put your foot on. I was happy to say that I made it to the top twice! I even got to "stem"...which essentially means putting out your leg/hand to a side wall to get yourself up. I can see why climbing can be addictive because it's a big adrenaline rush.

It was also very cool seeing Duncan and Michelle show us "how it's done". Here are one of Duncan's climbs (and yes, he has his toes and fingers on these very little purple handholds that most of us wouldn't even be able to stub our toes on walking down the street):

After an afternoon of climbing, we headed back to Duncan's for a yummy supper (including homemade bread!), and a great dessert from Michelle...pumpkin pie!

Now we just have to plan our next climbing trip.