February 9, 2008
rock climbing
This morning we went rock climbing. Indoors that is, and not on real rocks. There is a climbing gym not too far from here called Allez-Up, which translates roughly as “Up You Go”.
The whole experience was great fun, and I would definitely go again. The group I was with numbered about a dozen people - mostly coworkers from my girlfriend’s office, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.
For myself, it was the first time I had done indoor climbing, but I didn’t have too many problems. I first tried 3 of the easier walls, these were straight 90-degree climbs, with a decent number of holds. No problem.
One of the belayers suggested I tried something more challenging so I moved to one of the side walls. This one was a bit harder, as there were fewer “good” holds and quite a few small nubs that were hard to get a grip on with my sneakers. Next time I would rent the climbing shoes. Also, the top of this wall leaned slightly outwards for the last 5 or 6 feet, just for fun apparently. On my first attempt my hands were still sweaty from my early climbs, so I slipped off halfway up and had to start over. Those bags of chalk must be essential for regular climbers. On my second attempt I made it to the top, slapped the pipe and was belayed back to the ground.
After that a bunch of us watched as people tried to climb this really hard wall. The first 3/4 was a straight climb, then the wall jutted out horizontally, about 4 feet, before resuming the vertical. Basically you had to hang from the ceiling to make it over the lip. A couple of guys (who had obviously climbed before) tried and failed but we all applauded their effort. Finally, a shorter guy made it over the lip and everyone cheered. After that a few more people tried, some made it and some didn’t, but everyone had fun.
Before going, Soizic and I tried another wall that was really fun. It was built into a corner, so you had two walls to climb against. The holds were decent, a bit easier than the more challenging wall I had tried before. To make it interesting, there was a large triangular lip that had to be overcome. It was easier than the horizontal lip mentioned above, but still challenging enough for us to put big grins on our face when we made it over the top.
Posted by Aaron on February 9, 2008, 9:24 pm permalink top | general
I went rock climbing when I was in high school. It was a lot of fun, and I had all but forgotten about it till now. If you ever plan a group to go back with some of the mdf guys or whatnot, let me know.
Treacle, I would be soooo into trying this out. If you guys get together, I want in…If you’ll have me
I’ve always wondered what amount of physical strength was required to do this. I’ve seen some vids where guys are just flying up these walls.