Climbing

Last Friday we took Daniel and some friends to Sportrock indoor climbing facility to do a climbing session with an instructor. Unfortunately you had to be at least 6, so Joshua couldn't participate, but he was a good sport about it and found lots of other things to do, including a bit of bouldering (basically, climbing on the lower rocks without a rope!). So Daniel and his friends spent 2 hrs with an instructor climbing increasingly harder walls, until they got to the one in the picture. I don't know how he got to the top of this one - it is unbelievably high. It has a bell at the top that you can ring...if you can reach it. Well, he rang it! Yes, that's him at the top in the picture.

The kids had so much fun we went back on Saturday and Stuart and I took a class to learn how to belay so we can belay the kids and each other. We have to go back and take a test to get certified, which we'll probably do this weekend before the forget all the ropes...pun intended! It turned out to be a great family activity. We would belay the kids and then, while the kids did some bouldering, we belayed each other. We only had a couple of problems - one time I was halfway up a wall when Joshua needed Stuart - who was belaying me - to take off his helmet, and another time Stuart was climbing when I heard Daniel crying "help!" - turned out he'd climbed all the way to the top of the bouldering area and couldn't get down! Thankfully the staff there are really nice and helped him, because I couldn't let go of Stuart. Actually, I couldn't move, since I have to anchor myself to the ground so I don't get pulled up by his weight when he comes down!