Climbing! :D Who wants to join?

In my entire life, up until 5 weeks ago, I had been rock climbing a total of 3 times. Chaelomen took me twice like, what, 10 or 11 years ago? Then about 6 or 7 years ago, we had a mutual activity where we went climbing and I got about half way up the wall.

I do however belay people more frequently than is normal. But I've never been formally trained or anything so when I was getting hired at the rec center and to get belay certified, I decided to take the climbing 101 class where they go over how to tie your knots and such. I learned something pretty important there: I can't climb to save my life. Haha. It's terrible. I got maybe 6 feet off the wall and then didn't know what to do and didn't feel solid on any of the holds, so I just sat there for a while until Adam told me I could come down if I wanted.

I still got belay certified and now I have the job. It's all awesome. But, unfortunately, Melissa (my boss, not my sister in law) asked me if I had been on the auto belay. Heh... no. So she had me try it out. Haha. I don't know if everyone knows what an auto belay is. It's pretty simple. One end (the big round one) is secured to the top of the wall, and you hook the other end up to your harness. It lets you climb alone and you go up the wall, and then if you fall or when you decide you're done, you just let go of the wall, and you've got like 3 feet of free fall, then it catches you and lowers you to the ground. The reason Melissa wanted me to do it was so that way if someone asked what it feels like, I would be able to tell them.

Unfortunately for me, the auto belay is hooked up to a wall where the easiest route is 5.7. There was also a 5.8 and maybe a 5.10 on the wall, so if I used any hold I wanted, you could probably call it a 5.6. That's not too bad. Except I couldn't even climb our 5.4, and it's on a really easy part of the wall. I had no chance of getting off the ground here. Also especially because when you're being belayed by a person, you can feel that they have you. You can feel that if you lean back, they've got your line on break and you'll only fall maybe 6 inches. On an auto belay, it doesn't catch you until 3 feet of rope have been pulled free, so you don't feel that it has you. It's just a little less secure feeling-- still about as safe as a regular belay, it just feels less comforting. And being a completely inexperienced climber, I really wanted that comfort.

All of this combined, I only got like 3 feet off the ground. Ha. It was ok, though. Not everyone who works at the wall is a climber. And if I'm not a climber either, then at least I can still do my job. Climbing apparently was just not my thing. I don't really know the techniques of climbing, so all it was doing was exploiting how weak my arms and legs were. What's the fun of that? At least, getting like 3 feet off the ground before I slipped, I still felt it catch me, just barely.

Well, Melissa sees that I'm terrible at climbing, and we actually were offering a woman's climbing class (ages 15 and up) on Thursdays this month. We had an open spot, and one of the perks of working at the rec center is that I get to take the classes we offer for free. So she sent me an email asking if I'd maybe be able to work on Sat (I couldn't, I had COPE) and if-- no pressure-- I was interested in taking the class. I really was, because I remember way back in the day when I was much smaller, I enjoyed climbing with Chaelomen. I mean, thanks to physics, climbing is just easier for smaller children. But I really enjoyed it back then. I'd like to think I could enjoy it again.

So I've been taking this climbing class every Thursday this month from 7 to 9, and it's been really awesome. All I think about it climbing. Scooter may or may not have had to tell me I couldn't climb one of the Miner's Memorials at the city she lives in. I go to the rec center frequently so I can traverse around the wall a couple times and boulder some and climb the auto belay route-- they just redid the routes on that wall so it's like a 5.8 5.9 and 5.10-- and I can get about 10 feet off the ground consistently before I slip.

We were actually retiring a couple ropes at work last Sunday, and to get the new rope up, you just tie it to the old one and pull it through. Alas, my knot was not tight enough, so it slipped out at the most inopportune time, and both ropes came falling to the ground. To get the new rope up, Melissa made me climb the back wall (3 routes on that one, 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9) and string the new rope around the belay bar. And it may have taken like 20 minutes, but I made it to the top of the wall! It was awesome. I was very happy. Such an accomplishment.

Recently, I've been taking my friends climbing at the rec center, which is fun and all, but they don't know how to belay, so basically I go and traverse around the wall, boulder, and climb the auto belay, and belay them on their routes. And get frustrated when I try to tell them what their next move should be and they're just like, "I need to come down." And I'm like no, your next hold is right there, you're only like 7 feet up, come on! And they're like, "No, I'm coming down." Yeah, fine, ok, you can try again later. (That experience brought a whole new perspective to how I probably appeared at my climbing 101 class. Heh.)

But yesss. If anyone is looking for a climbing partner, I'm totally available. I would love to teach you to belay and climb. Only $5 to get a pass at the rec center, and it's good for a year. If you already know how to belay, getting the belay certification only takes like 20 minutes. We have 9 routes, and they get changed every couple months. Renting the gear is free, you just need to bring your rec center card. Once you're certified, you can belay and boulder and use the auto belay. Please... Haha. Who's down?