Woo! I forced The Logger to take me climbing in Rutland on Saturday. He used to be a hard-core climber but has not climbed in quite some time. I decided (in that way that I'm good at making decisions for other people) that it would make him happy to go climbing. So we went off to Green Mountain Rock Climbing Gym. Don't let the website fool you though, it's not really just $15 a person, there's an extra $10 charge for a "belay lesson" which isn't much of a lesson considering you belay with a Grigri, which is self-locking so it's pretty hard to drop someone if you're paying attention. I wasn't actually annoyed about the belay lesson, but The Logger really didn't need it. Oh well, goodbye extra $20.
I haven't really been climbing since high school, when I took a climbing class. I loved it, although I was never great at it. Being short and not especially physically fit makes climbing tricky, but no less fun. It's no secret that I love heights, because I have always been a backwards person. Anyway it was a little sad that once I got to the top of the wall the only thing left to do was come down. I would have loved to be able to traverse a little around the top of the gym, but the belay system didn't work that way. I suppose I could have traversed along the bottom, but what's the fun in that? The floor is right there, you may as well just walk.
The best thing about this whole experience was watching The Logger stretch out all his limbs and climb. The walls were pretty high, but as soon as he started climbing it really didn't seem that way. I was worried that it was too easy for him, so I suggested he try doing a course (only use holds that were labeled with a certain color in order to be more challenging), but he feels the same way about courses as I do about traversing along the bottom of a wall; why only use certain holds if there are others around? Anyway it wasn't too easy for him, he just made it look that way.
I would have loved to put up some pictures of this amazingly giant person scaling walls, but I'm pretty sure he would have been mad at me for taking pictures while I was supposed to be keeping him from falling off of a climbing wall. So I didn't bring my camera.
The day ended with an adventure of finding food in Rutland, which is impossible for whatever reason. Good luck finding a sandwich in Rutland after 4pm, because it's not gonna happen. Not even on a weekend. Especially not on a weekend. So The Logger triumphantly got Taco Bell and I waited until getting back to Manchester to make an avocado, chile, cheese burger. Vegetarian style, of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment