This morning for Outdoor pursuits, we had no idea what to expect for our activity, especially since the weather had been so questionable the last couple days. As we all got settled in the van, Sally told us we would be rock climbing indoors due to the unfortunate rainy weather today. I was pretty excited since I hadn't rock climbed in a while, but I had a feeling it was going to be much more intense then the kind of rock climbing I was use to. We first practiced some basic rock climbing activities in the Conway Centre Rock Climbing room. We tried walking along the base of the wall, just touching the climbing rocks to guide us, then moved up to more difficult tasks, such as no hand rock climbing, climbing using the rocks under our belly to support us, a 360 degree turn on a corner, and the most unique one...climbing all the way around a table. This task seemed impossible, until Sally demonstrated how it was done, using only her legs and hands to make it all the way around a table, starting from the top, hanging from the bottom and swinging herself onto the other side. It was incredible! I was sure I wouldn't be able to do that...i wasn't flexible enough, and I had no idea what I was doing. But when it came to be my turn, I tried to follow Sally's guideline, squeezing my thighs on the table to support myself from falling off, and swinging my body under the table, and finally grabbing the other side of the table from the bottom and maneuvering my feet to the other side and pulling myself up. It was the most exciting thing to accomplish! How many people can say they can climb all the way around a table!!?After the practice activities we grabbed our supplies and drove to the Beacon Climbing Center in Llanrug, where we would be rock climbing and bouldering all day. When we got there, we warmed up by running around in a circle throwing our arms up and dropping them to the ground. It warmed us all up and we were all laughing by the end. We practiced side climbing on the lower walls to figure out footing and holding techniques. Next we were ready for bouldering, which is a form of climbing without a rope on uneven surfaces, usually parallel to the ground, much like it would be climbing a rock outside. This climbing technique is meant to strengthen your climbing ability, which we could all feel our muscles working extra hard on this activity. We were never to high up in the air if we were to lose our gripping, and there was a very padded mat at the bottom. We all practiced this, using different colored climbing rocks to our abilities and landing properly when we jumped from the wall. Sally then introduced us to another form of bouldering, where we could use slots in the wall to climb up an outward slanted wall, and upon reaching the top, we could maneuver to the other wall directly in front of it. This was also very difficult, especially since our hands were hurting by now and we lost a lot of energy climbing slowly up, rather than climbing quickly and saving that energy.
After many attempts at that task, we moved on to the actual vertical climbing wall. We practiced our figure 8 knots and learned how to make a double figure 8 knot and a stop knot. Using the knots we had just leaned, a karabiner, and a belayer, we were ready for our first rock climbing experience at the Beacon Center. This type of rock climbing is known as bottom roping because the belayer is at the bottom of the rock wall. Each of us successfully made it to the top, all happy to have mastered the first climb so quickly. As much fun as we were having, it was time for lunch! We had good chats with Sally at Lunch, asking her 20 questions about herself as we waited for our food to settle.
After lunch we made our way to a room with two small climbing walls opposite each other, no taller than our heads. We had to warm ourselves up again, so we ran around in a circle and flapped our arms. Next, Sally gave us the challenge of racing each other across the rock walls, using a different color climbing rock each time. It was a great workout and some of the rock colors definitely challenged us.
We moved on to what Sally called the freezer room, because it was so cold. And it was pretty cold, but there were a number of various rock climbing walls, bouldering areas, and obstacle climbing areas. Megan and I tried a couple rock climbing walls, easy at first, then getting more difficult. By the end of our climbs, our hands were sweaty and we were slightly shaken up, but so proud of our accomplishments. We then moved on to a more difficult rock climbing activity, where we had to grab onto a rope ladder midair, at the top of the rock wall. Letting go of the rock wall and grabbing onto the ladder was the most terrifying part, but we each made it all the way to the top of the ladder successfully. Our last real challenge of the day was lead climbing. This involves climbing on a rock wall, while carrying a rope attached to your harness in order to attach it to the karabiners stationed vertically on the wall, and is used to ascend a route. I think I felt the most nervous for this challenge because we had more of a risk of falling if we lost our gripping. We had to take extra caution when placing our feet and hands and attaching our rope to the karabiners as quickly and correctly as we could. I accidentally got my rope caught on a karabiner below me, which was a scary situation, but with the help of Sally I fixed it and continued on my way up. Finally reaching the top was so relieving, especially since you knew you were fully secure at the bottom. It was a great feeling when I finally touched the ground and I felt much more confident in my ability to climb more challenging activities.
When it was time to head back to the Conway Centre, we took off our climbing shoes, our feet finally being able to breathe after being scrunched for so many hours. My body was definitely tight after all the activities we accomplished, but I knew I had worked hard all day long, and persevered to make sure I did the best I could. As for tomorrow...well see if I can even move to get out of bed=/
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