My First Climb

Saturday I finally used up my birthday present Jake gave me, and we headed to Climb Iowa for an afternoon of rock climbing. It was on my "firsts" list, and was thrilled to be checking it off. I got nervous as we pulled in the parking lot and saw some guys walking in with their own equipment - "woah, they are legit" was my exact thought. I got a little more nervous after getting into our harnesses and listening to the employee's explanation of instructions. Halfway through her talk, I'll admit that I was thinking such thoughts as, "why did I say I wanted to do this?! I don't want to do this anymore!" But, after seeing a 6 year old girl do it, my fears subsided some. "I mean, if she can do it, I can do it", I thought. After the explanation, we were left on our own to climb freely.

We had several "paths" to choose from, with varying levels. We mostly stuck to the easy ones, since we were both beginners. On my first try, I got about halfway up the wall. Then we moved over to a different path that was a little easier and I made it all the way to the top! I was so excited. I looked down towards the ground at Jake with what I'm sure was a goofy grin on my face and exclaimed, "I did it!" They also had a couple of boulder walls (shorter walls with no belays, just mats surrounding the wall) and we climbed around on those for a while too.

My first rock climbing experience was definitely a positive one. I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. Having little upper body strength, I figured I wouldn't make it very far, but I made it up to the top twice on two different paths. I wasn't really scared at all, looking down from the top, nor was I nervous about allowing the auto belay to bring me back down safely. My arms were definitely feeling the workout by the end of it and I'm still sore, especially my forearms. But, it was totally worth it. And everyone was really nice. A couple different guys gave us some tips along the way.

As I've said many times, I love trying new things and this was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. It was something different, active, and very fun. Sadly, no pictures were taken - we both forgot our cameras. Oh well, I can use it as an excuse to go back again sometime.