Because it’s hotter than Hell in the summers here and we can’t climb on our woody, we’ve decided to start sport climbing again to pass the time and try to stay strong. It’s been hard getting back into it and when I’m hanging from the rope while the harness is digging into my butt and crotch, I remember why I’d rather be bouldering. Although I complain a lot and am pissed that I have NO endurance, there are two aspects that I am really enjoying about this venture. One is the rekindling of an old friendship with our buddy Kevin and his little girl Davey. I did a previous post on a trip we took up to Lemmon with them and it has been a lot of fun spending days in the mountains and watching the kids mess around together. The other is watching my two boys explore their limits in this sport.
Last weekend while we were up on the mountain, Henry kept begging us to let him climb. We didn’t have a harness for him but Kevin let us borrow Davey’s that he had brought in the event the kids wanted to try. We tied him in and helped him get on the rock and to my complete and utter astonishment, he climbed about 25 feet up without any hint of fear. I’m not sure why I was surprised. He’s always done well on ropes in the gym but climbing outside on real rock is a completely different animal. He came off after his arms got tired but wasn’t able to get back on because of the angle and had to be lowered down. He begged us to let him get back on but we were out of time and had to leave. So this past weekend, we went up specifically on a Sunday just to let the boys see what they could accomplish. We picked out an easy route that we felt they could finish but it just so happened that it was VERY HIGH and super exposed. Henry went first and ended up blowing our minds. He made it up about 60 ft before he just got too tired and pumped and wanted to come down. Not ONCE did he ever say he was scared of the height or the exposure and wanted to stop. We really couldn’t believe it. You’ll see what I mean from the pictures.
William was a bit more timid and only made it about 15 feet before he started crying and wanted to come down. His reaction was more of what we expected and are happy that he has a healthy dose of fear. They both said they wanted to go back and Henry is now determined to make it to the chains…90 ft up. I’m really looking forward to when these boys can actually “climb” with us. It is sad to see the time fly by. I love that these boys are so loving and cuddly and affectionate. That will soon change and they will grow into young men who think their parents are dorks. I’m ok with that as long as they want to go belay us on the rocks once in a while. 😉
Here they are debating over how high Henry is:
