30 November 2014

[30] boulder

I signed up for a rock-climbing event yesterday. Okay, I signed up for three things yesterday: the coffee shop writing, a board/card games event, and the rock climbing event. And I am one of those people who does not say that I'm going unless I am really, actually going. I may rsvp at the last minute, but that is only because I refuse to rsvp yes and then not show up. 

I have wanted to go rock-climbing for a while. I signed up to go once before, but that event got canceled. Considering that I am one of those people who wants to climb whatever I see in front of me, I figured it was probably my sort of thing.

The rock-climbing was actually bouldering, which means that the walls don't go up high enough that you need to wear a harness and have someone keep you from falling. You just slap some chalk on your hands and start up the wall. If you fall, you fall. (The ground is padded underneath the walls. I suspect falling could still hurt - it is padded to about the thickness of the extra pad we used to do takedowns in my fighting class in Universe City, and we all know that I fall badly - but hopefully death would not be imminent.)

I really like climbing things. If I had money and non-gimpy arms, I might take this up on a serious level. Of course, you are not supposed to depend on your arms, as I found out after they started feeling shaky. You are supposed to do most of the work with your legs. Unfortunately, being tall, I have a tendency to just grab as high up as I can and hoist myself up the wall. I had to give that up when I started to think my gimpy arms were going to lose the ability to hang on.

True confessions: I can only handle approximately the lowest level (a beginner or a zero). I have no idea how people do this rock-climbing thing once there is no grip to the hand holds. But it's pretty amazingly fun. I expect I will do more of it.

As soon as my gimpy arms stop hurting.

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