climbing!

Look what i did 2 saturdays ago! look at how high i climbed! congratulate me!
my knitting friend sarah and her husband, edward, took me to their climbing gym in Concord for my first climbing lesson. it was a little like what i was expecting, but a lot of things surprised me. like how there are different paths you take depending on your level of experience and ability, but it's not like you just scramble up the wall using the pegs and pebble things willy-nilly. oh no. there is no willy-nilly in climbing. there are only certain colored pegs you use for each climb, and by using pegs that are colored differently you're cheating and you will receive disapproving looks. and you can't say you actually climbed a path. it's very honor system-based. and so the result is that you are climbing up a giant puzzle, where you have to plan a few moves in advance to set yourself up to reach a certain point or rock. ah yes. a giant puzzle that makes you sweat in ways you did not think possible. it's a little scary how quickly it brought out my covert type-a personality. because yes, it was only my third climb ever, but i was not only going to be doing a 5.9 climb, i was also going to get to the top.

(what my booty looks like from 2 storeys up)


did i want to cry 3/4 of the way up because i was totally exhausted? no comment. did i finish? hell yes.


in the interest of full disclosure, however, around the time i lost feeling in my forearms i made the decision that i was only wanting to go about 5/6ths of the way up. i ended up calling out that i was ready to come down but the bastards who took me pretended not to hear me. so, yes, i got to the top. and i couldn't move my arms for a few days, but i definitely have the bug. and i will say this: it's worth getting up at 8 on a saturday to go.

(please ignore the 12 year old climbing club champion to my right)