Rock Climbing

Seth and I went to North Carolina to see his family for half of our Christmas Break.

While we were there we went rock climbing.

Pretty much all of Seth's family rock climbs, and they have been doing so for years. They even have a lot of their own gear. Before this event, I think the extent of my rock climbing experience was watching other people do it on those portable walls at the carnival.

The Pro.

(Seth was even on a rock climbing team in high school.)

I could tell I was out of my element because they started using lingo that I did not understand. Things like "oh this wall is easy because it's mostly buckets" or "I learned using the figure-8 belay device, i don't like these atc's as much."

Luckily for me my SIL came and she had never been rock climbing before either. We stuck together.

This picture was taken after getting all the way to the top on my first wall.

You see, I'm smiling because this is just seconds BEFORE I realized I was way high up and I would have to voluntarily let myself fall to get back down. I hated this part. Granted, there was a rope, and I wasn't going to fall to my death. But I don't like heights. And I don't like falling from them, rope or not.

Once Seth let the rope out so fast I fell on my butt.

I was not happy with him.

But I did pretty well in the end, although that may only be because I stuck to the easiest walls.

I used muscles I didn't know I had.

And my body really hated me the next day.

But at least now I have the climbing experience and the lingo down.

So next time we get together with the Winsors and go rock climbing, I will understand them when they say,

"Oh you can try bouldering on this wall."