Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	meetup; climing; adventure

Another Adventure Group Meetup…
Before, I get started, I'll go ahead and say that this Tanja and I had a great time. This was a ton of fun and I do believe we will be doing it again. Not on to how this started off with a bad beginning….



So, the Adventure Meetup Group had another meeting planned. Done by the same organizer as the disasterous kayaking meetup, this one was to be a rock climbing meetup at the Outdoors Inc. in Cordova. We RSVP'd 'yes' to it quite a while ago, and had almost forgotten about it. But we were really excited about trying it, particularly after the kayaking one was so disappointing.



Then Wednesday night, we got an automated email from Meetup.com saying that the details of the event had been changed. No, explanation of why or even any clear indication of what exactly got changed. It took me a few minutes to figure out the guy had changed the date until Sept. 11. The guy hadn't mentioned it at all to anybody else in the group or even the group's main organizer who had been planning to attend. He just changed it on his own without any explanation. That kind of pissed me off. I mean, it was the night before the event was supposed to take place. What if somebody hadn't checked their email that night? I even emailed him to find out what was up but he has yet to respond. Which pisses me off more.



Anyway, Tanja and I decided we still wanted to do it. So, I called and checked if they were still having the class. Yep, they have it every Thursday night from 7-9. Great, we were going. We called up Dana to see if she still wanted to go this week even if the guy had changed the date. As has been the case with her lately, she seemed rather distracted or maybe a bit depressed and said she'd skip it this week, but wanted to hear how it went (we need to email or call her to tell her all about it).



So, we planned to just go on our own. I considered posting to the group about us going anyway, but it just seemed rude to undermine this guy that was at least trying to be a sub-organizer of events for the group. Oh, and the woman Tanja boards her horse with joined us (though that had a lot of drama associated with it that I don't feel like getting into).



We got there just a couple minutes before 7 and then stood around talking while we waited for the rest of the people that would be taking the class to show up. Eventually all 6 of us were there and ready to learn. There was a young couple probably in their early twenties. The guy had been climbing before, but his girlfriend had not. Then there was another woman, in her mid twenties I think that was by herself. Then Lorrie, Tanja, and myself.



Damn, I can't remember the guy's name that was instructing us, but he was very personable and seemed quite knowledgeable. I'd say he was probably in his mid to late fourties. He's been doing climbing since the 70's. First he went over the various pieces of equipment used in climbing, particularly noting everything we would be using, but also going over the other stuff for informational purposes. He explained the different types of climbing shoes, how they should fit, the variety of carabineers, the ropes, the harness, etc. Everything was very well explained before he ever had us do a single thing (much better than our experience with the kayaking class).



Then he showed us the knot used to tie your harness to the line, a double figure eight. Well…first he showed us the single figure eight knot and had us practice it a dozen times or so to make sure we got it. It isn't a complicated knot, but you sure as hell want it to be right. Then he showed us to feed the line through the loop in the front of the harness and finish the knot by tying a second figure eight knot into the first. And we practiced that for a bit too.



Then he showed us the doodad that the belayers use to attach the other end of the rope to their harness to anchor the climber should the slip off and for when the belayer lets them down easily when they are ready to come down. He explained the principles of it as well as demonstrating how it functioned. Then he showed us how the climber checks over the belayer to make sure everything is correct and the belayer checks the climber to make sure their ok. Oh and he also explained the need for one word communication between the two in regard to taking up the slack of the line or giving some additional slack.



Then it came time to climb (forgot to mention that we had all picked out climbing shoes they had ready for the class earlier in the lesson). He broke us into two groups because of the three climbs on the indoor climbing wall, there was one that was a bit more intimidating that the others at first because of it overhanging early on.



In our group, Lorrie was climbing first and Tanja was belaying. Lorrie had actually done this once before on a cruise she went on years ago and I think it showed. She got right to climbing the wall and was making good progress until she was a few feet from the top. At that point, I think she just wasn't seeing good places to grip the wall or place her feet. She started saying she was ready to come down, but we kept calling for her to reach the top. After a few minutes of that, she eventually did do it because we kept badgering her. Then she came down with Tanja slowly letting her down…..oh yeah, I forgot that at one point in the climb she needed a rest. Tanja was easily able to hold her in place while Lorrie just dangled there for a couple minutes (she actually kicked the other girl that was climbing in the head to she first let go, but only lightly).



Then came Tanja's turn to climb and I would belay her. She was extremely nervous about the whole thing and had to go to the bathroom for a few minutes before she could attempt it. She did try it though and I am very proud of her for that. She didn't actually get that far up the wall, but it was still good. She was just doubting herself too much I think. But I wasn't going to force her to keep going if she didn't want to. Nor would I let anybody else try to do so.



Then it was my turn to climb and Tanja belayed me. I can't tell how quickly I was going or anything since it just happened that nobody else was climbing at the same time I was (the young couple was switching to the harder climb for the boyfriend to do it). But I did indeed get up to the top. I saw exactly what Lorrie did when she got near the top. You just get nervous about the hand/foot holds you are using and its hard to go those last couple of feet. I'm pretty sure I didn't take as long as she did to continue moving though. ;)



But I still had to get down. Although I had seen everybody else coming down just fine relying on the belayer, it was still a little bit difficult for me to just let go of the wall and release all of my weight into the harness. I think I probably did it a little bit slower than the others, but I did do it and Tanja started to let me down….Of course there was one little problem….a weight disparity. It shouldn't really causing that much of a problem and they have floor anchors there to use when it is particularly significant, but Tanja wasn't using that. As such, she actually kept lifting a little bit off the ground as I was coming down. She was laughing so hard from it that it only made things worse. She started swinging over the padding they had on the floor even. It was hilarious and still fun. Neither of us were in any danger. The equipment was good and she was doing exactly what the instructor told her to do, keep her hand on the loose end of the rope. The contraption we were using for belaying is a special one that mostly works even if you somehow forget your hand there. But it is still best practices to be in the habit in case you aren't using the expensive item. I did make it down safe and sound; and laughing right along with Tanja. I had to give her a big hug as soon as I got on my feet because I could tell it kind of panicked her. It was all good though. It was just a funny little incident.



Then Lorrie tried climbing again and she did even better the second time, getting to the top without needing any break and without the long hesitation before the top. Then we talked Tanja into giving it another try. She got a lot further up this time which was great. She didn't go all the way up, but that's ok. What she did was plenty and it showed that she was really willing to try it. As with most things, the more you do it, the better you will be at it.



Case in point, I was next up for climbing. This time I didn't hesitate at all. I just got right to it and climbing rather quickly. In fact, I was climbing too quickly for Tanja to belay me. I was building up too much slack and she had to yell at me to slow down. I had already gotten over half way up there though, hehe. I was just having a hell of a good time. I let her pull in all the slack and then climbed a little be slower after that, but I still wanted to go quickly. It was just that much fun. I easily got to the top. Then Tanja let me down again. This time keeping to her feet a bit better as she had Lorrie help her hold on to the rope, lol.



Then Lorrie gave the difficult climb a try with the instructor belaying her while I talked to Tanja for a bit. She did good. It was slow going, especially early on with that overhang, but she did well and got most of the way up before she got tired and came down. I was going to give it a try to, but the rest of the class had already left and I realized it was closing time. The two hours of that class had just flown by it was so much fun!!! It was a $20 very well spent and we are definitely going to have to go back again (particularly because you can go back any time and do it for only $5 after you've taken the class!). Next time, I'm sure that Tanja is going to be able to get to the top, and I am definitely going to do the intimidating climb. :)





Happy Things:



Well, other than the greatness that was the climbing class….I guess its just the little things in life that brings such pleasure. For instance, yesterday morning Tanja had to be at work early and so we were waking up at 5:15am. Well, she is not a morning person and I know this. So, I went ahead and got up so that I could fix her morning cup of coffee. This seems like such a little gesture to me and yet it really makes me happy to be able to do it for her. Apparently, it makes her even happier than that too because in all her life she's never had somebody that had done that for her even once (other than her mother). Considering that I know she had some very deep relationships in the past, I find that hard to believe. It just seems so natural to me to go ahead and do that for her. She never once asked me to do it, and I think she actually felt guilty about it the first couple of times. I had to explain to her that I genuinely enjoyed doing it.



Anyway, that is just one of the little things that really makes me smile (even when I running on so little sleep).