Climbing

[paulpablo]

Anyone here try climbing? 

There's a new climbing gym near me and both me and my daughter love it there.  

She's only 6 so she has no fear, it's weird that she's genuinely already better than me at this.  I have an advantage in being taller and stronger but she's light and fearless, she trusts the equipment and whatever I or the people working there say. 

I'm slowly getting less scared of the heights and climbing beside my daughter helps because she's so calm and talks to me on the way up.  I never thought I'd be getting moral support from my 6 year old in doing things but there we go, it's happened. 

We use these things called auto belays and not all climbers like these things but most say they're very safe.  Most of my fear comes from trusting these things while I'm 50 feet up a wall. To get down you pretty much need to let go of the wall and the auto belay automatically slows your fall down when it senses a sharp tug.  It's similar to a seatbelt mechanism.  

I know there used to be someone on here who basically lived the climbing life but I don't even know if he still exists on these forums.

[arewethereyet]

I am so afraid of heights that a two-step stepstool is about my limit.

It's weird, as a kid I climbed trees, monkey bars, tanned on the roof of building behind our house and at some point couldn't be more than three feet off the ground.

Riding through the Smokey Mountains with husband had me nearly huddled in the floorboard.

Hope you have a wonderful time with it...not my gig.

[zebo-the-fat]

Never done rock climbing or the climbing wall in a gym, but when I was younger and almost fit I used to climb the mountains in Scotland (in winter with ice axe and crampons)

[The Valkyrie]

Done indoor rock climbing a few times.

Fun, but not really my thing.

Been thinking of taking up spelunking recently.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I climbed Croagh Patrick once (more of a hike than a climb, really) just to see what all the fuss was about.

Boru

[Jehanne]

I operated a lift once as part of a networking job -- 25-feet off the ground, pure horror. Driving it around the factory (once back on the ground), pure delight.

[Ranjr]

I did some rappelling in the '80s.  Nothing too high, mostly the crevasses around Devils Den.

I'm also afraid of heights.  I learned this in 1982 about 50 yards down a trail along the top of Hemmed-In Hollow.  Tripping balls.  Trent, the three legged Wolfhound, didn't mind the trail was one bad step from a 200 foot drop.  I told myself, you don't stumble when walking down a sidewalk.  You're not gonna stumble here.  Didn't help. 

The old folks told me not to climb the bluffs in the Bostons because the rocks break.  People do it these days.  I'd hate to grab handful of shale.

[brewer]

I climb ladders but only when I absolutely have to. Positive that my knee and back would not take to wall climbing.

But give me enough benzo's and oxy and almost anything falls within in the realm of possibilities. Actual success would still be very debatable.

[Angrboda]

I liked trying my hand at free climbing when I was younger, but I'm not much for heights, either. It was more horizontal climbing than vertical.

[Anomalocaris]

If I am to die from kinetic energy, I would like to think that kinetic energy didn’t come from the potential energy I voluntarily and laboriously supplied myself.