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Rock Climbing with First Grade Girls!

February 1st, 2007

This past Tuesday I went rock climbing with my 6 year old daughter and some of her friends. My daughter, Saffron and I are part of “Y-Guides” which is very similar to the Brownies, except that it’s put on by the YMCA and is specifically for Fathers and Daughters. We have a pretty active group with about 8 Daughter/Dad couples. We meet at least once a month (usually the second Tuesday of every month) and always have some kind of an organized project, craft, or activity for the girls. This month we planned to go “Rock Climbing”… and wow was it fun.

For January we had planned to go rock climbing at a local “Rock Climbing Gym” - Vertical World… but our big Seattle Snow Storm forced us to reschedule for this past week. Vertical World is a great facility. I don’t really know that much about Rock Climbing, so I can’t speak to how they compare to other facilities in their category. But I can say that they are a very well run business. Their facilities were clear, very well organized, their staff was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and they clearly wanted all of the girls to have a safe and enjoyable experience. If other shops are this well run, then I would expect the sport of rock climbing to have a very bright future.

The group was smaller than normal because of all the schedule conflicts that come out of having to reschedule and event like this. But the four girls that showed up all had a great time. They were all pretty nervous at first, but the instructors were very friendly, and eventually all the girls tried out both “on rope” climbing as well as “bouldering” which is the non-roped version of the sport. Interestingly enough, the smallest of the girls (7 years old but smaller than most 4 year olds) was the bravest and ultimately most excited about the sport. She couldn’t get enough of bouldering.

They offer a special room specifically designed for bouldering with a extra soft padded floor. Which was good for me at least as I scaled one wall and up onto (or I should say under) an outcropping and found myself hanging from my two arms with no obvious way to return… I’m sure more experienced boulderers would laugh at this, but ultimately I had to give up and fall to the ground. Frankly it was a great workout, and my arms were on fire afterwards. I decided it counted for my fill of strength training for the day.

The gym offers classes; access to several compelling walls with many 5.4-5.12c courses (this means something to you if you’re into rock climbing, I guess); they offer group lessons, individual lessons; team competition; group parties like we had; and a great atmosphere. They had a free weights section of their gym for rock climbing specific strength training, as well as the standard pro-shop with all the necessary gear for sale. Apparently they also design and build climbing walls for gyms, schools, offices, and private residences.

If you’ve ever considered Rock Climbing, and you are fortunate enough to have a local Rock Climbing club with climbing wall facilities near your home, I would strongly encourage you to check it out. If you don’t get bit by the bug, at the minimum it offers a great cross training alternative to other fitness activities.

Entry Filed under: Living Seattle, Fitness, Family, Friends, Snow, Rock Climbing, Strength Training