Rock Climbing is Awesome

It really, really is. I was worried about being late (I absolutely despise being late for anything), so I printed off our Waiver and Release forms, so we wouldn't have to wait around for them to get one for us. I made the mistake of reading those aloud to Naomi on our ride down. Those forms are not in any way reassuring. The sum of the form was, "If you mess up, it's your fault. If we mess up it's your fault. If you get hurt you can't sue. If you die, your heirs can't sue." Comforting, huh? We made it just in time for the beginning of our class. There was only one other couple in our class, which was nice. This was the wife's first anniversary present to her husband (apparently the first anniversary present is supposed to be paper (she told us), so she presented him with this certificate). Our teacher (Evan) was very helpful. He took his time explaining the knots (which I can make with confidence now), he made us do them a couple of times, so he was confident that we could do them by the time we got out there. When we finally got into the gym, he wanted somebody to climb first, the other couple shook their heads no, so I volunteered. It was awesome. Naomi was my belayer (somebody who holds the other end of the rope while you climb), and I climbed. He told me to when to fall the first time, and the second time I got to fall randomly (It wasn't very random, because I reached the top of the wall and then realized I had nowhere left to go, so I fell back), then Omi's and I switched, and I held the rope while she climbed. The best part about rock climbing, is the falling back. You just let go, and slowly sink back to the ground. It's beautiful. After Omi's and I took turns with climbing and belaying, the other couple took turns and we just watched. Watching people rock climb is fascinating, almost everybody was there in groups of two. The average person in the gym is a 20 something guy. It was a little weird, because every time you would come back down, or turn around there were people watching you climb or they were watching you just standing there. The groups were varied, friends, couples, and family members, and out of all the people that were there, I think I only saw one person who was there by himself. He was climbing around the room, and he managed to do it without any ropes while going around the whole room. I was really impressed. After the other couple was done climbing, our teacher started to explain a little more about special things you could do during rock climbing. One of these things is called a "dynamic move". It's where you go from hold to hold by using just your hands. He pointed out one. I made the mistake of stating that it was physically impossible. Our teacher quickly reassured us that it was not, some guy (who was just standing there like he joined our class) reassured me it was not, he told me that he had done it many times. Another guy (who had hung around our area the whole time, even though he was definitely not part of our group) told me that it was quite possible. Evan, the teacher, said he would show me. He tried. He failed. Then one of the other guys said he would do it. He tried. He failed. The other guy tried to do it a few minutes later. He tried. He failed. I'm guessing it's physically impossible.
They also have these really cool stations called "Clip N' Go" where you do just that. This kind of rock climbing eliminates your belayer, which is nice, because you can go at your own speed and let yourself down whenever you want, without your belayer going nuts. When we finished our official class, Omi's and I climbed for about another hour. It was awesome. There is something very satisfying about reaching the ceiling after a long climb, and then just letting yourself fall back. We got a coupon to go back again, and we decided that we definitely wanted to go again. But this time we're going to take RuthAnn, Bethany and Philip (they just don't know it yet).