"Rock" Climbing with Benji

Yesterday, Benji and I went to "Climb Zone," an family-oriented indoor climbing wall and bounce house place. We had been talking about doing this for quite a while and finally decided to make it happen!  When we got there, Benji was very nervous about the idea of climbing and, despite my encouragement, he decided that he would stick to the bounce houses.

I got a climbing harness and was instructed about how to use it, saw Benji into a giant bounce house, then chose one of the themed walls to climb. Or...  to attempt to climb.  I quickly learned that  PULLING YOUR BODY UP A VERTICAL SURFACE IS HARD!!!  Especially when, like me, you're got a sub-optimal body-weight-to-upper-body-strength ratio.  Which is a fancy way of saying that I weigh too much for my wimpy arms to pull up.  I only made it up 1/3 of the Washington Monument before I gave up.  I checked in with Benji then finally found an easier wall and climbed to the top.  Hooray! 

After an hour and a half, Benji decided he would try climbing after all.  I assured him that he only had to climb as high as he was comfortable, even if that was only a few feet. I also explained how the auto-belay system worked and we watched people using it, so he understood that even if he jumped off the top of a wall, he would just float slowly back to the ground.

We found the easiest wall and I made him practice auto-belaying down from 5 or 6 feet a couple of times, so he would be comfortable with it. Then he climbed about half way up!  He was probably 20 feet off the ground and I was really proud of him.  He was really excited and tried another easy wall and went up even farther.  After that, he chose some fun themed walls and went up just a little way because he wasn't comfortable stretching himself to find the essential hand grips that you need to use to pull yourself up.

We took a bounce house break and came home exhausted and happy.  It was a great way to start the New Year!

--Victoria