yea, im one belayer with attitude.. and this is Riley, one of my campers
My last week of campers, Advanced Rock Week was GREAT! There were only 2 girls and 2 boys. Monday we went climbing at a place not far from camp called Bucksnort. It was really nice. We started climbing early, to beat the storms and blistering hot rocks… the kids all climbed I think like 4 different routes, and I got to climb one giant crack climb. It was so good to climb on rock again. So fun too. We had lunch on a huge boulder in the river, then after that all went wading in the river. It was so nice. There were these huge boulders that were just like laying on top of the river, which created these sweet cave like over head things. Hard to explain, but really cool. And then there was this waterfall. The whole water area is called the Hillbilly Waterpark. You can slide down some of the smooth rocks into the little waterfall. We didn’t because none of us had suits on or knew how deep the water was. But it was really cool. Then on Tuesday we left to go to Eleven Mile Canyon, out in Divide. We got a great campsite that was pretty much nestled amongst some boulders, and we got to climb there until Thursday afternoon. It was beautiful and not too hot. It was sunny and warm, and the kids got to climb a lot and I got to climb at least once everyday.
my girls and i acting silly
On Tuesday I got to a multi-pitch, where, you basically have two different ropes that you have to tie into. The first pitch was like a 5.8, which is the rating of the hardness of the climb. 5.5 is easiest, 5.12c is the hardest I think. So, it wasn’t too hard, then once we finished that climb you clipped into the anchors on the rock with a carabiner and rope type thing and tied into a different rope to do the next climb which was like a 5.7 I think. So you’re just hanging out about 150’ above the ground on the rock before you do the next climb. It was cool. I also learned how to clean a climb, which you just take out the carabiners you put at the top for the rope to go through for you to climb with. Sorry if this is really confusing, but anyways, I learned a lot and the campers were really chill and great. They had all been here before. I got ot lead the trip with my co-counselor, Travis Rickards. He’s pretty much good at anything outdoorsy he tries, so.. but he was funny and fun too. We got to play in the river on Wednesday night too, but it was freezing, so we didn’t last too long. On Friday we drove out to Golden and climbed there. I got to leadclimb for the first time, a 5.6 climb, so that was SWEET!!!
here i am lead climbing
Basically you have to climb up the route with the rope and the person on the ground is belaying you (keeping you safe). Because you don’t have a rope coming from the anchors at the top, so.. (top roping). You have to use carabiners and clip into bolts along the route and then put the rope through those carabiners. If you were to fall, you would fall to wherever your last bolt was. Thankfully I did not fall! I kinda almost did, but caught myself. We then had ice cream and slacklined in the park. So that was a lot of fun. Good last week of campers.
here’s the links to lots more fun pics:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050283&l=21da4&id=68602654
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050286&l=314ae&id=68602654
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050322&l=9bb78&id=68602654
