The Ultimate Climbing Experience! 🧗
On Saturday morning, we made our way to Hardrock Climbing in Nunawading, where over 50 top rope walls ranged from 5 to 14 metres high. We ran this activity earlier in the year, so we had some returning and first-time climbers. When we first got there, we were all given climbing shoes and a harness. We were shown by an instructor how to use and lock our carabiner on our harness. They also taught us how to tie a figure 8 knot, communicate with the belaying person, and much more.
We all started practising on the 5-metre rope wall to master and remember all the skills shown to us by the instructor. Everyone caught on very quickly, and after a few practices, everyone gave the 14-metre rope wall a go. Anthony and I were the belayers, so whilst the climbers ascended the different routes, we managed the rope to keep the climbers safe.
Everyone was stretching their limbs in every which way to go as far up the wall as possible. Feeling comfortable using the ropes whilst climbing took time to trust the system, but getting up on the wall was a million times less scary once everyone did. It was so great to see everyone cheer on each other, as some faced their fear and made it to the very top of the wall. What an achievement that was!
One of our instructors told us that, unlike other sports or activities where you have to learn a movement pattern before you can do it, the movement of climbing is pretty intuitive. For example, you look at a wall with a bunch of handholds, and your body knows what you need to do to get to the top. This information stuck with us and helped everyone feel more at ease. Today was a great introduction to the sport for beginners, and for those experienced climbers, they got to hone their skills.
This Sunday, we have our snow trip to Mount Donna Buang, so if you would like to make a snowman or have a snowball fight, please book in. If you have a toboggan at home, please feel free to bring that along.
Also, please keep an eye out for your emails as we will be sending out information regarding the onesocial annual adventure camp by the end of the week to prepare you all. Not long now!
- Brooke and Anthony from onesocial :)