My climbing-obsessed 17yo has been asking since forever about going to the closest site with outdoor rock-climbing. We detoured through the park in question on our way to my parents' house at the beginning of this month. My reaction: NOOOOOPE nope nope nope nope. His reaction: Climb All The Things!
My husband agreed to take him and Pete back to the park, camp overnight, and then head to another site with outdoor climbing. At the second site you can climb a cliff that rises from a lake, and then splash back into the lake when you reach the top (or fall). My reaction: NOOOOOOPE nope nope nope nope. His reaction: THIS IS THE COOLEST IDEA ANYONE EVER HAD! THIS IS BETTER THAN INDOOR PLUMBING OR POLIO VACCINES OR PASTEURIZATION!!!
I was FaceTiming with Alex tonight and making my worried face at him as we talked about this trip. What if there are fallen trees in the water and a climber splashes down onto pokey tree limbs? What if there are snakes basking at the top of the routes, and they are less than welcoming when reaching hands appear?
Alex suggested that if the boys just carried bags of mice attached to their harnesses, they could offer mice to the basking snakes and avoid being bitten themselves. Problem solved! He was totally perplexed by my fallen tree worry. How would they fail to see a fallen tree from the shore? How could a fallen tree remain unnoticed under the water in a high-traffic zone? Was this, like, an Ent I was imagining, able to scoot itself in and out of the water at will? Or maybe, since all the Ents left Middle Earth, some kind of Zombie Ent? He made me laugh until my belly hurt, at which point we went to our local climbing gym.
Lots of people there enjoy outdoor climbing, and they had advice for us. There are venomous snakes, they said, so watch out for them. But they're more of an issue at the base of the cliffs than at the top.They also mentioned venomous spiders, a prospect to which I hadn't given much thought. It makes sense that if you're poking your hands into crevices in the rock, you might need to think about what else is lurking in the crevices.
"They'll have a great time," said the manager. The assistant manager loaned them some of his own equipment. No one there seemed too worried about impending doom.
But maybe they don't know about the Zombie Ents.
Recent Comments