When the walls come tumblin' down

We got up early Friday morning to spend the day climbing rock walls with L's homeschool group. It was 36.8 degrees when we left the house. She started out on the small practice wall (30-ish feet or so) and did quite well. As with her previous climbs, she scrambled right up several times. She's never been a fearful child, which I mostly love, although it sometimes has made us very nervous, because she didn't have fear in situations where she really should have.

The wind picked up throughout the day, making it feel even cooler. I really dislike being cold. It's one of my least favorite things in the world. I froze the whole day. I shivered so much my muscles were tight when I came home. It took me until about 10:00 pm to finally get my body warmed up! L was enjoying herself very much. She just loves climbing!

After our picnic lunch--still outside, the kids moved from the practice wall to the big walls. The last time L climbed there, she tried the camel back, which is the toughest of the big walls. It's at very difficult angles, and the hand/foot holds are farther apart, as it's designed for adult climbers. She couldn't make it up this wall the last time, so she was determined to make it this time. While the other kids lined up at the other big walls, L was the first (and only) child in line for the camel back. She worked very hard to climb. She made it further than she did on her last attempt. She then reached a point, past the first very rough stretch, where she couldn't reach the next hold. Her little arms and legs just weren't long enough. She gave them the signal that she was ready to come down. Because of the angle of the wall, she couldn't figure out how to bring her feet up in the proper position to rapel back down. She looked down, and because of the angle of the wall, couldn't see anything beneath her other than the ground, which was very far away.

I, and everyone else on the ground, was shouting encouragements up to her. I then heard my little girl do something I have never heard from her before. She whimpered, in a very little girls' voice, "Help me, I can't move". She was very cold (they can't wear coats or gloves while climbing), her muscles were tired, frozen, and she was almost panicked. Let me tell you, that had a visceral effect on me. She was stuck, scared, and sounded so small and vulnerable, and there was nothing I could do to help her. That's when Trevor came to the rescue. One of the boys (first-year college kids) that were working the lines is also an amazing climber. He can scramble up anything like he's spiderman! He snapped a line on an scrambled up that wall to my baby. He clipped her to his harness for the descent. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. He was truly her hero. He had her down immediately, and she ran from him to me. What a relief! She was never in any danger, but it was horrible to see her so frightened. I'm so not used to that from my very strong girl.

The staff were wonderful as were the other parents. Everyone was still offering her words of encouragement about how brave she was to try such a rough wall and how well she did getting to that point. Everyone went out of their way to make her feel okay about it, and I am SO grateful to them for that. I think that their responses really helped her to feel less embarassed about this whole thing. The woman who is the head of the staff there was very kind and encouraging, too. She told her how helpful and valuable it was for Trevor to get a chance to practice his 'rescue skills'. I also have to add that three of the staff members were young college guys, and I was so impressed with thier treatment of the kids. All of the staff was great, but that's just not a demographic that tends to be that kind and encouraging to the kids. I credit the staff with making the experience so terrific for the kids.

Once she had her feet on the ground, the L that I am used to returned. She was ready to get back in line and climb right away again. She moved from the camel back to the flatter big walls, but she kept right on climbing. I was very proud of her for that. She was a little bummed that she couldn't get to the top of the big wall. None of the kids were climbing too well by this point. Their hands were numb and frozen by this point in the day, and their muscles were cold and not working as well as they normally would have. We returned home and snuggled up to our Chloe and spent the rest of the evening trying to warm up. Something tells me that, in the future, L will always have a soft spot for tall, skinny young boys with giant afros--just like her own personal Superhero--Trevor. ;-)