Tuesday: outdoor rock climbing

Isaac got a gift to go outdoor rock climbing for his birthday.  The weather this week has been beautiful and so we ended up doing a last minute trip on Tuesday.  We went to Grand Ledge, which is about 1.5 hours east of Holland.  There is one ledge maybe .25-.5 miles long available to climb, but it's a great option for something close by.

We started on the nose.  It was an interesting spot because you could go up the middle (flake), the left side, or the right side and they all climb differently.

This was my second climb and I really wanted to use the nice step that my left foot is in...so I did.

I like this one because it looks like I have skills - the foot holds aren't very visible.

Then we moved to the corner just to the right.  This was an interesting one because our guide, Chris, had never climbed it before.  It took me three tries, but Isaac got it on the first try.  Chris also got it on the first try and he just sailed right up it.  You can tell that he has climbed just a bit more than we have.

We took a break for lunch and then Chris set up three different ropes.  I only climbed the first one - I got to the top the first time and stalled out the second time.  Isaac climbed all three and then did the first one again.

Isaac wanted to climb one more place with a crack, so we moved over there for the last climb.  It looked hard and we were running out of time, so I didn't climb it.

Take-aways:
*The setting the anchors took a lot more time than we expected.  Perhaps if we had a plan at the beginning this could have been streamlined a bit since I can also belay, but we were there for several hours and had a bunch of good climbs, but not tons of climbs.  (This can be a bit of a positive thing too, as it could be easy to get too tired.)

*We would absolutely need more training (and gear) before rope climbing by ourselves outside, but now that I know where it is we could probably boulder by ourselves with just a bit of instruction.  That went from feeling overwhelming to possible.

*Isaac said he enjoyed it more than he expected.

*The time flew by - it is a lovely location with quite a bit of shade