Chip
Well-known member
Saturday Grant (12), Ben (10 1/2) and I took a climbing class with Gary Markowski of Small World Adventures, a local outdoor education and guide service. We would spend the day climbing St John's Ledges on the A.T. off River Rd in Kent, Ct.
Gary was a patient and thorough instructor, especially with the boys. We all had ample opportunity to climb, rappel and belay.
Grant is strong but lacks finesse, predictably using muscle to attack the rock, a lot like his father
. Ben is flexible and agile and was a natural, finding hand and foot holds where Grant and I swore none existed. We graduated fairly quickly through easy beginners climbs to a higher, more exposed section that we all had some trouble on, but eventually climbed and rappelled.
Climbing is natural, instinctive, understandable. Rappelling is not. Rappelling violates millions of years of evolved instinct. There was a group of Scouts, about my boys' ages, that shared the area Saturday. Some of them were VERY unhappy about stepping off the cliff backwards and had to be "buddied" down. Neither of my guys had any trouble backing off the top and rappelling, which made the day more fun for us. I just told them "Okay, turn around and lean back" and they did .
It was a perfect day; weather, area, event and experience all could not have been better. Pics are here.
Thanks for looking.
Gary was a patient and thorough instructor, especially with the boys. We all had ample opportunity to climb, rappel and belay.
Grant is strong but lacks finesse, predictably using muscle to attack the rock, a lot like his father
. Ben is flexible and agile and was a natural, finding hand and foot holds where Grant and I swore none existed. We graduated fairly quickly through easy beginners climbs to a higher, more exposed section that we all had some trouble on, but eventually climbed and rappelled. Climbing is natural, instinctive, understandable. Rappelling is not. Rappelling violates millions of years of evolved instinct. There was a group of Scouts, about my boys' ages, that shared the area Saturday. Some of them were VERY unhappy
about stepping off the cliff backwards and had to be "buddied" down. Neither of my guys had any trouble backing off the top and rappelling, which made the day more fun for us. I just told them "Okay, turn around and lean back" and they did . It was a perfect day; weather, area, event and experience all could not have been better. Pics are here.
Thanks for looking.
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