Well, after the Put-in-Bay trip, I hung around Michigan area and that’s when Monika recommended checking out the Rock climbing spot at Novi, Michigan.
As I am with all my trips, experiences, and events, I wasn’t sure what to expect about Rock Climbing, as this was something I was trying for the first time. I had Monika, Anupam and their lovely kids Aryan and Arnav for company. I took it as a challenge to see for myself whether I can climb the vertical rocks or not. I could have chosen a better suited outfit for the outing, but was glad that I didn’t experience anything negatively surprising.
The drive to Novi from my place at Westland was a good 30 minutes. I arrived at the location before time and was surprised to find how hard it was to find the parking spot. I didn’t know this sport was that much famous and was just praying that I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.
Once I entered the building, it felt like a whole new world to me. I was looking at scenes which I had seen only in movies and TV shows. I felt like a small kid in a candy land. I could see myself climbing on countless spots and checking out different themed climbs that the location had to offer. Before I could go in and enjoy the rock climbing thrill, I underwent a 10-15 minutes training which helped us with all the technical details that we needed to know in order to start rock climbing. I was paying extra attention as I needed to make sure I get it right and trust me, it took me more than two attempts to get the knots in order.
After some formalities, it was finally time to head to the playland and enjoy some actual rock climbing stuff. One important thing that our trainer told us was that we must climb the rock in a pair of two – one will climb the rocky wall and his/her partner would support the climber in case something goes wrong. I think it was an important tip since all of us were climbing rocks for the first time.
I decided to go first and Anupam was my spotter. When I started the climb, I thought it would be very difficult, but as we started on some easier climbs to get ourselves used to it, I found out it was not that difficult especially because Anupam was spotting myself from the ground. I tried to climb as efficiently as I could and discovered that when I reached the top of the wall, I looked down and found myself sweating because of my acrophobia. Interestingly, climbing down was harder part for me than climbing up.
After my turn, it was Anupam’s turn to climb the wall and he made it to the top quicker than me and I found out how hard it was to be a spotter too as I had to pay attention to his moves all the time and I had to make sure that I release the rope in time for him to come down to the ground.
After we tried rock climbing, we helped kids climb countless walls. The location that we went to had so many kid friendly climbs that kids had a lot of fun. I remember Arnav falling a couple of times from the safe height. It was fun to help them climb rocks.
It was a good experience and I would love to do it again.
Next stop: Seattle, WA, USA.
stochasticity 