In the past seven months I can say that I have grown quite a lot when it comes to climbing. I enjoy the sport quite a lot. It’s a practice of patience, finger strength, flexibility, and of course repetition. Yesterday some of the climbers from the Rock out gym all joined together to make a nice girl trip out to a gym in Tallahassee. I had never been there before and I was quite excited about the idea of going with a bunch of other women and getting a chance to mess around with Top rope. It’s not very often that D and I get to do Top rope in general so I was really pumped about it. 

The girls and I had made our way out there with full bellies and an open mind about what was to come. The gym was in a warehouse and we were warned that it can get kind of hot and muggy in there because of they don’t have any air conditioning. Not only that but some of the girls were saying that the gym wasn’t to great in terms of the routes and the atmosphere. Despite that I think everybody was ready to get their climb on. 

Once we got the gym we had to sign some waivers and from there they asked about Top rope gear. (Harnesses, Greegrees, and so one). Luckily we knew some people that let us borrow their gear and D had let me borrow his harness and ACT. The only thing we had to do was take a quick test to see if we actually knew what we were doing when we were doing the top rope. I was pretty nervous to be honest. D and I hadn’t done much top rope so I wasn’t sure how much I was going to remember and because of that I held off on taking the test. I followed them into the gym and watched the other girls as they started taking the test. While I was watching and one of the girls was waiting her turn she asked if I wanted to be retaught. A little nervous and unsure and decided to let her show me what to do. 

She showed me how to tie in and gave me some pointers to help me remember. She pointed out that I could take the test and see how I do and if I don’t pass then I can’t belay, I will just climb with the girls. With that statement and a look at the test I decided to go ahead and give it a go. I didn’t see a reason not to and after my review I felt a little better. So I went ahead and put on my harness and waited my turn. 

The test itself wasn’t bad. It was free with the day pass in the gym. Basically you just had to show that you knew how to tie in and from there you had to show how you would belay somebody if they were climbing. With that in mind I went ahead and did my best to show here. I even had one of the girls do a "test climb" and "fall" for me so that I can show that I was safe to belay. 

I passed. 

It was quite wonderful to know that I could actually pass a test. I did have some mess ups but honestly it was one of those things that made me smile. I was so nervous about it and I wasn't quite sure if I was ready to do the test itself. So when I got that day pass to belay I was so happy and relieved. D had taught me well and I felt really good about it. 

With that as a reinforce on my mood we went about climbing. We did quite a lot of top rope and very little bouldering but I thought it was pretty awesome. We got to do something that we don't really ever do. It was a change from the usual bouldering experience and I honestly was super happy about it. We climbed for about four hours and by the time we finished we had decided that we were well worn out. Our hands were dry, our fingers were hurting and we had a nice workout. 

All in all I would say that the experience was worth it. Of course I don’t have a lot of experience in climbing gyms but I do think that being exposed to them is a good thing. I get to see different routes, mess around with different holds, and just enjoy being able to do this sport while I can.