Day 69 October 24, 2009 Rock Climbing!

Saturday, October 24, 2009-Day 69
Today was a day looked forward to a great deal by the majority of the group because it is the day ECOEE begins a weekend full of rock climbing. The great people of Aztec Recreation Center helped teach us the necessary terminology and skills of climbing rocks as we switched our instructor Jeff with theirs. This also meant it would be our first day without Jeff which was a very different feeling.
Dan and Christina, the ARC instructors met with us a little after 7:00 a.m. at our campsite to pick us up and take us to the Atlantis wall. Even with breakfast being late we adapted towards still being ready for Dan and Christina in time by preparing lunch while breakfast was being prepared. We soon arrived at Atlantis wall where we did some boulder hopping along the path to the top of the wall.
We soon reached our destination and began to learn all about setting up the climbing equipment around trees, boulders, and in cracks of rocks. Once we learned about that it was time to rappel down the wall so that we could climb back up it. We went down the wall one by one, more fun for some while scarier for others. When we all reached land Dan and Christina taught us more about climbing in the form of belaying each other. From there we were turned loose to climb and try to reach the top of Atlantis wall. We continued this for much of the day as the group appeared to have much fun as a whole.
Around 2:30 p.m. we discontinued climbing and headed for what we would soon find out was our old camp as the cub scouts had pounced on our sites since they were not reserved for the day. From there we traveled to our Aztec friends’ sites and set up camp there.
Jake and his chef crew began our Chinese dinner and the rest of us scattered doing little jobs and the like. Tomorrow we look forward to Dairy Queen wall in hopes the group can have fun trying to conquer that wall much like Atlantis. While heights are not my cup of tea I am happy to as always be experiencing new things with the ECOEE family.
“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.”