My friend Joe (that’s him in the picture) invited me to go rock climbing with him at the Earth Treks Climbing Center, which was something I had never done before.
That was the point.
I find that it’s really easy to stay in our comfort zones and now take on those new adventures as we get older.
To me, risk, adventure, innovation, newness…these are muscles which require exercise, so that was reason enough to go.
Given all the ropes and equipment it’s a relatively safe thing to try (except for the guy who almost fell on me-that was a bit scary), so I figured “go big or go home” and while not quite going up the toughest route (they are color coded), I did intentionally try to push myself.
Like any activity, there’s a pretty healthy sub-culture around rock climbing, as was evidenced by the number of people there and the way they dressed and spoke, for example, but being one of the older ones, I could take a different perspective on it.
It wasn’t the most strenuous workout (I was pretty sore the next day, but more because I think I was using muscles in a new way-good!), but it was a solid one.
A surprising aspect to the experience was the strategic thinking required to navigate the route in the most energy and physically effective way.
I don’t feel the need to go back immediately or buy all the gear, but it was a good chance to get out there (or in this case, in there, since it was inside) and look at life for a different perspective—like 75 feet off the ground.
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