Went to Mountain quarry yesterday and my son Dylan had his first opportunity to climb on real rock. He had a go at “PENTHOUSE”, “LEFT EDGE” on the Black Wall with a top rope. I said to the guys who were watching that he will be lucky to climb past the first Carrot. Well did he prove me wrong. He climbed past the 1st, then the 2nd and up he went. The little monkey actually finshed the whole climb to the very top. taking the little detour to the right as the “Left Edge” does in the guide book. He was so pumped after, that he was like a kid in a chocolate factory.

The furtherest he had climbed was at the local gyms which are I believe 11 metres. Now he has managed 28m. He reckons he wasn’t scared at all and wanted to do more.

Now I was absoultely amazed and so proud of what he did and thought to myself well if he can do it so can I. I went out there today and first off tried my first lead climb on “Penthouse” but after climbing half way I just could get past the 4th bolt. Thought if I climbed any higher I might take a small fall. So set the top rope up and still couldn’t quite get there.

Maybe next time. But at the moment my 6 year old has a better real rock climb in the bag then me…. Seems the small feet and smaller hands come in handy on the rock. Oh well have to keep practicing. And now he wants to climb a 17 or 18………… maybe after a bit of practice I might see if he can do it leading…….

thanks for reading

one proud dad……….