Last summer I decided that during the dark season I would get myself certified to belay the kids at the local climbing gym and this would give us an activity to do when things got cold. I was hoping that the sport would provide an opportunity for the kids to gain some confidence and overcome some of the timidity they sometimes show, particularly Phoebe. I finally found the time to sign up and made an appointment for the class which was taught by the owner of Carabiners, Steve. I explained my philosophy and goals and he started going over the knots and technique while simultaneously working with the kids to teach them basic safety, communication, and techniques for belaying. We put Phoebe on the wall and he had her climb up a bit and then come back down and she repeated this a few times. We then followed with Ellie and this gave me the opportunity to re-tie all the knots and get the gear setup again. We switched back to Phoebe and she proceeded to climb straight up to the top before belaying back down under my control. To put it simply, I was absolutely floored. This is the second time this has happened in the span of a month. In early November, I watched as we somehow elected President a man who had bragged about sexual assault and denigrated the military service of John McCain. I had awoken the morning after the election and picked up my phone, hoping with all my might it was some kind of dream. It wasn’t. I was returning to this same mind frame as I watched a kid who won’t go on toddler rides at the amusement park climb up an overhanging wall with zero fear. Ellie followed suit and Steve left us and we headed down to the bottom of the gym where there is a ladder strung from floor to ceiling, a 65 foot vertical. Both kids went straight up to the top. It was getting to be around 7:30 at this point and I didn’t really want to stop but we had school the next day and I informed them that they we had to leave. Phoebe burst into tears which provided entertainment to some of the climbers around us.
I took Phoebe back on Saturday when Ellie was at a ladies luncheon and she was in her element. Steve showed her how to use the auto-belay and she worked her way up three or four lines in the upper area before we went downstairs to try the full height of the building, a 65’ wall. I tied her in and off she went and she worked on this wall for an hour. Several times she gave up and then, with several climbers on the stairs behind her helping her with her footwork, she made it to the top. As soon as her feet were back on the ground, she was back on the wall. I had to stop her and tell her to catch her breath and take some water. Phoebe is not normally the kid you have to hold back, and given that I was holding her back from scaling a six story wall, I was and continue to be, bewildered.
I have spent at least 7,500 hours with the kid and I guess I don’t really know her.
