For Kyle's birthday we got to check something off our Nashville wish list: ClimbNashville. I gave him a few outing/party options, but this won. So on the Saturday of his birthday we headed to West Nashville for our first climbing experience.
We took the belying training--so we can hold and lower each other on a route already anchored at the ceiling. Nearly all of the routes at ClimbNashville are double looped at the top, which does lower the weight you are holding if someone falls. But many routes at ClimbNashville are auto-belays, which you can climb alone. We did a mix of both.
Each route is color coded and given a difficulty score. 5.5 is the easiest and it goes up from there. 5.13 or 14 were the hardest I noticed. As long as you stick to your color hand and foot holds, you can compare the routes you are climbing.
We had a great time. It's so challenging physically and mentally--it's a physical puzzle. Kyle completed a few 5.8s; I finished 5.7s. We both climbed walls that were about 40-50 feet high. It was great fun.
We took the kids a few weeks later. ClimbNashville's motto is, If they can walk, they can climb.
I scared The Manimal early on by hoisting his feet off the ground. After that he was done. Oops. But Hamish enjoyed it.
She climbed to the top of one of the shorter walls. A friend of ours was belaying her, so she kept taking breaks and enjoying hanging in space, but with some encouragement/bribing she did finish. We were proud of her.
Then we celebrated/made good on our encouragement. Yay milkshakes.
