The Wall

This isn't really a post about a single outing but rather a bunch in one since I am playing a little bit of catch-up on this blog. About a month and a few weeks ago, me amigo, Rocco brought me bouldering in Central Park. It was a blast, we started on a real boulder in the park then jogged our way up to the North Meadow recreation center to have a go at the indoor wall. For $7 you get a day pass and shoes, not a bad deal when compared to the $50 fee at Chelsea Piers. Although there is quite a difference in both walls.



I will let you guess which one costs $50

Anyway since that day I bought myslef a nice pair of Italian made Scarpa climbing shoes a ball of chalk and I've been heading out at least once a week to the wall. Last time I decided to go ahead and get the year pass which probably makes this the cheapest way to climb without climbing a real rock. The rec center has also been a great place to meet like minded individuals which proved most true when I bumped into someone from the wall in the middle of the woods only days after meeting them. I am pretty awful at climbing but get noticeably better each time and always have a lot of fun. I'd like to get out on to real rock more often but not really looking at ever climbing a cliff face. I am a little scared of heights. Some may say if you are scared of heights why rock climb. Well honestly I do a lot more left to right than up and down. Eventually I figured out how to traverse 5 sections of wall using only 4 hand holds. My current goal is to try and pull myself up from the bottom to the top on one of the steeper slanty pieces of wall (I am sure there's a more technical name for that). Anyway this is becoming one of the activities thats pretty high on my lists for both fun and exercise, and I recently inherited 2 large buckets of holds. The plan is to rip out some of the sheet rock in the garage and build me a little cave (updates to follow). Anyway here are some photos from the Rec center.




Day one on the wall





Jamal one of the rec center employees