Monday, September 7, 2009

Sailing Hawks - Bouldering

I have been itching to get the opportunity to boulder again. After the 24 Hours of Moab, I am going to occupy the rest of the fall with climbing. Hopefully, we can even schedule a trip to Moab.

Bouldering is the act of climbing large rocks(boulders) without ropes or harnesses. There are rating systems used to rate the various routes of a climb. We are focused on the V0.

We went this weekend and purchased climbing shoes and chalk bags! We visited two climbing areas near Durango: Turtle Lake and Sailing Hawks. I was very impressed with the kid's initial ability to climb and focus while under some fearful situations. The kids were exposed to the "Oh Shit" feeling. This is the feeling when you get high enough you cannot come down, but instead have to continue climbing up and conquer the boulder. This typically requires extreme focus. Forgetting the fear of falling and instead focusing all brain energy on the basics of the climb.


Some videos I created.



Another video:



Below Tyler climbs on a warm-up boulder. It is a fairly simple traverse.
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Brianna doing the same. Take note of my height. I am standing 6ft tall. The boulder was approximately 20 ft.(click for larger image)

Brianna keeping her hips near the boulder and her legs and arm as straight as possible.
(click for larger image)

Tyler poses while resting his forearms.
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Brianna preparing to conquer a climb.
(click for larger image)

1 comment:

  1. Hey you Guys, pretty cool. Congrats to all of you for being so brave! I think I like to keep my feet on the ground. Grandma

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