Climbing: Another Mission Toward Manhood

Rock climbers and their alpine adventures have always fascinated me. Doug Robinson made a great video called Moving Over Stone. He presented rock climbing as poetry; orchestrated movement. The video is now available on YouTube and well worth the watch. 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xm86ui_moving-over-stone_shortfilms.

In the video, he filmed and interviewed climbing masters of the day such as Lynn Hill and Peter Croft.

My wife and I took our grandsons to their first 'rock climbing' experience yesterday. We were instructed in how to belay our grandsons as they climbed the wall at “MetalMark Climbing and Fitness” in Fresno. Our five-year-old grandson did give the 48’ walls a couple of tries but liked the “bouldering” more.

The seven year old really loved the big wall and worked his way up to a 5.10b climb.

Michelle, our instructor was patient with all of us and very encouraging. As we were leaving after three hours of climbing the older boy said, “Can we come back tomorrow?” Their muscles were not sore the next day! I find it amazing how resilient young muscles are. The boys have a good power to weight ratio.

I can't think of any better exercise for young boys in an era where so many boys are sitting playing video games. Children are natural climbers and perhaps someday they will be on the granite walls of Yosemite like Alex Honnold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leCAy1v1fnI

We also watched some young men practicing free running and parkour. Here is some video shot in Fresno. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPgPboQpUO4