Indoor Rock Climbing

I don't know if indoor rock gyms are popular in many parts of the country or even the world but they are fairly popular where I'm at and it's pretty awesome!

Rock climbing is such an incredible sport and it's so much harder than one would think it could be! Lol. There are so many different factors involved and it's a little worse when you're a little out of shape and haven't been to a normal gym in a while, never mind a rock gym where you need to be in fairly decent shape in order to do any of it.

The other day my wife suggested I take a little bit of time for myself and get out of the house for a bit and suggested I hit up a rock gym. She and I went to a few back in the day and really enjoyed them, it was a pretty good couple's event because it's something you can do together and challenge yourself to try and get better and go higher than you would do otherwise.

Having not been in a really long time, I took my time getting around the gym and giving the various spots a try. One of the things that's a little scary is in the back of your mind you're constantly thinking that you're pretty damn high in the air and you're relying on a machine to make sure if you let go, you don't fall backwards and pretty much die lol.

Thankfully the gyms, in order to stay in business, need to keep a pretty good safety record and keep the machines up to snuff and secure.

What's wild though is some of the courses are fucking INSANE lol. The one seen above is one of the easier ones considering the overall course. It's just vertical with some different spots to grab and get yourself up higher. What becomes tricky and challenging physically and mentally is trying to stay within the same color scheme as you're climbing upwards towards the top. That's the legitimate way that people are doing this type of climbing, they are staying on the green track, the white track or the purple track to see if they can make it from one piece to the other and ascend higher until you get to the top and tap the machine.

The machines that are more entry level and perfect for those who are climbing by themselves are called Auto Belay machines. They are the ones where you strap in and the machine is pulling gently on your rope to bring you up as you're climbing but will slowly bring you down if you push back or let go, or mistakenly fall off the wall. With there being an Auto Belay, naturally that means there is also a regular Belay which is what many of the more experienced climbers will use but it's always gotta be in pairs. This often means that couples will do it together, one being at the bottom and the other one being the one climbing the wall.

With the Auto Belay, there are these interesting signs at each spot. This thankfully makes it pretty easy to spot them and see what ones are Auto and what ones aren't. If there isn't one of these signs below it, then it's a regular Belay rope.

The Auto Belay was great for me because it allowed me to climb on my own without anyone around me. This was fun because it's been so long since I've climbed that I wasn't sure how I was going to do lol. I did pretty good overall I think, considering how rusty I was and how out of shape my arms were!

What's crazy though is that some of these sections are unbelievably complicated and advanced! I couldn't imagine trying to climb up the one that puts you at an outward incline like the few sections we can see here. The black grips we can see right there in the middle look like such an intense climb, I would love to master some of the different parts of the course like this and I'm definitely considering getting a membership to a gym. We don't have one that's super close to us sadly though, so it might have to wait a little bit until we can move somewhere that has one close by. I just looked and the area we are looking to move to has a bunch of rock gyms around so that's really great to see.

One thing I'm thankful and surprised about is that my forearms and hands, although were quite sore and worn out by the time I was done, didn't get as negatively impacted the next day or the day after than I thought they would be lol I guess I'm not that old after all :D