Indoor Climbing

Lydia's birthday party outing this year was to an indoor rock climbing gym. There is a sizeable one up in Woburn; she invited five of her friends to come climb for a couple of hours this past Saturday. Amy and I tagged along but didn't climb; I brought my camera and took some pictures. The light was not great, meaning a large fraction of the photos didn't turn out, but I did get a few good shots.

We had two instructors for our group to help out with the belaying, plus a bunch of so-called "AutoBelay" gadgets that allow you to climb on your own without an instructor.

 Here is the gang getting the first of many safety lectures:

Lydia on the climbing walls. In the second shot you can see the Auto-Belay thingy, which is basically a sort of mechanized reel thing that will lower you gently if you fall off the climbing wall.

Lydia reaching the top:

More photos:

There was also a free-climbing wall where you could climb without a rope (only a short ways, of course) with padding below.

In addition to the usual colored plastic hand grips, they had a few more whimsical ones bolted to the wall:

One of Lydia's super-speedy friends (the photo is blurry because she's moving so quickly...)

The gang watching someone climb:

On this particular pitch you get to climb with your back to the wall, which was interesting to watch:

I think everyone had a good time. We reserved for two hours, but after about an hour and a half the girls had started to slow down (all the gripping/holding muscles in the hands were starting to get tired).

After that it was back home for pizza and cupcakes; Lydia had made a big batch of chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing earlier in the day -- they were delicious.