Weekend 4

This would be the before picture with my trusty safety line guy.

Today was the ropes challenges course.
The campers did great. They were climbing up the ropes and poles so fast I couldn't believe it. My fellow O&M classmates (along with the SFA VI and O&M program instructors) talked me into gearing up and doing a part of the course. Once you complete a part of the course (30 feet in the air), the only way down is a zip line.

Climbing a 30 foot pole. It is harder than it looks. The metal 'steps' got smaller as you got to the top. Awesome.

I have never been so scared in my life. Once I got up to the top of the pole (which looks like a huge telephone pole), I had to step onto a 1/4 inch wire. Have I mentioned I fell off my 16 hand high horse in 2006 and broke my back? Yeah, this was scarier than that, mostly because falling off my horse took about 5 seconds. It did, however, cause a lot more pain than this ropes challenge course will. I ended up with a few small bruises from who knows what. I'll take those any day over a broken back.

Wondering what in the world I got myself into.

Hugging the pole for dear life. If you look closely you can see that my safety line guy is trying to tug me from the ground. I felt my hips being dragged toward the rope and hearing "let go with your left hand and reach for the rope!" I think I held on tighter at that point. 

I hugged that pole for dear life for about 5 minutes, with encouragement from my friends and my spotter who had me hooked to him through the pulley so I could not fall, I would just hang there if I slipped. I slowly stretched out my left arm clinging to the metal ring connected to the pole with my fingertips, my legs shaking the whole way; half from fatigue and half from fear.

This is where I had to make a 'leap of faith'. You can faintly see the rope dangling to my left.

From there I had to grab a stationary rope for support that is strategically placed slightly out of reach. This is what they call a 'leap of faith'. Once I grabbed the rope, I hung on for dear life.

It was another few minutes before I could bring myself to slide along the wire to the next rope. I had to move along the wire and get to 4 more ropes before reaching the halfway point.

Reaching for the ring at the midway point.

Once I reached the pole in the middle I hugged that one for dear life too. This time not quite as long.

Take note that I have to maneuver around the pole and step down about a foot to make it to the next wire.

The second half of the course was easier. I had a wire right above my head to hold onto, and a wire under my feet and I shuffled along it until I reached the platform. Once standing on the tower I looked back at what I had accomplished and at that point careening down a zip line did not seem so bad. I cannot believe I did that.

Triumph!

When it was my turn to zip line, I scooted as far as I could on the platform, knowing I would have to just nudge myself off. After a few moments of encouragement from my zip line buddy (we go in pairs, my buddy was a 14 year old camper) I figured I was being silly. These kids are not afraid, why should I be? In fact, most of them did it several times and completed the more challenging rope courses. With a countdown from 5, we took off. <insert random whooshing noise here>

Waiting for Stephen, a fellow O&M student to help me get down. He is going to drag me by the foot to the ladder so I can get the line unclipped and get my feet on the ground.

It was a blast. At the end you are "rescued" by a few guys with a ladder. You sit on the top while they unhook you from the gear.

After I was down on the ground again with my own two feet, I had to tote my zip line rope back up to the tower platform for the next person. Oh my, what a day!