Casey Climbs the Walls

For an after school activity, Casey chose Rock Climbing!  Our school has an awesome rock gym and most cool climbing teacher, Mr. Plomteux (that's pronounced "plum toe").

Mr. P is all about making sure they know just what to do and how to do it safely - he doesn't take any messing around!  Casey can now tie all the knots she needs, she can belay the other kids (that's what she's doing in the first picture - it means control the ropes, lower them when done, and catch them if they come off the wall), and is so confident at climbing!  Mr. P makes them learn with just ropes and clips - no fancy connectors or anything - because he feels it's important for them to know precisely what they are doing and why.

Throughout the year they had to climb doing different things - use only your arms, use only one color of handhold, climb with tennis balls in both of your hands, climb blindfolded (that was one of Casey's favorites!), and much more.

They also played games - here they have two teams and each team has one member hanging from the ceiling (Casey got that job!) and the other team throws soft balls at them while they try to avoid getting hit.  Amanda's math coach happened to be in the gym when this happened (his son is in Casey's class) so he took some pictures for us - thanks!  Casey says it was scary hanging up there with the balls coming, but she doesn't look like she's scared...

I bet Casey will want to keep taking the rock climbing class again next year!