Spider-people!!!

Last Wednesday was my Son’s 29th birthday and Michael and I went to Atlanta a couple of days early to help him celebrate.

Brian and his wife, Amber, have joined a climbing gym called “Stone Summit” and they wanted to show us what they can do so we enjoyed several hours of watching them. 

The facility is crazy, with walls ranging from 25 to 60 feet tall……

But, the most amazing thing about the visit was seeing what Brian and Amber had learned to do.

This is Amber at the top of a 40 foot wall……

And there goes Brian…..

For safety purposes, there is a rope attached to each climber.  It loops over the top of the wall and then is attached to a “belay person” on the ground. 

According to Wikipedia…..Belaying refers to a variety of techniques climbers use to exert friction on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far.  A climbing partner typically applies friction at the other end of the rope whenever the climber is not moving, and removing the friction from the rope whenever the climber needs more rope to continue climbing.

Both Brian and Amber worked almost as hard at Belaying as they did when climbing.  It is especially difficult for Amber as she is so much smaller than Brian.   When he is on his descent, she has to squat down and lower her center of gravity so that his weight doesn’t pull her off of the floor……

In this photo, you can see Brian at the very top and Amber WAY down below…

They even have special glasses to wear so that you don’t have to keep straining your neck to look up at the climber…..

The final thing that Brian showed us is called “Bouldering” and is done on lower walls without a rope and with dense pads at the base of the wall…..

After all of this exercise we had to have some good food so they took us to one of their favorite Korean Tofu Restaurants.   Michael had Korean BBQ and one of the soups with Purple Rice…..

while I had a WONDERFUL spicy chicken dish……

A FUN, FUN day …….

Thanks guys for letting us celebrate with you!!!!