Rock climbing

So. One of our newish local climbing facilities recently added homeschool classes during the school day. Upon mentioning this to Micah, I was surprised to learn that apparently he's very interested in rock climbing and has been wanting to learn more for awhile (first I'd heard of it, lol). You can see where this is going, right? :) 

Yesterday was his first class. Right now, it's just him and two of his friends who we corralled into joining to make sure there would be more than just him in the class, lol. The class is 90 minutes long and they loved every minute of it.

They started with some warm up and discussion about safety and rules then moved over to the "slab" to get going and allow the instructor to see where each boy was at:

(Micah's in the red shirt.) After that, they moved around to the "scoop" for some more challenging bouldering:

Micah quickly realized that a greater wingspan will help, lol. After more of that, there was time to try some higher climbs using the auto-belay systems:

It was pretty high but the boys were so proud of themselves when they reached the top...and enjoyed belaying back down. :) 

And then they "cooled down" with some easier climbs before going back and doing some stretching and then wrapping things up...

(Micah's way over on that far upper wall.)  

Admittedly I've not been in many climbing facilities, but I thought Ascent Studio was quite impressive. Beyond the amazing walls, it appears to be well run, clean and organized...all things I value. :) Plus, Micah's just in love with this now and is so looking forward to next week's class. Hooray!!