What a madhouse! I arrived a mere 10 minutes before the Learn To Climb Night started at the climbing gym. I, of course, knew nothing about it until I got there. Within minutes, there were a couple hundred people there to climb! I’m not good with crowds, so the thought of leaving definitely crossed my mind, but I took the opportunity to do some exposure therapy on myself instead. I had to out wait the anxiety, which only worsened for an hour and 45 minutes. Only the knowledge that it would soon be over began to ease the anxiety. The gym has over 100 harnesses and they were constantly gathering and handing them back out! One of the owners said they had a similar event last week, but only half of the people! They’ve never run out of harnesses before! It was controlled chaos, at best. I forced myself through it, one moment at a time. My friend McKenzie checked on me periodically, which helped immensely! It was so comforting to get a hug and hear her say, “I’m proud of you! You’re doing good!”
As the masses packed up their gear and turned in their rental shoes and harnesses, the anxiety began to abate. It was almost over. Seven minutes remained. Not that I was counting down or anything. Of course I was! I went there to do some rehab traversing and ended up subjecting myself to over two hours of hardcore exposure to huge crowds of noisy, screaming people and kids. The kids were doing everything they shouldn’t have been to top it all off! BUT I MADE IT!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 