Low Impact

On the last day of our very active four-day weekend, we decided to climb and asked Elise where she wanted to go. She said, "I want to go to the Forgotten Wall and try my project". About two weeks ago I'd hung a rope on a route for her to try and told her that if she managed to climb it at some point this spring without resting on the rope, I'd buy her a gelato afterward. A climb that takes multiple days, weeks, or even months is what we typically refer to as a project - something you have to work on over an extended period of time. Elise is familiar with the term and often asks, "Did you do your project, Dad?"

That first day she only tried the climb once, and it went pretty well but she wasn't keen to try again...until yesterday for some reason. So we drove to the wall, set up the rope and let her have a go. She did pretty well again, but had to hang on the rope and struggled to climb the hardest moves. She eventually did them, but struggled some more up above. She came down and took a break to build a fort in the forest while Pam climbed. She eventually went up for her second attempt and huffed and puffed at the start - not a good sign - but then miraculously started firing through the harder moves above. She made it through the crux and then hung on for the ride to the top. I made a point of not giving her a tight top-rope at all during the climb.

Pam and I were visibly excited for her as she neared the top and called out encouragement. When she got to the anchor, she turned and called down to us, "Did I do it?" "Of course" we both yelled! She grinned and said, "Then I guess it's gelato time." We all laughed...

The climb is called Low Impact and it's rated 5.10a, her hardest climb (without resting) on a top-rope to date. I was very happy for her, but told her I'd have to find her a harder project. That one came together far too quickly...