I contemplated over it for way too long. I worked myself into a panic. So finally, I just said, "Oh to heck with it! Let's give it a try!"
It was intimidating. The people at the gym were nice but they weren't as "comforting" as I hoped. I called ahead and they recommended that I bring a friend since you can't rock climbing without someone (I had no idea). So I recruited my friend Jessica (yes, another one) to come along. She had climbed before but she's scared of heights so it balanced out pretty well.
The harness. Well, it was a wee bit small. And I STRUGGLED to get it over my hips. I was upset but I just tried to remain calm and sure enough, it was just large enough. The rest was a breeze. I conquered the first wall and before long we were trying all sorts of walls. The biggest problem for me was that once you hit the top, you had to trust the other person to bring you down and just let go. That's a lot of trust!
It was fun work out. My back is tired!
I'm already ready to do it again so we're going next week.
Here's what I would recommend if you want to try it:
1. Call ahead and see if they do lessons.
2. If you're concerned about the size of the harness, call and ask.
3. Bring a friend who is around your size (within say 50 pounds).
Here's a couple pics!
Oh yeah, I kicked that wall's butt.
Let's do that again!