During Spring Break, James invited his school chum Aryn to go climbing,
so the two kids, along with Dad and Aryn's mother Pam went off to Pilot
Mountain. This was Aryn and Pam's first time on real rock.
We set up on a 5.6 climb called Goldilox just west of the descent
gully. This is the climb James did the first time he visited Pilot Mountain
so Dad figured it would be a good place to start.
Goldilox starts out with an easy climb to a low shelf, but then
comes the crux, a confidence-testing lateral move to a small vertical
crack system that provides handholds for the ascent up the face. Quite the
stretch for 8-year-olds, and once they've made it, they have to tiptoe up the
face trusting that their feet will stay stuck to some pretty small nubbins
on the rock. Once they are 15 feet up, however, the rest of the climb is
very easy.
James and Dad were impressed with Aryn's progress. She was tentative
on her first attempt, but on the second one, she made it past the crux with
a small assist from her belayer -- it's amazing how much confidence a little
upward tug from the rope will provide.
Once she'd done the route once, no more assistance was needed, and
both kids spent the rest of the day blitzing the route, trying minor variations,
practicing their "batman walking" down the face after each climb, and generally
having fun.
