I'm a little afraid of heights. I say that because it's not something that I think about often, and this realization has only manifest itself twice in my life - first when my best friend forced me to be a tourist and go to the top of the Empire State Building (we got some great pictures, but my knees were shaking the whole time) and most recently last weekend when I was forty feet in the air, strapped into a harness and balancing my feet on small, rocklike pieces jutting out of the wall.
Instead of heading to the gym for our usual workouts, my boyfriend and I decided to check out Climbnasium in Mechanicsburg, an indoor rock climbing place. It's an old barn converted into an indoor playground, basically, with two climbing walls on the first level, a loft with bouldering areas and a basement with two taller climbing walls. The walls have regular vertical walls, overhangs that require much more skill and slab, these tilelike pieces that have a different sort of texture on each one that you can grab on to and make your way up the wall.
For $32 each we got an instruction lesson from one of the employees, climbing shoes, harnesses and all day use of the facility. If you've never been rock climbing before the lesson is mandatory (and smart. I had no idea how in the world I was supposed to belay, or base and hold the rope, for my 200 pound boyfriend), but if you have some experience you pay $12 for climbing, $5 for shoes and $3 for a harness. They're open Monday - Friday 1 to 10 p.m, Saturday 9 a.m to 10 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m.
As a physical activity, rock climbing can be strenuous. It requires a certain amount of upper body strength and stamina. You have to trust the person on the ground who's belaying for you because they're what's going to keep you from crashing to the ground if you slip or fall off the wall. And as you're climbing you have to strategize your every move.
Grab a friend and check it out. It's a fun physical activity to try and you might just surprise yourself with how well you do. I know I did.
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