Rock Climbing Field Work

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Again facing a bit of a time crunch, we piled into Jen's rental car with ropes, hardware, harnesses and helmets and headed to Chapel Ledge in Ashfield, the first place that OLP climbed in the fall. We were to meet a Greenfield French 2 class. We found the triangle of grass that marked the left turn we were to take. We parked and climbed to 2nd and 3rd sites bringing the gear to the top where Aaron, Jen, and Kristi started setting up the climbs. Since I'm not taking the cert, I offered to meet the group down at the road and buy some time. We expected Sean to meet us but he hadn't arrived yet. The group pulled up in a van a few minutes after I hiked back down. I started fitting harnesses and helmets and getting to know Tamara or "Madame" as she was known to the students. Eventually, Aaron arrived and we did a name game and then started hiking up, bypassing the first rock face that looked appealing to both the students and me. Not sure why Austin didn't have us use this site.

The wind was blowin' hard as we rounded what I think is Pony Mountain to finish the last leg of the climb. . . it's steep. I had laid packs on the equipment tarp to keep the wind from blowing it off the mountain. We did a name game again since we were now all together. I did an LNT, safety, and Challenge by Choice review and then we hiked down to the sites to let the climbing begin. Since there were only 3 climbs, I really had no function other than to roam and float. I prefer to have a function so it was a challenge to get through the day without stepping on toes and feeling outside the periphery.  Sean said it was good to have a floater to manage the site but it wasn't optimal for me. And the plan that I would demo the rappel got scrapped for logistics. I kept an eye on hypothermic looking students and tried to push my extra clothing on them. A few took some as well as Madame's stash but there were a few diehards that refused as they jerked from shivers. I was determined to get authoritarian after lunch if they were still shivering.

We decided to hike down to the first rock site which turned out to be a great group management area, kind of horse-shoe shaped, out of the wind and somewhat sunny. After eating and warming up, the students were ready to give climbing another shot. Kristi led us on a trail that would get blood pumping and was a little gentler climb. I was working mostly with Kristi's group and would cover the belay student while Kristi worked with a climber who needed help.

Finally time to wrap up and debrief down at the parking lot. Tamara needed to get the van of students back by 2 so that a couple could be home to watch siblings. Four were left behind for a parent to pick up but she didn't arrive until 2:30. After they left, we were able to debrief with Sean and agreed that for the most part the day went well and we answered any questions he had about how things went.

This was our last Field Day!!