Preface:
1) I work at Stone Summit Climbing and Fitness Center.
B) I love my job.
Some shifts are just fantastic, like last weekend's. I don't know what was in the air, or more likely in the chalk, but it was working in my favor. I had two staff-assisted climbs with some really awesome customers. A lady told me she thought my shorts were "so cute." And I got to rescue two kids off the wall.
Some people might think that's annoying. I just think it's hilarious.
The first was a little girl clipped into an automatic belay on our upstairs beginner wall. She'd climbed two-thirds of the way up and was too scared to let go and float down. I personally think she was too light anyway (true story: for some kids, we clip ropes to the backs of their harnesses to pull them back down the wall because they don't weigh enough. They'll let go and just sit there. It's kinda funny.) So her parents were trying to convince her to let go and she wouldn't. I was already harnessed up so I offered to retrieve her. Her mom said, "yes please. This is usually the point where her brother climbs up and pulls her down, but he's not here today." Lolz.
So a few hours later a co-worker and I were assigned a rescue mission. One of our walls has a repel ledge about, oh, 25 feet up? A different girl (maybe 8 or 9) had climbed all the way up and was terrified to come back down over the ledge. She'd scoot really close and put one foot over and then shake her head and back away. One of the managers went and talked to her parents and then came back and assigned two of us to bring her back down. We harnessed up and walked over and tied in to the route next to hers. I got up to the ledge and stood beside her and we chatted briefly. Found out that she was scared because she couldn't see where she was putting her feet (a valid point, mind you). I climbed back over the edge and ended up carrying her down. Got a high five and much thanks at the bottom when I untied her, then she and her family got ready to head home and I went back to the front desk.
About ten minutes later one of my co-workers came back from doing the hourly bathroom check. She told me she'd overheard the girl talking to her sister while washing her hands: "that lady who brought me down smelled so nice."
My job is awesome.
