a climbing wall experience

most of my professional life has been spent running outdoor recreation programs. for the past four years, before coming to bishkek, i taught recreation classes and e directed the outdoor programs at california state university san bernardino and the university of houston. i even have a university degree in camping (very impressive, i know). point is... i feel like i have a pretty good idea of what is safe and what isn't safe. especially when it comes to climbing walls. it is also fair to say that i am a safety nazi when it comes to climbing.

at the university of houston i required all climbers (including staff) to wear helmets, instituted stringent safety policies, and focused alot of time and energy on staff training and development. climbing on a
rock wall, while seeming to be high risk, is a very safe activity.

except in central asia...

on monday we took the outdoor adventure club to the sports institute (a soviet era gymnasium) to climb on the rock wall.

two words... "scary".

i so, so regret not having our camera with us. the wall was an old, flat panel wall with a handful of holds. the floor had a semblance of a matted floor. the manager of the wall brought out the harnesses,
dropped them at my feet and then proceeded to the top of the wall to place the ropes.

the harnesses were old and old fashion... of a style that i had never seen before. as jen and i struggled to fit each kid into their harness, the wall manager dropped the "ropes" through the anchors on top and down to the floor.

my best estimate was that the ropes were left behind when the soviets pulled out... in 1991.

they were dirty, frayed and way, way past their prime.

jen and i looked at each other wide eyed.

it got more scary. the manager came down off of the wall and started tying in one of our kids into a rope using a very loose figure 8 knot (with no safety knot). as we watched... she ran the rope down through a floor anchor, tied the end of the rope around her waist, and in russian, barked at our student to start climbing.

as our student started to climb... she walked backwards away from the wall. no harness and no belay device. oh... and she broke out her phone and started texting.

if you don't know much about climbing... trust me... this is so wrong and so scary.

jenny and i talked about pulling everyone off the wall and leaving but decided to accept some cultural differences and stick it out.

side note... that is our new favorite phrase... "cultural differences". cars blocking our side of the road by driving the wrong way... cultural differences. feathers sticking out of the cooked chicken during dinner... cultural differences. when people cut in front of us in line at the store (which happens often)... cultural differences. kyrgz and russian women wearing high heal boots and short skirts when it is freezing outside... cultural differences.

anyway... the kids climbed. the kids had fun. and everyone was safe.

even if it was a bit scary.