boulder hurts...

so, you know that I've been bouldering indoors at the rec center right?

(if not please go to http://jakobwonders.blogspot.com/2009/02/bouldering.html before you read this.)

a couple of days ago I tried to do some outdoor bouldering on a boulder....
well i tried a couple of times to get a foothold on the curved base and managed it on like the 5Th try. i was standing on the side and trying to get a higher foot hold when my hands slipped off.
i fell and landed on my tailbone on the rockey ground....OUCH!!!

a little while afterward i was climbing again. but this time i was scaling sideward along a wall with lots of ledges for footholds and handholds....

Hang Gliding photogrophy

HANG GLIDING...

floating, circling, sinking, rising,
graceful,
fine, shine.

Last week we discovered the launching place on Mt. Zion for a hang glider club. Since we got here to Golden, we have seen them floating in the sky on beautiful days but didn't know where they came from.

We waited for awhile to see if the hang gliders would take off. Eventually, we started back down the mountain path. A little while later...

...the wind caught one glider, billowing the chute and lifting both person and chite into the air. I was watching them and snapping photos as he turned, floated and hovered. Pretty soon two more came around the side of the mountain. THEN the second guy (the one still on the ground of the launching area) managed to get his chute into the air, meaning that we had FOUR hang gliders floating around!!

(By the way, the photos for this blog, and on my entry on http://journey2wonderreview.blogspot.com were all taken by ME!)

Bouldering

So yesterday for the first time I went bouldering. Bouldering is like rock climbing, except that there aren't any ropes for support, so instead you have padding some 10 inches thick on the floor if you fall.

In bouldering you are only allowed to climb to 10-15 foot on a rock climbing wall (the bouldering wall is only 10-15 foot tall...). they also say that when you've climbed up you climb down as far as possible before you drop.

When I got there instead of bouldering immediately I did a little rock climbing. I now know how to tie myself onto the rope as well as a few command/questions for climbing with a top-rope.

In bouldering on a bouldering wall you have more of a challenge because it has a huge bulge in the wall.