I visited O2 world today which is a climbing gym like no other. It boasts the world's tallest indoor ice climbing wall right alongside a regular rock gym. It's a climber's paradise.
I'd never been ice climbing before and the gear I was given looked like a set of Ninja weapons. The ice axes are as sharp as throwing stars and the crampons (large metal spikes on the bottom of my boots) are deadly. You don't want to trip and fall wearing these bad boys or you might lose an eye, or an arm.
A guy with zero English gave me some quick instructions and I gingerly headed up the wall of ice. Every time I made a wrong move he blurted out commands that I also did not understand. Oh well, I was tied into him, so if I fell, he would catch me, not all that dangerous.
I kind of got the hang of it and after 5 minutes of slowly chomping away at the ice, I made it to the top of the kiddie wall, maybe about 20 feet high. With all the ice I chipped away I could have made a gigantic Slurpee, yum! Next it was onto the big boy wall, a whopping 50 feet high.
Once again I sputtered slowly up the wall like a super uncoordinated Spiderman. As I reached halfway though I bowed out. My forearms were burning! It's not easy to hold all your weight while hanging off a couple ice axes. Coming down is actually the fun part, you just sit back and walk while the guy at the bottom leads you down the rope, weeee!
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