Climb on, friends

While everyone else on the planet (okay not EVERYONE, but most) were out at the malls and the stores returning lame gift items, hitting the after christmas sales, and trying to get out of the christmas dinner haze, i was CLIMBING!! yahoo!! i mean, this was adventure climbing! hah I took my non-climber family, and i was the only one who really knew what was going on. I printed off a guide fomr online, and we headed to Queen Creek Canyon, home of the Phoenix Bouldering Comp , the Boulder Blast. That is the largest bouldering comp in the country! Yowsers. Anyhoo, i had my online directions and my family full of two other adults and about 5 kids, ranging from 1-10. And we had an adventure, as i said. The approach was a bit hairy, with some steep bouldery parts that we had to hoist kids and pregnant sisters over, but, we made it up in one peice. Then i hiked up and set up a top rope, as i did not have enough draws or a belayer to help me much. after a quick rappel, we were on the rock! The family did great, they loved the climbing, it was right by this pond and little cove with a big cottonwood tree, and nice red volcanic and sandstone rock. The rock was great to climb on, and there were lots of routes all over that looked pretty fun. We settled in on a nice 5.8 that the kids and sisters could play around on. When i realized it was getting dark, we headed down. that was just as sketchy, but i set up my rope for people to downclimb, and i climbed up and down a billion times helping people get down, usually a rope in one hand and a 35 pound kid in the other- tell me thats not skills! it was lots of fun, a good 'leader' experience. haha i am SO exhausted. and i love it. sore, tired, and deserving a nice warm bed and a good nights sleep. well, thats my story. I think we should climb down here on spring break!! You guy (my climbing friends) would LOVE it! well, okay you kids go have fun in the snow for me! good night!