Sometimes, I forget that I'm afraid of things until it's too late.

A few weeks ago, I visited the Bridges Center downtown  (for those unfamiliar, it's the big, angled silver building at the corner of North Parkway an 5th St). The staff gave me a tour of the building (which is completely environmentally sustainable) and told about all of their leadership and environmental programs for Memphis youth. They sent me home with a packet of information and a flier for "Community Climb Night", an event where anyone can come climb the center's massive indoor rock wall.

I had never been on a rock wall before (and it looked like fun), so I went to Bridges last night, signed a waiver and was fitted with a harness.

It was at the exact moment that the nice volunteer tightened the last strap on the harness that I remembered that I'm really freaked out by open heights (meaning, planes and roofs are fine, climbing things, not so much).

It was too late though. So I waddled (because that's the only way to walk in a harness) over to the wall, where a belayer named Tommy clipped a caribiner to my waist and talked me through how to climb the wall. For safety, I was hooked to my belayer's waist through a series of ropes. While I was on the wall, Tommy could give me more or less slack on my rope. More importantly, he could lower me down when I got freaked out (or reached the top of the wall).

On the first try, I only made it about 10 feet up on the 35 foot wall. On the second try, I managed to stop looking down. By the third, I had figured out the rhythm of using my legs (rather than my arms) to push up the wall. And on the fourth try, was able to ring the bell at the top.

Bridges hosts community climb nights on a semi-monthly basis. The crowd last night was mostly families - tons of kids (and their parents) made their way up the 1400 square foot wall. One of the volunteers told me that during the fall and winter, they get a lot of couples on dates. It makes sense - community climb night would be an awesome date for couples looking to do something a little unconventional. It's $15 to climb as much as you want.

Go There:

Community Climb Night at the Bridges Center

Bridges Center