The Great Climb

By Kyra Leigh

We donned our harnesses, limbered up our legs and took our chances on a climbing wall instead!

One afternoon in early March the sun popped its head from behind the cloud and, in true British fashion, we thought “time to get back outside”. Welcome to Mojo Gorge Scrambling Part 2! We’re just kidding, even though the weather was on the brighter side, Leicester was still a chilly place to be. So instead, we donned our harnesses, limbered up our legs and took our chances on a climbing wall instead!

As a suggestion from Dave, we felt that rock climbing was an excellent idea to get ourselves up and active for a social - we’re saving the pub garden socials for when the ground is looking more green and less white. We booked the later slot so we could have the wall all to ourselves and this turned out to be an excellent plan. We arrived at the centre in plenty of time to harness up and listen to the safety instruction before heading for the wall like a hungry pack of wolves, eager to prove our worth.

We quickly got our climbing feet and were zipping all over the wall in no time. The final hurdle would test all of our climbing skills, even Matt’s, who was an avid climber back at university. The chimney loomed above us all, the only obstacle that stood between us and conquering the wall. Designed to test our skills, this part had no climbing handles to grip our hands and feet onto, we had just our hands and feet against bare walls to make it out the other end. Everyone took turns in heading through the chimney and the last to go were Kyra and Mich. It obviously tested their skills to the maximum as we watched a sloth crawl out the end faster than they made it up, we even checked to make sure there were no side exits!

After defeating the chimney and claiming our victory, the clock struck 8pm and we all decided that although Cinderella may have lasted until midnight at her ball, we were definitely not cut out for that. We quickly shed our climbing gear and headed off home, all that climbing had made us hungry and tired. Pizza to go, anyone?