My New Obsession

It is difficult for me to turn my brain down from dealing with the daily stresses brought on by fatherhood, work, and priesthood responsibilities. I have never been able to “chill out” like many men can by watching sports all afternoon some Saturdays. In the past, I have found the motocross track to be an excellent method of relaxation as it requires a significant amount of physical effort and control coupled with total mental concentration and focus leaving no spare brain cycles for the day-to-day worries. Two traits of this activity made me finally put it away for a time:

Grant has no fear. Should I be worried?

1. Expense – not just the bikes, but of all the required accessories such as a truck, trailer, membership fees,  fuel, maintenance, gear, ect…

2. Solitude – it is largely a solitary activity, meaning it was difficult for my family to participate. Even when you have several bikes, it is difficult to have conversations with your family members through helmets and over noisy motors.

Over the past few months, I have begun to love a sport I thought was just for hippies and tree-huggers; rock climbing. I have found that I get the same benefit from climbing that i used to get from motocross.

Physically demanding – isn’t it great to wake up on Sunday morning and discover your muscles are so sore your wife has to help you put your shirt on.

Mental focus – Imagine this: your 100ft up the rock face clinging to a 1/4 inch lip and you feel your feet start to slip. You thinking about work? Yeah, me neither.

Expense – Our whole family was outfitted for a few hundred dollars, now you kids might get to go to college!

Voices – One person climbs at a time, but everyone is on the wall with them. We laugh, we cheer, we tease, we push, and we all hold our breath in unison during the tricky spots.

Craig the hippie giving me some pointers on anchor set up.

A game of stratego while waiting for a turn

Charly's job is to pull the rope down when we have finished

Headed home, the easy way.