climbing excursion

So, it's Friday the 4th of May; Green Day, and what better way to celebrate than getting up at 5am to go to Yugawara for some climbing.

The train is packed by the time it gets to Odawara, and apparently Rei could hear annalisa and I and our animated conversation from a whole crowded, moving and rattling, separated-by-a-solid-glass-door carriage away. ooops.

Today is no ordinary climbing day, we have a very special guest: his name is Max, and he's 6 years old. He is the son of another climber, Mark; and it would seem that they feed their son on amphetamines, because he is the most hyperactive entity that I have ever encountered. If only we could harness the energy, the worlds impending energy crisis would be solved. Unfortunately, the best we could do was put a child harness on him to stop him; but we'll work on it.

This is Max, at the calmest state he mustered all day, staring wistfully into the distance, just before he started saying how easy all the routes were.

Rei belaying

Yugawara in the summer...


Annalisa at the top of a 10b (I think) looking very happy!

Annalisa decending, with the hyperactive monkey dancing up a 10a.

After witnessing people disappear round the corner to some harder climbs, Max got route envy, where everyone elses climbs looked far more fun and interesting than the ones that he had been climbing; and insisted that he climb the easy looking routes that we were struggling on. So, we tied him in and hauled him up. This 'climbing' lark is soooo easy he thought, i don't know what these weird overgrown people are talking about*...

Max the 'ridiculously photogenic' Rupert smirking on a 10a

Rei leading a nasty 10b

Mark was telling us how they think the grades at Yugawara have gone up one notch, due the the severe erosion of the surrounding soil; which makes you start a good meter below the intended height of when they set the climbs.

Max up a tree.

Max proved hard to keep in one place, and unfortunately, I was a bad example to the child. I scuttled up the side of the climbs; along a route which is actually scramble-able to a different lot of climbs. I tied myself in to a tree so that I wouldn't inadvertantly slip off and maim someone with my excessive mass and velocity, and so that I could lean over the edge and take photos. The second time I did this, with some apple for a snack, Max saw me and followed blindly; this wouldn't have been so bad, but he wasn't shoes OR a harness. I had horrible visions of him flying off the edge...Mark tied in Max's shoes and harness into one of the top ropes that we set up and I pulled them up. Max was then shod and harnessed, I then tied him to a tree, which is probably how he should be. So, we watched the climbing from the top, and then when Max got bored of this I untied him from the tree (error!!!) at which point he bounded off higher up the slope. Which meant I had to scuttle after him, before he threw himself off a rock out of sheer curiousity. Conveniently, there was a loop in his harness which acted as a handle so that I could restrain him from running off the very steep edge of death and doom. Energetic is an understatement, I was busy wishing for a very strong leash to attach to him to keep him in a more manageable radius and prevent him doing himself damage.

'Oh look! I can see Mark!' proclaimed Max

'Hang-on, isn't he your father?!' I retorted in mild surprise.

We finished our day of climbing by cooling ourselves in the river; which I had not been to before and was pleasently surprised by the existance of a pretty, fast-flowing stream.

Max busied himself with his death-defying feats, leaping from slippery rock to rock, which eventually led to him taking an unexpected dip in the river. In turn this led to him standing around in his knickers for the rest of the time...then a father's dilemma of whether to have a half naked child on the train or a shivering but decent child on the train back home.

A lopsided photo of the river.

*Entirely speculation