Atfal and Khudam from Queens went to indoor rock climbing on January 20th, 2013 at The Rock Club, New Rochelle. It was the most memorable time in my life. The minute we walked in, the instructor gave us step-by-step directions on what to do and told us to take our time when climbing a wall. As soon as the instructor finished speaking, we got into our harnesses and buckled up. We split up into groups of five and went to different walls to start our climbs! The first wall my group climbed was the easiest out of them all. Next, we moved on to the 5.5 wall which was for beginners, though it was over 40 feet high! I was the first one out of my group to go all the way to the top without tripping, falling, or slipping.
After the 5.5 wall, we went to the 5.8 wall. Everyone doubted my ability to climb this wall due to the smaller in size of the rocks and the fact that the wall was over 50 feet high. But in the end, I proved them wrong. This wall was challenging, The strategy for this wall was to climb on the rocks that were the same color as the ones I started on. It was very difficult because the whole time my legs and arms were separated from each other and I looked like a penguin. About midway through my climb, I saw that my legs looked swollen because of how stretched out they were. However, I didn’t quit and climbed the whole wall without sweating even though it was very difficult.
We climbed the 5.7 wall next. This wall had a resting platform half way up which we were able to stand on. This was very difficult because the platform was only a foot wide. This wall was also tricky because we needed a lot of skills and strategy to make it up to the platform and then up to the top. As I continued up to the ledge, I went in a zigzag form. This motion helped me because it was easier to climb up to the platform. When I got to the platform, I struggled to stand up and when I did, I went for part where I had no grips and I needed chalk. One of my group members tried to toss up the chalk bag up to me but couldn’t get it high enough. Then, without any chalk, I climbed and climbed until I got to the top. When I got to the top, I was so glad that I finished my 2nd course of climbing!
At about 1:20pm, we went out to eat at McDonalds where we all sat down and rested ourselves before the next challenge. When we returned to the rock climbing facility it was the moment that I was waiting for the whole trip! It was time for the leaning back challenge. I was the first one to try it and for the first time all day, I slipped and tripped. The way that we were supposed to climb the wall was that our bodies were supposed to hang from the ceiling at the end and we had to press the button. It was the most difficult thing that I have ever done in my life. I stopped in the middle of doing the challenge because I was very tired and my muscles hurt from pulling myself up.This day was very exciting and memorable. There were fifteen Atfal and Khuddam who participated and we all experienced a bond of brotherhood. We all had fun. After we came back to our Masjid, we prayed Zuhr and Asr together and departed. I hope that we can go to another exciting place like rock climbing again. This was a great adventure to be on and I hope there will be more trips like this.
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