Day 2 of working with Ellesmere College and their Adventure + Easter program saw me taking 2 groups to the indoor climbing wall at the Plas Madoc leisure centre. It’s always nice to work with the same group of people over the course of a couple of days and, having paddled with them yesterday, it was interesting to see them in a different activity setting.

This time the boys were pleased to go first, and worked hard for the 2 hours we had on the wall. After a few bouldering challenges to help them warm up, they started on a few relatively straight forward climbs, to give the belayers a chance to develop their skills looking after the other end of the rope – the important job! Once they started to get the hang of things, they took up the challenge of pushing themselves by selecting specific routes that would stretch them. In fact, they pushed themselves so much that they were all too physically drained to complete the session in the end.

The afternoon was the girl’s turn, and a very different mentality. They were much more interested in the success of getting to the top lots, rather than looking to see how difficult a route they could manage, although the competitive edge did come out from time to time. Consequently, the girls managed to climb for longer than the lads, of which I’m sure they’ll be proud!