Vacation - Rock Climbing in South Dakota

Yep, that was our vacation this year. After my triathlon, we went up to Sioux Falls, SD to stay for a couple of days. I had found a rock climbing place near Garretson, SD and we decided to give it a try. It is at the Palisades State Park, and it was beautiful. I had never done any actual rock climbing before. On our honeymoon we did some scrambling in Colorado and some trail climbing, but I've never done any rope climbing.

We found the place and the instructor, Mark, was fabulous. We got our gear on and went down by a river. As we were driving out to the place we were both getting nervous because we were not seeing any rocks to climb. Turn out these rocks are DOWN into the river. ;) The scenery was gorgeous! Mark told us that we could decide who would climb first so I immediately volunteered Thomas to go first. I was a little nervous of the straight up-ness of the rock! Thomas did a great job and moved quite quickly and smoothly up the rock. Then it was my turn. I got a few feet up and freaked out! That thing was straight up and I KNEW I was going to fall! I started to panic and knew that I couldn't climb that thing. I was so afraid of falling! We were on ropes and on belay (meaning we can't really fall because the instructor had us on the rope) but that meant nothing to my head as I was losing my grip on the rock face. I finally "fell" and quickly realized that I can't fall - I'm on belay! Mark let me down to the ground so I could settle myself down while Thomas took another turn.

I was not going to give up, so I tried again. I made it farther up the face the 2nd time, but didn't make it to the top! It was fun to watch Thomas go all the way up & the repelling down looked mighty fun! However, the arms and hands get sore! I couldn't believe how sore my forearms were after my pitiful 2 attempts at the rock.

We then went to a different area where Mark said it was a harder climb. I figured I'd never make it up there. As he was telling us the route to take, he kept pointing out these tiny little "knobs" on the rock for hand holds and foot holds. He said something along the lines of "once you get into the crack there, you'll just scamper on up the rock!" I'm thinking, "Mark, I don't think there's any scamper in me!"

Thomas again did a great job of making it to the top and then it was my turn. I decided I was GOING TO DO THIS! I started off slowly and "fell" once. Mark asked if I wanted another try and I jumped back up onto the rock. My stubborness kicked in and I was ready to go! It was slow and I had to rest a couple of times but I MADE IT! It was AWESOME! My triceps and forearms were burning, but I felt absolutely awesome for making it to the top. And yes, the repelling down was fun!

We plan to go back next year and do more. I could easily see us getting into this rock climbing for fun. It makes for a hard work out and we are both a tad sore, but it was a blast!

I'll post some pictures when I can! Here are some of me climbing & then Thomas climbing. The last one is of us after the entire climbing experience. It was a great day!