Family Outings: At Vertical Endeavors, kids get the hang of rock climbing

My sons climb into their loft beds without ladders. They shimmy up to the treehouse on a knotted rope. They straddle the top beam of the swing set in the back yard.

Somehow, I knew they would like indoor rock climbing. t I first became aware there was such a thing as a climbing gym when my son was invited to Vertical Endeavors a few years ago for a birthday party.

Rock climbing used to be an esoteric outdoor activity for adults. In the 1980s, it moved indoors with the development of artificial climbing walls. And, in the past decade, easy-to-use safety equipment has made the sport more accessible to novice climbers and children.

In 1992, just a few years after the first indoor climbing gym opened in Seattle, a 3M chemical engineer and climber named Nate Postma started Vertical Endeavors in St. Paul as a place where he and other local climbers could train. Today, Vertical Endeavors occupies more than 18,000 square feet in a warehouse just south of Lake Phalen and also runs facilities in Duluth and Chicago.

Kids have become a significant part of their business. The gym runs programs for children ages 6 and older and offers camps during school vacations.

"Kids naturally have that sense of adventure, and they love to climb on things," said Noal Ronkin, the facility manager. "Kids get it pretty quick. They're really good at balance."

Vertical Endeavors gets crowded on weekends, when climbers might have to share the space with birthday

parties and it's common to wait for turns on the easier walls. So, I visited on a weekday morning, when my kids had a day off school.

I took my sons, ages 7 and 10; two friends; my preschool-age daughter; and another mom for backup.

The cavernous space has ceilings nearly four times as high as your average living room's and a floor covered in shredded gray rubber. Walls tip into the room, creating a surreal sense of imbalance. One wall starts below ground level in a pit and rises nearly 50 feet before it curves into the ceiling.

Nearly every surface is studded with handholds in dozens of shapes and colors. I couldn't keep my eyes off a woman who was wearing a tank top and hanging basically upside down from a sloping section that thrust into the room at a 45-degree angle.

Race To The Top / After signing waivers (reminding us that "climbing is dangerous!!!!"), we buckled on rented harnesses. Nylon straps looped around our thighs and sat around our waists like a snug carpenter's belt. A staff member gave us a five-minute orientation, told the boys not to swing on ropes like Tarzan and then let us loose.

If there is one thing that has made climbing feasible for a newbie parent and kids, it is the auto-belay system. Vertical Endeavors has 15 of these hydraulic machines installed at the tops of some walls and is about to add another because they are so popular.

A safety rope stretches from the auto belay to the ground. Before you climb, you clip the end of the rope into a loop on your harness. As you ascend, the tension on the hydraulic system pulls the slack out of the rope. Should you fall, the system instantly increases the resistance to break your fall into a slow descent.

Without an auto belay, a partner or a staff member must stand on the ground to let out rope as you climb and stand ready to lock the rope if you drop. The auto belays have never failed, Ronkin assured me, although people have forgotten to clip

themselves in and have fallen.

They are a cinch to use. I popped open the carabineers and clipped my 10-year-old and his friend into ropes next to each other on one of the easiest walls. They scampered up like squirrels dashing up a maple tree. It was pretty amazing to watch. When they got to the top, they gently kicked off the wall and floated to the ground. Then, of course, they went up and down many more times, racing each other.

"This is the tie breaker," my son said to me after several climbs. "Can you do the Olympic theme music?"

(No, sport climbing is not yet an Olympic event, but enthusiasts are pushing for it.)

A few other children were there that morning climbing with their families, including 12-year-old Kaitlyn Mulhern of Minneapolis, who was grinning in triumph after she scaled a wall with an overhang.

"I tried this wall once or twice last year and couldn't make it," she said. "The farther out the wall goes, the harder it is."

Kaitlyn came with two younger sisters, her mother and an aunt, an avid climber who was treating the girls to a morning outing.

"I love it," said Kaitlyn. "It's a personal sport. No one is competing with you."

"And there is not a lot of pressure to do it right," added her sister Anna, 10.

Suddenly, the girls were distracted by their 8-year-old sister Emily. Nearly 30 feet in the air, she was reaching for a final handhold near the ceiling.

"Nice work, Emily. Beautiful," said her aunt, Theresa Paulsen of Minneapolis, who was standing under her, watching intently and holding the belay rope.

The girl's mother Kathy Paulsen was also watching.

"The younger kids have no inhibition or hesitancy. They just attack the wall," said Kathy Paulsen.

"I was a little hesitant at first," she added. "Rock climbing? I thought it would be dangerous. But as a parent who had never rock climbed, I feel I could easily take my kids here and they would be safe. You don't need to know what you're doing."

Aunt Theresa Paulsen thinks it's a great sport for kids.

"They're light. They're flexible. They don't have fear," she said. "I've met so many girls whose parents made them do soccer and they didn't like it, and then they get in here and they love it."

Get A Grip / By this point, I wanted to give it a try. While my mom friend watched the kids, I asked Theresa Paulsen to steer me toward an easy wall. The holds look randomly scattered, but they are screwed into place with consideration. Colored pieces of tape next to certain holds mark a sequence to the top, and each route is graded for difficulty (climbers use something called the Yosemite Decimal System).

Easier routes have larger holds placed close together. Harder routes have greater overhang, and smaller or flatter holds that are placed farther apart and force a climber into more difficult moves.

I picked a moderately easy section, without any overhang. My son's 8-year-old friend had managed to climb it, but I did not expect to make it to the top. The only weightlifting I've done is carrying groceries and hoisting my daughter into her car seat.

I pulled myself onto the wall and felt the auto belay take up the slack. I reached for the next hold, a protruding egg that felt like rough granite washed by Lake Superior. (All the holds, by the way, are made by the local company Nicros, which manufacturers holds and other gear for climbing walls around the country. Nicros is also owned by Postma and occupies the other half of Vertical Endeavor's building.)

My foot found a small ledge, and I used my leg muscles to push me up. Hey, this wasn't hard. It turned out I didn't need much upper-body strength after all.

My mind flashed back to childhood, when I scrambled up apple trees and the windmill at my grandparent's farm. Something about climbing is simply fun.

I ascended slowly. When my foot slipped off one hold, I tried another that stuck farther out from the wall. I ignored the marked route, and at one point, I found myself clinging to a tiny grip with my fingertips and wondering if I could hold on long enough to shift my feet. I'm sure my technique was lousy. I focused on the few feet of wall in front of me, and before I knew it, I was at the top.

I felt triumphant for a half second. Then, I looked down nearly 30 feet.

My cheeks flushed and my heart sped up for reasons that had nothing to do with exertion. I really, really, really wished I had tested this auto-belay thing when I was only 3 feet off the ground. It felt suicidal to let go of the wall, but what were my options? So, I let go. And, of course, the auto belay kicked in smoothly, and I drifted down like Spiderman on his webbing.

I would have liked to climb a few more times, but it was hard to manage, even with the other mom helping. The boys needed to be clipped in and out every time they switched walls, and the preschooler, who didn't want to climb, needed to be kept out from under the ropes and entertained with crayons.

Just before we left, we all headed upstairs to try out the bouldering. This space has lower walls and handholds across the ceiling like a cave with lumpy stalactites. You don't use ropes, but if you fall, you land on a floor of layered foam. The kids tried a couple of walls, but they didn't seem to have much energy. We had been there nearly two hours.

"I want to be done," said my son, as he flopped to the floor. For the moment, at least, they were grounded.

Maja Beckstrom can be reached at 651-228-5295.

THE SCOOP

What: Vertical Endeavors Indoor Rock Climbing Facility

Where: 845 Phalen Blvd., St Paul

Information: 651-776-1430 or verticalendeavors.com

Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Cost: Daily pass $15 weekends and $13 weekdays, plus harness rental ($4) and optional shoe rental ($4). Free for nonclimbers.

Target audience: Novices to serious climbers

Crowd pleasers: The satisfaction of touching the ceiling and the reward of descending on your rope.

Avoid: A fall. An adult must check to make sure a child is clipped correctly into the auto-belay rope.

Tips: Have kids wear loose, athletic clothing. Tie back long hair. Wear snug shoes or rent shoes.