This was the second day of climbing this weekend (check yesterday's blip for the previous climbing photo).

I visited a new climbing location with Will and Barend. This place is much further away and does not have metal hangers attached to the wall. You have to put your own pieces of metal into cracks and holes in the rock to protect yourself from a fall. This style of climbing is called "trad" (traditional) because it is the way people climbed before "sport" climbing was invented (the type of climbing I did yesterday).

There are many different pieces of gear you can put into the cracks, such as nuts, tricams, or cams. Cams are the easiest gear you can use, but they are fairly expensive. Each cam costs $50-70, and you need several different sizes, sometimes more than one of each size.

Trad climbing is a lot more scary - if you fall, you have to hope that the protection that you put into the rock will stay. It is possible for the rock to crumble or break, and then the gear you placed will be useless, and you will keep falling.

You can see a rope connected to Barend. That is because Will has already climbed the route (and taken the risk associated with falling) and is belaying Barend from the top of the climb. I spent most of the day on a rope taking photos and videos. Here are some photos of Will climbing - but the really interesting parts were on video, so no photo there. :)
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3