Prep Climbing Trip

“Today was the day I had been looking forward to for months! THE CLIMBING TRIP! This was a trip to the XC Centre in Hemel Hempstead to acclimatise for the forthcoming outdoor climbing trip to the Peak District. 12 other boys and I were sitting in the school van, anticipating with elation the events to come. After we arrived, the instructors equipped us with a helmet and gave us a brief safety talk.

In no time, we had warmed up, stretched, and were on the bouldering wall playing games! First of all we warmed up by playing a game where the instructor called out a colour of the holds, we then had ten seconds to get in the air whilst holding that colour. Next we went on the bigger walls that you needed a harness for. Many of these were really challenging but also great fun and we pushed ourselves by only using a certain colour hold although, I have to say, we did tire ourselves out quite a lot. We worked as a team really well (when Cameron was stuck I helped guide him up the wall).

One of my highlights was when I made it to the top of a really hard bouldering wall as it taught us perseverance and the importance of focusing throughout.

I can’t wait for the second half of the trip to the Peak District in May.

Thank you to Mr Thomas and Mrs Pullen for organising such a thrilling trip.”