The ups and downs

Danette Goulet

Children scaled towering orange walls peppered with strategically

placed rocks.

They could make the experience as difficult as they chose, but it

could only be made so easy.

“My fingers hurt,” said Marci Kirchberg, 14, of Costa Mesa, as she

shook her hands and grimaced.

Before signing up for the three-day rock climbing camp offered through

both the city of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, but held at ClimbX in

Huntington Beach, Marci had only climbed the rock wall at the fair.

“It’s better than I thought it would be,” Marci said of the camp,

admitting that she had been nervous that it might be too difficult.

Although she found out it was tough on her hands, which began aching

after a few hours of the new sport, it was a fun way to break a sweat.

Bryan Leipper, the owner of ClimbX and their instructor, assured them

that eventually their hands would become accustomed to it.

“It’s just like gardening -- you’d have to develop the calluses for

it,” he said.

Nothing worthwhile comes without its price, right?

The many returning children who had moved on to learn other climbing

craft were a testament to that.

As an extra incentive for climbers, one wall has a big clown horn at

the top, which they have the satisfaction of honking before repelling

down.

It serves well as a goal for children, Leipper said, and some adults

as well.

“I had a woman come in for her 82nd birthday to do it because she’d

seen her grandson do it or something,” Leipper said.

One after another, teams of children worked together to reach that

goal. One would climb while the other acted as his or her belayer. Then

they would switch.

The climber has to depend on his or her belayer, whom they are tied

to, and the belayer has to be responsible for that climber.

“It fosters cooperation, commitment and teamwork,” Leipper said. “It’s

a place where we’re trying to develop character development. They have to

accept responsibility for their actions and be involved the entire time.”

For children who have gone to the camps in the past -- and for those

who sign up for the camp every week -- Leipper goes on to teach them to

repel and prusik. Prusik is a lifesaving technique that climbers rarely

have to use that allows them to climb up or down their rope in a tough

spot.

* SCHOOL’S OUT is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a summer camp within the Newport-Mesa area

and writes about her experience.