Rock Climbing Adventure

This was a fun narrative I wrote in my freetime, and just for fun! I hope you enjoy it and find some parts suspensful...

Rock Climbing Adventure

Written By Noah Solovey

I seamlessly clicked every single activity, from rock climbing to BMX. I was 11 years old, at sleep-away camp, making a deal with my counselor that if I signed up for every single activity, he would give me the famous camp desert, only for counselors. Little did I know, this feat would end me up at the bottom of a cliff, hooked up to a rope, and ten feet away from a living rattlesnake.

"Wait a second Aaron, if I sign up for every activity and get my final choice, can I get cabana?" Cabana was the camp desert, that was only meant for the counselors. The only way a camper could get to try it, was by completing a challenge. Most of the time, it's an absolutely ridiculous challenge. It could be chugging cereal with salad dressing in it, or scoring a full court basketball shot. I kind of outsmarted my counselor for my challenge. It was a normal Sunday morning, which would mean laundry, onegg, and morning services. Oh, and sign-ups. Sign-ups were when you got to sign up for your activities for the week ahead. Every time you would go to sign up, there were extra activities, such as cooking, camping, rock climbing, learning how to ride a bike, and more. You get to prioritize the extra activities you want to do, so you could put first choice rock climbing and second choice learning how to ride a bike. I instantly saw this as a cabana opportunity. My counselor decided to make a deal with me that if I could click every single extra activity and get my least prioritized choice - then I get cabana. Little did he know, I outsmarted him.

I knew the second I clicked the confirm button that I had locked in my cabana. My least prioritized choice was "Learn How to Ride a Bike." No one at camp ever picked it, so technically, I would get it. Though on the other hand, I would switch out of it to do another activity, because I knew how to ride a bike.

I woke up in my bunk bed to my bunk's wake up song, rushing out the door with one word in my mind, "Cabana." I got dressed and we headed to lunch. Manny, the unit leader was handing out schedules. I sprinted to Manny and asked politely. Then I noticed that I had got "Learn How To Ride A Bike." Just like that, I got cabana on the third day of camp.

As soon as possible, I knew I had to switch out of all the activities I signed up for and didn't want. After doing that, I had to go to my morning activities and just have fun. Little did I know, in 24 hours I would have the craziest experience ever.

While I was eating my breakfast, I suddenly noticed Uncle Rico, an outdoors counselor, running up to me and a little annoying kid in my bunk named Hunter. It was only my 5th year of sleep-away camp, and it was my third week of camp out of five. I wasn't ready for some crazy outdoor experience, plus a day with an annoying kid who thought I liked him. "Guys, meet me at the scissors tower to go rock climbing for a day. You guys will be with a group of senior camp kids and have so much fun." I forgot that today was the day when I was going to be going on a rock climbing trip. Suddenly, I went from worried to excited, real quick.

After breakfast, I got my normal ride down the hill because of my medical condition, and was at the scissors tower before anyone else. I decided to get my gear on early, and then hopped onto the shuttle van that would be exporting us to the rock climbing plantation.

Once everybody was in the van, I discovered that the counselors coming were my favorites. I knew I would have a good time. The ride took forty minutes and hopefully was worth it. "Everybody. follow me." Aron said. We started walking up a steep hill with bees and sticks. When we finally got up there, I wanted to go first, badly. No one else wanted to so I guess I lucked out, getting to go first. It didn't take long to get hooked on and to start the climb. I had never done anything like this. This was the real deal. I began slowly, and eventually discovered the strategy of climbing. For a good five minutes, I was stuck in the same area. Here and there, I needed Uncle Rico to ballae me up. I felt I would never get to the top, unless I jumped the final rock. I would need to walk sideways, and then fling myself up. Suddenly, I heard Uncle Rico yell, "You got this!" That was all it took to give me a boost of energy. Suddenly, I galloped to the side, and then flung myself on to the top! I did it. But now it was the fun, awarding part, going down. My outdoors counselor, Uncle Rico slowly let me down, enabling me to move side to side, and swing like never before. Soon enough, everybody was finished and it was time to move on to the next climb.

After they set the climb up, which took a while, I did not want to go first. This climb looked a lot harder, with not as much foot-holes as one would like. Aron went down the hill to fetch the gross snacks, and I just sat and waited. The thing with outdoors counselors is that they have no sense of germs, they eat stuff off the ground, eat things straight from lake water, and other gross stuff. They even offered us apples, after they all touched the dirty ground.

Eventually, it was my turn to take a go at the climb. It was very challenging, but I made it up in the end. But all my excitement soon ended when a dad and his daughter, who were camping, walked over a rattlesnake, right next to us. Uncle Rico was the first to point it out. We were all so scared. For a moment, we continued on our rock climbing business, but after a while the snake seemed to notice us. Uncle Rico and Micky Van de Van would continue to mess with it with a stick, and eventually, we antagonized it too much.

We didn't have time for everyone to go on the course, as the rattlesnake caused major conflict. We had gone through three courses already, and we were all good to move onto the next climb, but the problem was that this climb was different. This time, you had to ballae yourself down. In a bit of time, I found that this type of climbing was called "repelling." I was super scared. It was the highest challenge of the day. Yet, I trapped myself into going first, again. My heart was racing. The outdoors counselors kept trying to motivate me but there was just one problem. I just could not have the guts to do so. You had to pretend like you were back-falling off a cliff, and then walk down. I could hear voices yelling, "You could do it Noah!" I just couldn't. I just couldn't. I was so mad at myself. I wanted to, but didn't want to at the same time. I hated to quit.

All the heart racing, turned out to be for nothing. I just had Aron ballae me down, and I felt dumb. I felt little. I felt defeated by fear. But on the short note, the day had to continue. We went down to the creek to have lunch, and I ate it, with the taste of defeat in my mouth.

We ended up doing a few more climbs, and were soon heading back to my favorite place in the world, camp. I grabbed a rock as a souvenir, and hopped in the car. Throughout the ride, I just thought about my best time ever at the rock climbing plantation. Soon enough, we were back at camp. The second my shoe touched camp soil, I realized something. Take in an amazing moment when you get the chance. Keep the memories of amazing experiences your whole life. Everything today went so well until suddenly I found out that I lost my souvenir rock! I might have lost my rock, but I didn't lose the memory of seeing a rattlesnake, climbing on real rocks, and being a baby and not repelling down a cliff.