Christmas tree climbing

A holiday with my family would not be complete without an adventure of some sort.  This year my mom arranged for us to all have a family tree-climbing ropes course with a friend of hers that teaches the sport as a business (Dancing With Trees).  The instructor, Genevieve, accommodated ages four and up, so even Nora got to participate!

We used a double rope technique with friction knots.  The method involves a foot loop and a friction knot - when you stand up in the foot loop you take the weight off the main friction knot that holds your harness.  You then can slide the main friction knot up your rope.  Then when you sit back in the harness you are higher up, and you can then bring up the foot loop to your new position and do it again.  It is a great full body work-out!  One nice feature of the system is that you get to stop and rest and just hang or swing in your harness whenever you want.  

Elsa had no hesitation at all.  She was actually the first one to get harnessed up.  She was so calm and listened so carefully to the instructor.

Soon she was off the ground and above our heads!

We told her she could stay there and swing, but she wanted to keep going!  She eventually made it to the top of her rope, about 30 feet up!

The children got to take a special friend up with them.  Elsa chose to take a little monkey from the instructor's collection.  We also all took up some bubbles.

Nora watched Elsa intently.  When we asked if she was ready she eagerly nodded yes and we stuffed the little squirrel she had chosen to climb with into her bag.

She made it to about shoulder height,

and then was very happy for us to take turns swinging her.  The rope was anchored so high in the tree that it made a terrific arc!

Elsa just kept going up and up.  She took lots of breaks to look around, watch us climb, and blow bubbles (she is up on the left in the picture below).  My sister Naomi had just made it to the first branch and Joel is just getting started in this picture:

Yea, mom!

Beatrice slept for a good while at the beginning.  She woke up just when all of us had fully left the ground, so the instructor, Genevieve, was on baby duty!  (Beatrice is the pink in the instructor's arms, down with Nora.)

And Elsa kept going!

In this photo Naomi is on the left and Elsa is on the right.

One advantage of family gatherings where there's more than one camera is that then there's some photos of me, too!

My some of the work for my M.S. degree involved tree climbing, so it was a bit strange at first to be doing it for fun and to not feel like I had to be checking the time or my lab equipment as I went!

Joel's and Naomi's ropes were anchored the highest in the tree.  This is their victory photo near the top.

Here they are at their summit.  The black arrow is where Elsa reached.  (Can you tell how proud I am of her?  After I got down I realized just how high she had gone and it did catch my breath for a moment!)