Social Climbing

Like most kids, I loved climbing trees and jungle gyms, balancing on tight ropes, fence rails and fallen trees over brooks, and swinging on anything handy.

Fast forward to adulthood. The desire to climb and swing on things is probably still there. But your mind drifts to thoughts about falling, or, more depressingly, the consequences of falling. So most adults don't climb things very much.

Thus was born the ropes course. It's a chance for adults to recapture childhood, enjoy the fun of climbing and confront the fear of falling, without the danger of actually falling.

The trouble is most ropes courses are strictly for school groups or corporate team building. That leaves out us mavericks who would just like to have some fun and try something new.

The Bolton Valley Adventure Center at the Bolton Valley Resort opens its ropes courses to the general public on Saturdays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Cost is $25 for two hours, including equipment, and you need to call ahead for reservations. You don't even need to be in great physical shape to do the course -- if you can climb a ladder, you're golden.

Going up

Don a helmet and strap yourself into a safety harness sturdy enough to hold an elephant to start. "Facilitators" check and double-check your harness. Then they lead you to the first of four sturdy poles set about 40 feet apart in a square, each with a platform about 30 feet up.

Next step is to attach a climbing rope that runs through an overhead pulley to your harness. This is done with a locking carabiner. The facilitators show you how, and everything is double-checked. Then they belay you, keeping the rope taut so you can't fall as you climb.

It's easier than it sounds.

Once on the platform, you clip onto a safety rope attached to a pulley on a thumb-thick steel cable over your head. Only then do you unclip from the belay rope. You're never unprotected for a single instant.

One, two, three, four

The first challenge is to walk across a swinging rope-and plank "Burma Bridge" (Think Indiana Jones!) with no handrails.

It's a piece of cake -- unless you listen to the voice in your head screaming that you're going to die. So don't listen, just do it!

At the second platform, you clip into a new safety line, unclip from the old one, and move across a round pole to the third platform. This is a little more challenging, but still pretty easy. You're halfway.

The third leg has you scootching across a tightrope cable which rocks and rolls under your feet while you hold on for dear life to a waist-high rope. You feel like you're going to plunge backward at any second. Of course, if you do, the overhead safety rope catches you instantly.

Still, there's that primal fear: I broke sweat on this one.

The final leg takes you across another cable. This one has only dangling ropes that you've got to reach for to stabilize yourself. And you've absolutely got to trust the overhead safety rope.

Yikes! Pure panic held in check only by pure concentration.

It's a fascinating look into your own psyche. You know that you are absolutely safe. But your gut doesn't get the message. You have to will yourself to take the next step.

The whole experience left me with an adrenaline rush and smiling. At least once my feet were safely back on ground.

More adventure

The Bolton Adventure Center also has three other elements worth mentioning.

The zip line. Hang on for dear life and zip down a long cable on a roller.

"The Leap Of Faith." Climb to the top of a lone pole and convince yourself to launch into empty air and lunge for a trapeze. No problem! You're only 40 feet up with nothing beneath you. If you miss (which you probably will) you're only going to fall a couple of inches onto the belay line. But don't try telling the primitive cells of your brain that!

Then comes the ultimate return to childhood -- the biggest swing you've ever imagined. You stand on a ladder and hook onto a cable that could easily tow a dump truck. The facilitators take the ladder away, haul you with a rope and pulley up to the very top of a 40-foot pole, and, you let go! Sitting comfortably in your safety harness, you swing in a 30-foot arc, floating out over a pond and back.

"It's just like flying!" laughed a woman who was swinging on the day I visited. Another, who was too timid to try the high ropes, squealed and laughed with delight on the swing. What a pure, unadulterated adrenaline rush! If you don't do anything else, get on the giant swing and fly back to your childhood.