After retrieving by bike from the clutches of Via Rail on Saturday, Jen and I spend the next 24 hours lazing around watching movies and having "quality time." That was nice, but by Sunday afternoon she was leaving for the cottage and I was starting to crave activity! Unfortunately, my climbing gym and usual partner were both far far away in Montreal and I was stuck in a pretty vacant house in a pretty vacant town. Fortunately, one person who was around was Lauren, who several weeks earlier Matt mentioned was "all into climbing." I called her up and she was as psyched as I was to hit the gym ASAP. The only place to climb indoors around KW (not counting Guelph) seems to be Sports World, which is like an amusement park: video games, rides, mini-golf, etc. including climbing gym.

I'd give the climbing experience at Sports World a grade of "C-". The routes are not great -- they are unrated and mostly really easy or really hard. At the gyms I've been to, the staff/members design the routes, give them a name and a rating, and write this on a little card at the starting point. This is a little hint at the gym culture. At Sports World, there doesn't seem to be any culture because most of the climbers are people who just wander in from the amusement park and pay $7 to have someone belay them while they scramble up the easiest route in sneakers. So, even though it is fairly close, I hope we don't have to go back there often. Next, I'd like to try the Guelph Grotto

It really was a fun time anyways. Lauren bought a sweet harness and new shoes for the occasion, and I got to use my birthday presents: harness and ATC from MEC.