Fly Like a Butterfly, Land Like a Tomato

I heard this quote about rappelling and I can happily tell you that I have never landed like a tomato. But I may have looked like a potato swinging in the sky.

You will need some back story for this post. Tyler likes to go to Front Sight. A lot. He has been many, many times. He once posted about one of his experiences, but if he posted about all of them, it might fill the blog. More often, I just mention in passing that Tyler is at Front Sight again. He even took June last year, but I haven't blogged about that section of the year yet....ahem....moving on.

While June was at Front Sight, she thought the big ropes course looked really cool. I myself like a good ropes course, and I expressed some interest. Well, Tyler has been trying to get me to Front Sight and I keep dodging the conversations. He happily jumped on the idea of the Ropes Course, if it meant that I would go down to Nevada with him. And it just so happened that our 'date' for March was a mini trip. So, we ended up scheduling a mini trip to Front Sight.

Camie and Nate were so generous to come and watch our kids and we took off on a Sunday afternoon wending our way South. Selfie on the road. We are as happy as we look. How often do we get to spend extended time together without kids. And Tyler is happy for that reason and that we were headed to Front Sight. (Seriously, he was a little giddy. It was cute.)

It is a good amount of driving, but time goes quickly with Tyler. He is a good one to chat with. When Tyler usually goes to Front Sight, he stays in Parump at a hotel, but with  me, he decided to try out an Air BnB. We found a nice place at the edge of Vegas and it was a great deal.

We tried to go to sleep early because we had to be up with the sun to get out to Front Sight on time. See what I mean? Here comes the sun.

We actually didn't know much about the course, so we arrived and went through the intro that everyone goes through. Then they took roll call and we went out to the course area. Apparently, we were one of the largest groups they have had. So they divided us into two groups. Then they rotated us back and forth between two areas. One area was knot tying and the other was the wall.

At knot tying, we learned how to tie knots. Surprising, I know. Each time we would come back to this area, we would learn new knots. Some were quite easy like the figure eight, but others were more tricky. We were learning ways to tie an anchor and ways to tie contingency rigging. All of them were related to rappelling. Somewhere along the way we realized this class was all about rappelling, and nothing about the ropes course.

At the wall, we would practice rappelling. We would learn a new step or knot and then practice it at the wall. At the wall, we were divided into groups randomly, and our group was awesome. We had Bob, Will, Jordan, me, Tyler, and some other guy. (Sorry other guy. You were obviously memorable.) Our group was the best at everything, I decided. We would do each drill efficiently, with few hiccups.

Eventually we stopped for lunch. The day was very cold, so we just ate in the car. You can see we still have our harnesses on.

After lunch, more knots and more going over the wall. Check it out. We are tying knots like a boss.

I was cold the entire day. At some points I was shivering uncontrollably. At the end of the day, they told us about the ropes course. They said, "Some of you may have joined this class thinking we would do the ropes course." (Yes, that was us exactly.) "But the ropes course is associated with a separate company and you have to pay extra to do it." (Hmm, feels a little bait and switch.)

Turns out the instructors also run the ropes course but it is $45 a person a day. We decided that since we had come to do the ropes course, we might as well. Tyler got some video, but sadly, I did not know how to use his phone, so I got nothing of him. I am lame.

There are different levels of the ropes course, but they had us do the middle level. You climb the rope ladder to reach the top. Here is a video of me. I've decided that I am slow and steady when it comes to these things. I got to the top but I couldn't get hooked in because the guy climbing behind me was shaking the net. But I got it eventually.

Next up, the hanging ropes. With short arms and legs, this was super tricky. It didn't feel stable at all. I decided that I would go the safe route, but it made me pretty slow. I didn't realize how slow until I watched the video. In fact, you can skip most of it. Tyler makes fun of me at the end and tells me to do it differently, but I was doing the best I could.

Up next was the Scary Fairy. It was a seat that you pulled along. We started sitting, but found it was easier to balance standing. We got to the end and thought we were doing something wrong, but the guy finally told us it doesn't go any farther and we would  have to walk the rest of the way.

And from the top, they just lowered us down. We hadn't learned correct form, so I didn't know to brace with my feet and wait until my head was lower than the overhang. (I learned this all the next day.) So, it isn't the most graceful and you can see how I am much like a potato hanging in the air.

Tyler went after and made everything look easy, but because of previously mentioned ID-10-T problems, there is no video.

After class, we went back to Vegas and grabbed some dinner. We tried a place called Skinny Fats. It has a very weird vibe to it. I liked the art though.

As I sat there, I had this overwhelming urge to chop my hair. We were right near a shopping center and there was a Great Clips there, so I told Tyler to drop me off and come back in 40 minutes. It felt good to have the locks chopped. (The best part is that when I got back to the kids, I told them that my hair had gotten caught in the ropes and they had to cut it. Their expressions were classic.)

Tuesday dawned and we were back on sight. The ropes and rappel class is a four day course, but you can take just two days of it, which was our scenario since we couldn't be gone from kids and jobs for that long.

We learned, you guessed it, more knots. And we went over the wall some more. But we added in the tower. We practiced belaying. Skills, knots, rappel, repeat. We learned the Prusik knot so that you could walk up a rope if necessary. That is pretty cool.

Here are some people coming down from the tower. We started out easy on the second floor. Many pictures don't have me or Tyler in them. We just got shots where we could.

Here is Jordan, one of the guys on our crew. It is fun to meet new people and spend a moment in their lives.

This is Bob. He actually lives near us. And runs a Jujitsu studio. He is on the wall and showing how you "bomb off" and make your rope secure so you can use your hands for other things.

Tyler was up in the tower and got this shot from above. This was the drill. Each person doing safety checks, then taking their turn going over.

We were doing Prusik ropes for this drill, so you can see it takes me a while to get all my ropes situated. So many pieces to keep in order. (Also, I ended up with some sweet bruises on my left leg. I think it was from going over the wall over and over, but I'm not sure.)

A view from the tower of gorgeous Nevada. Not much out there.

This day, we were practicing overhangs. Everyone went to the fourth floor of the tower and practiced bracing their feet and lowering their head below the "ledge" and releasing. Check out the second picture. That lady is killing it. She is practically upsidedown.

I'm at the bottom belaying, which means I already went down. They had us in a rotation.

The day was mostly that. More knots, more rappelling, more skills in use. It was a good day. I'm actually sad we couldn't stay for the whole course. I'm sure I'm still lacking in useful rappel knowledge. That day was warmer. I took off two jackets, but I still never took off my long sleeves. Here we are at the end of our course. We passed! (Although we didn't have to take the test.)

We decided not to stay for another ropes course run. It cost a pretty penny and we still had a long drive ahead of us.

Our instructors were amazing. Two in particular made me laugh. One guy wore his balaclava the entire time, and he was pretty snarky, so he reminded us of Deadpool. (Although I have never seen the movie, only the previews.) Here I am with Deadpool. Look at all the gear he is lugging around.

And the other instructor, who taught us all the knots, sounded like Shia LaBeouf. Most of the time, he had half his face covered, so if you looked at him, you could imagine Shia LaBeouf teaching you knots. Here he is Tyler.

Then we packed up and headed back home. But not before stopping at the entrance to take a picture. It is tradition, I am told.

Our drive back was good. We tried to stop at a buffet that was recommended to us, but the buffet was closed. So we ate at a cute diner instead. It was good food. In fact, as we walked out, I saw this guy with these strange fries on his plate. I stopped to take a look and he insisted I try one. What a nice guy.

I would say this mini trip was a huge success. Tyler drove through the night and we arrived home in the wee hours. Camie and Nate were the BEST to watch the kids. They stayed at our house and kept everything running. They are beyond awesome. I'm guessing 'mini trip' will make the date list next year as well.