Rock Climbers on Empress 10/17?

[climbsrocks]

Any rock climbing addicts on the Empress departing 10/17? Does anyone have any info about the wall other than the promo pic on RCCI's website? Difficulty of routes? How crowed it is likely to be, how friendly and knowledgeable the belay staff is? Anything? We'll be there to document it all and report back here after the cruise.

 

Tim :)

[CruiseFever]

Any rock climbing addicts on the Empress departing 10/17? Does anyone have any info about the wall other than the promo pic on RCCI's website? Difficulty of routes? How crowed it is likely to be, how friendly and knowledgeable the belay staff is? Anything? We'll be there to document it all and report back here after the cruise.

 

Tim :)

 

You are going to be in heaven

 

When we were on the Empress a couple weeks ago I never saw hardly anybody on it. It's located all the way aft facing the ocean, like you can't even see it if you don't go back there.

 

As far as first-hand experience goes I can't help you. I watched a few times but that was it.

 

Have fun!!

[climbsrocks]

Thanks Chris, that's sort of what I was hoping for. It's the beauty of cruising while school's in session. Would love to run into some other adult climbers though. Wife and middle daughter (fall break from law school) will be along for the fun. Bad part is...no sea days! Hopefully they'll open the wall even during port calls; I'm not crazy about shopping, but will take in a few sights here and there.

 

Again, thanks!

 

Tim

[Lokalona]

My teenage son has won the rockwall contest 3 times now. He had never climbed one before until the Navigator, he was 15 then. He is an awesome athlete. He won again on the Mariner and last year on the Vision. My other 2 boys got t-shirts for participating. I felt sorry for some of the kids, just too hard for them to get up to the top and ring the bell. I however was not brave enough, I hate heights!

[climbsrocks]

Lokalona,

 

The contests are great fun, draw a crowd, lot's of encouragement, but I'm not crazy about them. They are typically done on the easier routes and are timed for speed...I get nervous planning my route, and you inevitably stumble a time or two on the way up from trying to go so fast. I like just doing the routes starting with the moderately difficult ones and working my way up to the "expert" ones. Most routes on the Sovereign were overrated by several grades...the belayers claimed the tough ones were 5.12 difficulty, so I didn't even try them first (I climb 5.10 on a good day)...I soon realized that the toughest routes might have been 5.9 at best. Still got a decent workout, but not much of a challenge for someone who's been climbing regularly for even a few months. We had a great time on the Sovereign; the belayers were super accommodating, did everything to keep it interesting all week. The wall there is pretty nice too (though short at 30 ft), three sides can be rigged and climbed. The picture of the one on Empress makes it look pretty small in comparison, but I'm still stoked about it.

 

If anybody's heading to the Sovereign any time soon, I mapped the climbing wall (Jan 05) and have the diagram here: http://home.att.net/~timbrubaker/wsb/html/view.cgi-photo.html--SiteID-764416.html

 

It's likely to have changed a little since then, but probably not in a wholesale way, since RCI doesn't have any real route setters on staff. The belay staff will play around with new routes here and there, but by and large things remain the same.

[CruiseFever]

WOOSH!! right over my head on all this rock climbing lingo

 

How about an explanation of all that for an interested observer so I'll know what I'm looking at next time?

 

Sounds really interesting

[climbsrocks]

Chris,

 

The ratings I use are based on the Yosemite scale (one of 8 or 9 used in various parts of the world). The 5 of 5.9 refers to climbing vs. walking or hiking which I think is rated in the 4's. Most climbing walls start around a difficulty of 5.6 or so - the routes with all of the huge holds very close to one another, and then progress to higher ratings where the holds are either a) smaller or "crimpier"; b) further apart; c) slopier (no way to really grip it, you sort of squeeze it); or d) a combination of all three. Before the advent of modern shoe rubber and techniques, 5.9 was considered about as difficult as could be done. Now, people are climbing 5.14 and higher difficulty routes. If you look at a typical indoor wall, you'll see color coding either in the form of colored tape on certain holds, or holds of a particular color, that make up the "route" which is then assigned a difficulty rating. If you see someone climbing a route and grabbing anything in reach, that is called rainbowing and it is not even rated as a rule. When you see someone climbing, but only touchinng certain color holds, they are doing a route with a difficulty rating. Sure makes it interesting! I'm afraid I started too late in life to progress much beyond maybe 5.11 climbing or perhaps a 5.12 if I really get serious about conditioning, but I doubt that will happen. I'll be happy climbing a 5.11 without falling or resting before I hit 55!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Tim