Camp milk crate challenge

Dangling in the air is fun.

Alex, our instructor, led towards some of the biggest trees I've seen in a long time. Straight away she tells us to put on helmets, or it’s an instant 10 press-ups! ( That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think so? ) Because there were safety barriers.

Anyway, Alex shows us how to put on a harness. It’s fairly simple, but I won’t go into too much detail as you will probably get bored. Alex teaches us a short song in case we forgot what to do. It goes like this, ‘Three C’s, Squeeze squeeze, Helmets Please, Yo Alex!’.

There were two trees: a tall but thin pine tree and a many branched gum tree. There were three paths on the gum tree, one easy path, a slightly harder one and an expert path on the gum tree, but only one long path on the pine tree. Straight up, straight down.

Levi, Caleb and I were in a group and we all decided that we weren’t going to do the wimpy beginners course. So we planned that we would do the medium path then the expert path, and then the single pine course. That was a pretty good plan.

We got ourselves strapped in next to the medium path. Levi went up first so, Caleb was the anchor if Levi fell and I was the fireman pulling all the leftover cord into the bucket. All together we sang the Climbing song. Alex came over and gave us the thumbs up. Caleb and I asked if Levi was ready. He was. He asked if we were ready. We were.

Levi CAREFULLY crept up the ladder like a sloth, then got into action. He lifted his foot into a foothold, then hoisted himself into a wedge between a branch and the trunk. At that height he was about two and a half metres to three metres from the ground. It doesn’t look far from the ground but it is far from his POV ( that’s point of view ) . He said the magic word - marshmallows - and he started abseiling down. Not too bad. Caleb’s turn.

Caleb’s goal was to beat Levi’s height of three metres. He told Alex that but she said try and beat yourself. He took that in, but he still wanted to beat Levi. So we swapped jobs, I became the anchor and Levi was the fireman. We sang the song again and this time Alex hung around. We asked Caleb if he was ready. He asked us if we were ready, then off he went.

Caleb went as slow as Levi up the ladder, which was pretty cruisy. He wedged himself where Levi bailed. I heard the other groups. Man! They were loud!! Caleb’s mum, Shannon, told me to focus because I started looking around. Caleb started to freak out and we had to calm him down. He said marshmallow and he started abseiling down. I was so light that when Caleb came down, he lifted me of the ground like a gorilla lifting a banana. He bet Levi by about thirty centimetres. At least he’s happy. My heartbeat quickens. My turn.

The only climbing I’ve done is on the climbing wall at school,and I got stuck on that, I was fairly nervous ( understatement of the year ). I attached myself to the pulley. Felt a bit heavy. We sang the song and Alex gave us the all clear. Levi and Caleb asked if I was ready. ‘I am,’ I lied. ‘Are you?’ I asked them. They are.

I shook off myself. I start climbing the ladder surprisingly fast, faster than anyone I’ve seen. I slow down a little bit because Levi and Caleb had trouble keeping up. I get to the place where Levi and Caleb stopped in one minute, were it took them about three minutes. Pretty good for a rookie. I put my back on a branch as I plan my way up. There was about seventeen steps until the end of the current track. There is one way up anyway, so I just started climbing. My groupees cheer me on all the way. I just make it to a dead step when I decide to stop. The adrenaline was starting to leave. ‘Marshmallow.’ It took awhile for me to accustom to the abseiling position. It’s ok.

My teammates congratulated me when I got down. ‘It wasn’t too hard,  once I got used to it.’ Now to the next one. The hard one. The path basically starts where Caleb and Levi gave up. After that is a single, long, treacherous path. Caleb’s turn. Then Levi’s. Finally, me.

I started up the long, unstable ladder slightly slower than last time. I was scared that I was going to fall, but why should I be? If I fall Caleb and Levi will catch me. I get to the place where Caleb stopped, not too far from where I was. I start to climb again. ‘Use your leg muscles.’ someone says. ‘What muscles?’ I mutter. Focus. I grab onto another hold, and I heaved. I made it to the spot where I gave up. I looked down. Bad mistake. My heart rate quickens. A sudden surge of strength comes. I start climbing even quicker. One hold at a time. That actually works. I make it to the pulley for the previous climb. This is high enough.

This pine tree looks very tall, but no one seems to care. I saw Daniel and Cody climb all the way up, but they've done this before. Caleb’s turn. We all strap ourselves in, and Caleb ascends the ladder. It is a wooden ladder thankfully, like the first one. Caleb manages to get up the ladder before he gave up. Same with Levi. Okay. I’m ready.

I start to climb the ladder. It seems unsteady. I’m not tall enough so I have to stand on the tip of the ladder. I lose my balance and I launch myself onto the nearest branch and I hang for a while. I don’t know why I jumped Levi and Caleb would have caught me. I guess I wanted to be kinda cool. I don’t manage to finish. I’m cool with that.

Now onto something really cool, the Twin Towers activity. The task was easy. Stack milk crates in two towers next to each other as high as you can. Pretty simple, eh? Well it isn’t. Once it gets past level four your helpers have to hand the crates up to you. Then they have to throw them up to you. One level of the crates is about forty centimetres, so multiply that by ten is four metres. That’s high. And it is really unstable.

Levi was throwing them up to me. We’re on level thirteen. Levi thre one up. I missed. Second time. I caught it when it’s falling down. So pro. The record is seventeen. That was with adult help. We haven’t had any help at all. I placed down the crate and moved. Being balanced isn’t one of my specialties, if I had any.

Level seventeen. Finally! Man, it is high! Levi threw a crate up and I caught it. Cool. I got the crowd rooting for me. Eighteen. We won!! We won anyway because we had no adult help. I wanted to go higher. Nineteen. I told everyone I’m going to bail. So... I did. Matthew was being stupid and he stayed right under where I tipped the towers. Egg.

When my anchor people brought me down, I was still excited. Mr Wood caught all of the action on the iPad. So I didn’t fabricate this whole story. Tree climbing is epic! I would definitely do that again.