A personality

If you quickly scroll through this post to view the photos, you may think it's about having some fun on a climbing wall...but it's not.

It's really about
a p e r s o n a l i t y

Here you see Mike a good way up the wall, a really tough wall that many experienced climbers give up on. Don't see much to hold on to, do you?

Well, Mike was in this position for about 15 minutes. Every new hold he tried just wouldn't get him any higher.

Sometimes he'd move down a bit to see if he could find alternative holds, then go back up again...only to be stymied--over and over.


If you really try to imagine just how long 15 minutes is while hanging from a couple of toes and fingertips, you can now realize that the idea of "fun" has now left the imagination.

It's now mind over matter...over physical discomfort, over mental strain...over the fact that our hour in the gym was WAY overdue!

I kept thinking he'd see the situation as futile and come back down and find a different wall to try.

Even his taller, lighter, flexible, determined twin sister had tried this wall and had to scrap the mission.

But no.
He's very persistent when he sets his mind to something.

Around the 20-25 minute mark, he finally made it to the top and rang the bell.

His sibs and a group of experienced climbers in the area heard the bell and came over to see him up there--one of the toughest walls.

The older experienced climbers (handicapped with added weight) showed their admiration by clapping.

Mikey grinned and came down.

A personality...

Satisfied.