LaSal Mountain Rappelling Adventures 

                                                            Page 2

At age 7, my niece KK Medina was the first beginner of our group to go down.  And she was totally fearless!  She had to be held tight while waiting her turn at the top - otherwise she'd go right over to the edge and peer down - without a rope attached!

Tiny KK made it to the bottom just fine, with Aunt Linda waiting for her at the bottom.

Diana tried it next - she'd never done this before, except for going down the side of a large water tank at Leoni Meadows Family Camp.

A little aprehensive at first, soon Diana found out it was really a lot of fun!

She got the hang of it quickly - even doing some swinging out further down.

Partway down he flipped over and descended headfirst for a bit. 

Daniel also had fun jumping from side to side, bouncing lightly and gracefully off cliff corners, reaching the bottom in less than a minute.

There's always someone holding the rope at the bottom, which goes through a figure 8 thingy at the rappeller's waistline.  A slight tug of the rope brings the rappeller to a complete stop whenever needed, especially for first-timers.  Daniel's friend Lezli held the rope tight as he neared the bottom, leaving him helpless and stranded.  When he let go of the rope, she did too, resulting in a very rapid descent for Daniel!  But he caught himself in time.  These kids are always finding ways to play tricks on each other.  Amazingly, they always survive!

My 11-year-old niece Krista went next - she did well and enjoyed herself.

My niece Kandice tried to act brave, but we could see her knees shaking as she backed over the cliff edge.  As she got further down and trusted the rope, she began to have more fun.