The Joy of the Outdoors

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How are you going to spend your free time? Are you going to spend it at home watching T.V. with your friends or are you going to spend it out in the country climbing mountains, rafting whitewater, or carving down the side of a mountain? These are just a few of the things that you can spend your time doing as an alternative to being a lazy sack and staying inside and playing video games. There are many ways people have fun outdoors. Living in Eastern Idaho there are literally hundreds of places to go and things to do that people don’t take advantage of. There are many different activities that one can participate in all year round specifically in the spring-summer, fall, and winter times.

One of the most physically challenging outdoor activities that is very popular in the summer time is rock climbing. People often have a skewed perception of what rock climbing actually is about. “Rock Climbing is all about adventure and interacting with the environment… this activity [is] a leading adventure pursuit, a nice fit in western leisure lifestyles” (Cross). Basically in its simplest form it is just someone wearing a harness and literally just climbing up rock faces. Sound easy? Wrong. Even on the simplest routes, it requires a unique and continual use of almost all of the bodies muscle groups. There are not any breaks for the rest of climb until finished and the climbers reached the bottom. While on the rock the climber must continually use his different holds and cling to rock and slowly make his way to the top. At first it is relatively easy, but the more time spent on the rock, the more time the body is spent holding itself up and the more difficult it gets to move forward. By the end of the climb the climber is usually drained. ...

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