Dad turns whole house into a climbing frame for an epic game
A devoted dad has turned his entire house into a climbing frame for an epic three-story game of ‘the floor is lava’.
Matt Heason, 48, already had all the equipment so thought he may as well put it to use while the family were stuck at home during lockdown, mirror.co.uk wrote.
He strung up ropes, attached climbing holds to the walls, and installed all manner of grips, hanging bars, and straps so that his son, Dylan, could climb all over the house.
Then he challenged his 12-year-old son to climb from the kitchen table to his bed in the attic without touching the floor in an epic ‘floor is lava’ game.
Matt Heason, from Grindleford, Derbyshire, UK, said: “We most recently did it in February, we’ve done it three times. The first one was at my parent’s house back in 2017, then we decided to do it in our own home during the first lockdown.
“We didn’t have to do a lot, at my parent’s house we had to screw holds into the ceiling and cut a hole in the roof to dangle a rope down, all so he could climb up.
“In our own home, we didn’t have to do as much.
“He sleeps in the attic, and the initial idea was to get from the bedroom into the garden for breakfast.
“He climbed out of the bed and out an escape ladder, which he climbed down, with a safety rope on, and then in through a window underneath and from there he was able to use furniture, bars, rails to get outside.
“He went down two more flights of stairs like that, then when he was outside he was able to climb on the brickwork and onto a wall, then down the wall onto a climbing frame and onto the shed roof which was the finish point.
“Then we reversed it, for this one he had to get from the dining table to his bedroom.
“He climbed up the stairs by balancing on the bannister rails, then stopped to brush his teeth while dangling off a pullup bar, then chimneyed it up the next stairway – that’s a climbing technique with your hands are on one wall and the feet on the other.
“Now we’ve made a climbing wall that leads into his bed, he has to climb in every time into the bed which is in the apex of the room.”
Matt said he installed the climbing equipment because Dylan and his big brother, 14-year-old Bryn, couldn’t get to their usual climbing wall – the Climbing Works in Sheffield, Yorkshire, to practice.
He continued: “He’s got an older brother as well and they both do a lot of training, so over lockdown, we set it up at home so they could practice – including ropes, bands, weights, and a rope hanging from the ceiling.
“It’s like our whole house is a climbing frame, my wife despairs sometimes.”
Matt, who runs the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, lives in the Peak District with his wife, 47-year-old Sophie, and together they take their sons climbing at least twice a week.