Rock Climbing!

Sunday I went rock climbing just outside Alicante with my friend Corey. If you had asked me a month ago if I would be rock climbing the day after my 21st birthday I would have laughed in your face. But since being in Spain I've been more willing to do a lot of new things, so when I got a flyer for it from USAC I thought .. Why not? 

I literally didnt know the first thing about rock climbing and Corey and I clearly had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Its a good thing though, because had I known I probably wouldnt have done it and I'm SO glad I did! 

Here is what I expected from this little rock climbing excursion:

1.     Beginner level rock climbing. Since they handed this flyer out to study abroad students, I thought surely it would be more of a friendly little beginner level activity. I envisioned something closer to leisurely ‘hill-climbing’ with lots of breaks and places to rest.

2.     Bi-lingual instructors. We went on the trip through a program called Tremuntana that runs a bunch of different adventure type activities around Alicante. USAC hands out information on some of their excursions each week. I assumed that since USAC gave us all the information that the instructors were used to having lots of Americans and would be able to give instructions in English.

3.     Minimal heights. Again, I thought this would be a novice level activity, so I did not expect to be tackling extreme heights.

4.     Indoor rock wall style climbing. I envisioned being attached to a long rope and propelling and all that good stuff.

Here is what actually happened:

1.     Extremely instense – completely vertical, scaling the side of a mountain, clutching rocks until you wear the skin off your fingers rock-climbing!

2.     Spanish-only instructors. Not only did I not know a damn thing about rock climbing but the 2 instructors spoke no English whatsoever. I couldn’t understand any of the instructions on what to do (at which point I was questioning what made me think this was a good idea) Luckily, there was a Spanish woman in our group who spoke fluent English and she was able to translate the important stuff for us.

3.     Ear-popping, oxygen altering, don’t-look-down-or-you’ll-puke, kind of heights!

4.     Side of a cliff-style climbing. We had a harness and 2 straps with hooks on them that we hooked to cords running up the side of the mountain. Once one cord came to an end, you had to un-hook then re-hook and keep climbing. Different from what I expected but not hard once I got the hang of it!

As you can see, this little rock climbing excursion was leaps and bounds from my expectations but it was INCREDIBLE!!! Never in a million years did I ever envision myself thousands of kilometers in the air clutching to the side of a mountain for dear life and doing it all without vomiting or peeing my pants (which is a good thing because Corey and I were leading the group most of the way up.. could have gotten messy) The whole time I had so much adrenaline that I couldn’t even think about how tired I was or how terrifying the situation was. There was no way out of it so I had to block it out of my mind. There were a few points where we could stop along the way (spots on the side of the mountain where just a few people could stop at a time.) I preferred to not take long breaks though, because it made me antsy and gave me more time to think about how high up we were and all the possible things that could go wrong. Several times I envisioned falling and getting pinned under a rock and having to cut my arm off and wondered how I would do that since I didn’t have a pocket knife or any type of survival materials except some water and a ham sandwich. As you can guess, I made it through with all my limbs still in tact.

Our instructors, though hard to understand, were great and loved us… people just get a kick out of Americans here and I’m sure we were especially entertaining since we spoke little Spanish and didn’t have any idea what was going on. They were so nice and took pictures for us along the way that they put on a disc for us when we got back to the office. One of the instructors even gave us a ride home which was definitely a welcome invitation since I could no longer feel my legs.

Rock climbing was definitely one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, things I’ve ever done! Few things will top the feeling of getting to the top of the mountain and standing up and checking out the view. I am NOT a heights person so I felt especially good that I made it through and didn’t wimp out. I’m so glad I am in Spain because it’s made me take advantage of so many opportunities I usually wouldn’t think about doing while at home. This was definitely one of those unforgettable things I’m going to take back with me .. and I’m sure I’m going to have a lot more of these as the semester goes on! 

Taking a short break about half-way to the top!

just finished and checking out the view ... worth it!

We made it!!!

Corey and I at the top!