There are so many forms of outdoor recreation. One of the many that I love is rock climbing. There’s the thrill of elevation along with the joy of carrying your own weight on a rocky mountain slope. I recently went on a rock climbing excursion and I and the five other people with me had quite an adventure.
It started out with my dad waking me up at 7:30 on a Sunday. As you can imagine it’s not the funnest thing to be woken on the days you’re supposed to sleep in till noon. Then getting ready and loading in the car with my older sister and my dad. We were going with a group from my school so we had to drive to the campus first to meet up with the rest of the people. Pretty much all the students at my school decided they were too cool to go rock climbing and so there was only one other student there besides me and my sister. The three of us were accompanied by two teachers and a parent (my dad). We loaded in the car and headed out for a short drive to the rocks.
We got there and the teachers unloaded all the equipment and lead the way along a small path leading to the place where they were to set up the ropes. Once we got there the three girls sat and watched while one teacher belayed the other who needed to lead the rope. I don’t know how much you know about rock climbing but lead roping means that one person climbs the rock and takes a rope up and hooks themselves onto different consecutive hooks that were previously drilled into the rock. After climbing to the top of the hooks there is a more permanent attachment that the rope is thread through in order for the next climber to use that rope as an anchor (like apulley system) and then they can top rope climb (regular rock climbing with a rope at the top). My sister the other student and I all did a couple climbs and for the most part stayed injure-free. But after about an hour or so it was time to relocate ourselves to another location.
Taking down the ropes and packing up our little temporary camp site we began to climb further into the jungle. We found a small cliff about 20 minute walk away and decided to practice our repelling skills on it. The ropes were once again set up, but this time using a tree as an anchor. We all took turns repelling down the small ledge, this time however there were a few scrapes and bruised. When we were in the middle of our repelling rotation it began to rain. Within a few minutes everyone was soaking wet and miniature rivers had begun forming on the trail that lead back to the cars. After making sure that all cameras/phones and other electronic devices were as much water-proof as we could get them we thought it would be best to get back to the car before the water rose anymore. The hike was wet and slippery. The 6 of us were freezing cold and shivering with every carefully placed step that we took in order not to fall. Finally after what seemed like a long cold trek we were back to the cars.
Once we were all showered, cleaned and bundled up we realized that the whole trip was actually really fun and totally worth it. Now all that’s left to do is wash our shoes.
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