Monday, April 26, 2010

4.27.10 – Rock Climbing in Sweden!

This trip through DIS was actually supposed to happen last weekend, however our guide was stuck in London due to the airplane mess caused by the unpronounceable volcano in Iceland. Fortunately, they were able to reschedule it for this weekend. I actually was initially hesitant on going this weekend because it wasn’t ideal since I have several major assignments dues. In retrospect, I am definitely glad that I went though.

We left Copenhagen at 7:30am on Sunday morning (this was definitely a down side because I had to walk to the station at 6:00 in the morning to be able to get into town on time), and made our way up to the north of Zealand where we took a 20 minute ferry to get to Sweden. The ferry was actually kind of funny because it was so short. Additionally, you can see where you are going the whole time. It is ridiculous how close these two countries are at this point. We then had about another hour of driving before we got to our meeting point to join up with our guides. Interestingly, one of them was English and the other Australian who were helping us, a group of Americans studying in Denmark, but rock climbing in Sweden (talk about a mix of cultures).

They briefly went through most of the safety rules with us and we all got harnessed up. We then headed down the hill to get to our climbing location for the day. It was beautiful. We were right on the water and there was actually a nice little pebbled beach next to us. Once we got down there, our guides began setting up the first collection of climbing routes for the morning. There were three climbs of varying difficulty. I impressed even myself that I was able to make it up each one with rather little difficulty. I mean I have been rock climbing before but always inside (beside the one time in the Czech Republic a couple weeks ago).

Unfortunately, the worst event of the day (for me) also happened during the morning. Setting the Scene: Our guides were also teaching several of us how to belay so that we could be using all three lines at once. They actually had us doubled up on the belay just in case. At one point, I was in charge of the secondary position, where I just held the rope about a meter away from the belayer just as a back up in case the climber had a really sudden fall. While my friend Heidi was climbing, at one point she called ‘Watch Out!’ because a rock had slipped and was falling down. It happened so quickly that the only thing I remember is seeing said rock coming towards my head, tilting my head down, and getting smacked on the head with this rather large rock. Fortunately, I had my helmet on, otherwise I would have been a goner. It still managed to hurt pretty badly though, and I now have a tender spot on my head. Overall, I was fine, but I did make sure to just sit back and watch for the rest of the morning.

After lunch, our guides moved the easiest climb to a more difficult one, which I took on first right after lunch. After staring at the cliff for about 5-10 minutes I finally started to give it a go. I really wasn’t expecting to make it up (at least not the first time), but somehow I did manage it. I did slip out once, but other than that I did really well. Our guide who was belaying me also complimented me on my ability to do so well. With those compliments and a major success after my mini accident, I decided that would be my last climb for the day.

I then watched everyone else climbing the three different routes and walked around a little with a few people for the remainder of the day. We left the climbing site around 4:00pm, said goodbye to our guides, and made our way back to Denmark.

Once back in our host country, we did stop for dinner at a nice little restaurant where we had a really good dinner of turkey, broccoli (not enough of it though in my opinion), and potatoes. Then since we were with DIS, we of course were serviced dessert (chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream). After dinner, we simply headed back in the city to be dropped off, and from there I made my way back home on the train.

I did attempt to be slightly productive once I was home, since I do have a presentation, quiz, and my first final this week. I think I was successful enough. I feel pretty relaxed about everything, so at least that feeling is going to get me through this short week.

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