Friday, February 27, 2009

Blue Mountain Adventure

Today we got up extremely early to go the Ble Mountains. We were on the road at 7 a.m... too early if you ask me! I sat next to a kid named Carl on the bus. He's from Minnesota and goes to St. Scholastica, so it was pretty fun chatting with him! He knows a couple of kids I went to high school with! Small world huh? (OH random! Buuuut I meant this kid name A.J. and he's from Rochester and he knows my best friend Casey. Now that's really a small world!) Anyways, after the 2 hour bus journey we arrived in this small town (forget the name..). And of course, it starts raining. Matt (tour guide) told us that since December, it has rained 5 times in Sydney. We were there 3 of the 5 days.. we brought the nasty weather with us. And then Matt tells us that one of the vans that take us to the actual blue mountains broke down, so now they can only take 15 of us at a time. There are about 45 of us total. Guess who was on the last van. It was ok though! We sat on the bus and played a fun game called "connection." No tim to explain now.. but we can play at our next family get together :)
Once we finally got to the blue mountains, we were given a harness to put on and a helmet. Since I had no idea what I was doing, I had an instructor help me put my harness on! I told her to make it nice and tight! We then grabbed gloves and began our decent down to the rock climbing mountains. This was probably the hardest climb of my life! It was all downhill and it was raining and slippery! I was walking on shaky rocks, fallen tree limbs, and mud. It was very difficult.. especially since I'm not an avid climber! After we made it to the climbing rocks, we were immediatly told to get in line to go down the "baby" rock. It was only about 2 stories high.. nothing too dramatic. Naturally, I was freaking out the whole time in line. I had never done anything before, and everyone just laughed and said I'd be fine. When it was finally time to go, I told the man that was helping me about a million questions! I kept asking if I was safe.. he finally told me to stop freaking out and step up on the rock. So I did. He then told me to just start walking backward, and to make sure that I was leading with my waist and not my feet.
Since the rock was slippery, it was of upmost importance that I lead with my waist.. otherwise, I'd slip. That really made me feel better. But like most things, as soon as I started going down, I got the hang of it! It was such an adrenaline rush! I loved it! The second time we went down, we were told to yell "brake!" then we must let go of the rope, and it was up to the belay (person at the bottom making sure you don't die. oh, we had to do that after we went down the rock. yes, I had people's lives in my hands) to hold tight to the rope so you didn't come crashing down. Lucky for me, there was a guy as my belay, and he was strong. So I knew I was safe!
After the baby rock, we got to experience near death experiences first hand. We had to go down huge rocks, some with drop offs half way down. Seriously, the scariest thing of my life!! As I was going down one of the rocks, I started to slip a little bit, and thus I started freaking out. I thought I was going to lose control and die. Exaggeration, I know, but still, it's how I felt. After the near slippage, I cam to the drop off. I had to lower my body so that my eyes were parallel with my feet. As soon as I reached that point I had to drop my feet and let gravity take its course. If I wasn't low enough, my head would hit the mountain: wonderful. Again, I'm greatful that I am awesome and my feet were low enough so I didn't hit my head! After that, the absail was easy. I just shimmied down the rope until I hit the ground: literally. I fell a little. oops. haha. To be honest, the worst part was the ladder climb back up the mountain. The ladder was very slippery and if you fell, well, that wouldn't be good.
After lunch is when we embarked on the crazy big mountains! These were 15-17 stories (approx. 170 ft.) We had to go down the smaller mountain before we were able to go on the largest mountain. It was crazy!! As I went down I looked to the side, and I could see for miles! Even though it was foggy, it was breathtaking! Again, the worst part was the walk back to the top. We had to basically walk on our hands and knees to get up! There were branches, mud, water, everywhere! It was horrible.. The biggest mountain was indeed huge. We had the option of wearing a chest harness and going face first. Naturally, I was crazy enough to do it! It was the craziest thing! They had you sit at the top of mountain. I swear we were sitting for atleast 10 minutes! Then they told us to slowly stand up and begin to walk forward. Since it was rainy, it was really hard to grip your feet. You were supposed to be able to walk most of the mountain, but like I said, it was slippery, and before I knew it, my feet slipped out from under me and I was hanging in mid air. I was completely scared, but it was the coolest thing ever!!! So I shimmied my way down the mountain. Towards the bottom I started spinning uncontrolably! It was awful. I just closed my eyes, and before I knew it, I was at the bottom! Best experience of my life!! I loved everything about this trip!!
Until next time!!!!!!!!!!!


p.s. sorry this was soooo long! I just wanted you to know everything :D

1 comment:

  1. Kim (Katie's, my roomate,best friend) said she knows someone you're with down there cuz she saw you with him in a picture together.. I think it might be AJ cuz they know an AJ... that's crazy!! Sounds like you're having fun!

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