I did my first multi-pitch climb today in Montserrat Spain. For my non climbing readers: multi-pitch climbing is used to climb super tall walls. The route is broken up into smaller pieces so you can climb really high without getting as tired. The multi-pitch I completed today had 4 pitches- so we would climb a section and then have a ledge to belay off of for the next section. In Austin most of the walls are not tall enough to do multi-pitch on. Today I climbed about 4 Austin sized routes.
After an hour train ride I arrived in Monserrat at 9:00am. The train was early and I had some time to kill before meeting my climbing guide. I walked 15min into town from the station. "Town" is used loosely here, this was so just a few streets with a lot of hills , stuck on the side of the mountains. Most of the places were closed but I did find a Kebab place that had an espresso machine! I got a cafe con leche and sat quietly, listening to the two local men at the bar. One of the older men had two glasses of whiskey before I could finish my coffee. His morning was either off to a very good or a very bad start....
We got to the park around 10:30 and started our walk to the climbing walls. Monserrat has over 500 routes and is such a beautiful place. The rock is composite and contains lots of different kinds of rocks all smashed together.
The climbs weren't super difficult, everything was just much longer than I am used to climbing back to back. We almost made it to the top and then had to do a little scrambling to get to the summit. The scrambling consisted of my guide, tied to one end of the rope and me tied into the other following each other up a less steep section of the wall to the summit. The guide tied slings with draws around a few small trees on the way up which might have helped if we fell??? He started climbing up and then said when the rope gets tight you can start climbing, just don't fall. And off he went. I really had to trust myself and stay calm. There were many times during the climb when I could not see the guide or hear him, so it was all on me to figure out the moves and make it to the next pitch.
After climbing we rappelled back down a canyon on the other side. This consisted of 10-12 rappels where again the guide went and yelled from further down when it was my turn. There's something about turning around and lowering yourself off a tall wall that is unsettling and I don't rappel very often. There seems to be a balance between bouncing off and sliding your feet down that I haven't quiet figured out. As well as avoiding getting your gear scratched through cracks... At the start of every rappel I had to work up my courage and "put on my brave face" as my dad would say. Every time I found the ground and my guide again I felt a rush of pride. I was trusting myself, my strength, and my skills and it was working!!!
I had one of the best days today. I don't normally feel brave when I'm climbing and this is a feeling I will be taking home with me. I felt so capable and so accomplished. After reflecting on my time here I realize that this is a feeling I could have been experiencing all along here- coming to Spain, learning a language more deeply, being gone from home for 3 months, meeting new people, walking around new cities all takes a lot of bravery but I didn't really think about it that way until today.
So cheers to giving ourselves more credit in the new year and allowing ourselves to feel courageous. Thanking our bodies for getting us safely where we need to go and doing more things that give us the chance to feel brave and accomplished and well... proud!!