We woke up this morning still tired from yesterday's climbing. Today was our day to try out some deep water soloing. For the non-climbers out there, that's rock climbing with no rope above deep water. When you're ready to get down, you jump. If you're slip, you fall into the water. It's pretty straight forward, but it's not without it's dangers. We had been warned of people breaking their backs by hitting the water wrong, and large chunks of rock blowing off the side of the cliff. But this is something we've wanted to try for a long time. Watching the deep water soloing in the movie King Lines was one of the things that inspired Aaron to climb in the first place. Of course early in the morning, the thought of canceling sounded pretty appealing, but no! It was finally happening.
We ate some breakfast and packed our gear. It was about a 20 minute walk to our meeting point. We walked up to a small sail boat and met our 3 guides. About 5 minutes later, one of the guys we met on the train showed up. It was his first time to try deep water soloing as well. We were all nervously excited. During the half hour ride there, our guide instructed us on how to hit the water and things to watch out for. We also talked a lot about how cold the water was going to be. While the three of us were excited about climbing, you could tell the guides were dreading the cold water. Their dread was contagious, and by the time we reached our climbing point, none of us wanted to get in the water.
One of our guides (reluctantly) jumped in, and since he wasn't screaming in pain, we figured the water probably wasn't that bad. We weren't entirely wrong. It was extremely cold, just not Titanic cold. A count to three, and brief second of regret, and we were in the water. Not surprisingly, the cold water and short swim to the cliff took a lot out of us. But getting out of the water was good motivation for getting up the rock wall. Aaron tried climbing with his Go-Pro on his head, but he was worried the head strap would come off when he jumped down, so he ended up leaving it on the boat for the most part. We got some good video though. In fact it was so awesome, we had to make a youtube playlist. Here it is:
The holds were pretty decent. They were juggy, but sharp. By the end of it, all of us had several small cuts on our hands and legs. It was also a low tide, so getting on to the routes was very difficult. But once you got past the start, it was pretty smooth sailing. That is, until you realize you're going to have to jump down. Kaylea and I were both shocked at how scary it was. But despite the fear and the cuts and the bruises, we still had an amazing time. We highly recommend it.
Exhausted, sun-burnt, and seasick, we made our way back to our hostel for some desperately needed sleep. We've spent most of the day in recovery mode. We napped, ate, and watched movies on our laptop. We got our rest while we could. Tomorrow, we have another long day of train rides ahead of us.
P.S. Here's more picture of the climbing and scenery:
We ate some breakfast and packed our gear. It was about a 20 minute walk to our meeting point. We walked up to a small sail boat and met our 3 guides. About 5 minutes later, one of the guys we met on the train showed up. It was his first time to try deep water soloing as well. We were all nervously excited. During the half hour ride there, our guide instructed us on how to hit the water and things to watch out for. We also talked a lot about how cold the water was going to be. While the three of us were excited about climbing, you could tell the guides were dreading the cold water. Their dread was contagious, and by the time we reached our climbing point, none of us wanted to get in the water.
(Can you see the nervous excitement?)
One of our guides (reluctantly) jumped in, and since he wasn't screaming in pain, we figured the water probably wasn't that bad. We weren't entirely wrong. It was extremely cold, just not Titanic cold. A count to three, and brief second of regret, and we were in the water. Not surprisingly, the cold water and short swim to the cliff took a lot out of us. But getting out of the water was good motivation for getting up the rock wall. Aaron tried climbing with his Go-Pro on his head, but he was worried the head strap would come off when he jumped down, so he ended up leaving it on the boat for the most part. We got some good video though. In fact it was so awesome, we had to make a youtube playlist. Here it is:
The holds were pretty decent. They were juggy, but sharp. By the end of it, all of us had several small cuts on our hands and legs. It was also a low tide, so getting on to the routes was very difficult. But once you got past the start, it was pretty smooth sailing. That is, until you realize you're going to have to jump down. Kaylea and I were both shocked at how scary it was. But despite the fear and the cuts and the bruises, we still had an amazing time. We highly recommend it.
Exhausted, sun-burnt, and seasick, we made our way back to our hostel for some desperately needed sleep. We've spent most of the day in recovery mode. We napped, ate, and watched movies on our laptop. We got our rest while we could. Tomorrow, we have another long day of train rides ahead of us.
P.S. Here's more picture of the climbing and scenery:
Hey Aaron - I don't know how you guys can maintain that pace of travel and find time to blog, but this is awesome.
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