(24.01.2015 – Conacul Ursului)
I had always underestimated to power of the first time until last week. Heck, the first time I went to the climbing gym it wasn’t about fireworks and butterflies in my stomach, but rather a rational decision: this could be interesting, the people seem very nice, I desperately need to get out of the house more, so, yeah, I’ll give this climbing thing a try.
But it was completely different when it came to ice climbing. The first time I put on crampons (I’ll definitely blog about that, too) it felt so natural, so good. And last week, when I held an ice axe for the first time (a professional one, not our trekking ones) it definitely felt like my hand was supposed to be gripping one of those.
I know, I know, I was top rope, so it wasn’t such a big deal, but the second I came down my first route, I told myself: I’m going to lead and I’m going to learn how to put in ice screws. I want to learn everything about this sport! I hate winter, I hate the cold, but, damn, I fell in love with ice climbing!
The way you swing your ice axe and let it hit the ice and then maybe you have to hit again until in bites into the ice, the way you have to inch up on your feet, one small step at a time – pure pleasure! Yes, it might be a bit more boring than climbing – here you make your own holds, whereas in rock climbing you find ways to use the holds that already exist. But I didn’t feel bored, quite the contrary.
Now I’m begging all my friends who are good at this to take me with them. I think I might have given them a headache with my constant nagging, but I’m hooked – I dream about it, I daydream about it, I can’t get it out of my mind. And it was just my first time.
(Thank you Camelia and Adi for the pictures you took!)
You so fit! :-)