Still alive.

Banz talked me into going rock climbing yesterday, which I assumed meant it would not be a leisurely trail with alphorns and hot chocolate. I’m afraid of heights and have never actually been rock climbing with all the gear, but figured it would be okay… until I saw the mountain (pictured above). “Hopefully this is not a stupid idea,” I thought to myself. Even so, being rather stubborn and competitive, I didn’t want to back out without giving it a try.

Upward.

For all you extreme athletes out there who might have thought, “Wow, cool! Climb a big rock, get a pretty view!”, well, you guys suck! This climb sucked! It humbled me terribly, and was in stark contrast to the confidence I felt with the success of last week.

The whole day had very little redeeming value. Even the otherwise attractive snacks of Swiss cheeses and breads were eaten whilst perched precariously off a shear cliff. Though I do appreciate the adventure of it and I’m not opposed to doing stupid things sometimes, this was really a big ask of me. It is no exaggeration to say that I was often flopping around like a beached whale afraid of the water.

After 9 hours of climbing and dying a horrible grizzly death about 37 times in my mind, I’m still alive.

Finally, I was back down and sitting comfortably in an alpine restaurant having the best bowl of tomato soup ever. There was polka music playing in the background, which always makes me happy.

Though I’m glad I went and challenged my comfort zones, I would rather have a camera in a war zone any day. Or better yet, take a bike ride to the pool.