ioana
in quest for genuine
Monday, May 26, 2008
White water kayaking
I didn't have the time to update last week, so I have to catch up with my past weekend. I had a great time going with the kayak on the river! Actually I was supposed to do rafting, but with an interesting change of events I ended up in the kayak :)

I did the kayaking thing on lakes and oceans a number of times before, but it is just not the same thing. Imagine you float gently on still waters, and with a soft touch of the paddle you move gracefully ahead. Now imagine being in a turmoil, with water boiling around you, white foam everywhere, and you NEED to stongly push the paddles to avoid crashing in the BIG rocks surrounding you.

I'll just let the images speak for themselves:


All I can say is I really loved it and I'm definetly doing this again :))
Written at 1:53 AM by ioana.
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Friday, May 16, 2008
The Deer's Edge
Last weekend I went with Dragos to do my first multi pitch route on a wall. I was really excited, since with Easter and the bad weather on May 1st I barely got the chance to put my hands on the rock. (And when I did, I realized that I'm starting to suck, and I must practice-practice-practice)!

Sooo, what is this multi pitch stuff? Well, basically a pitch is equivalent to a rope's lenght (this is relative of course, it can be anywhere between 10-60m). And you climb a sequence of two or more of these lenghts, witch of course comes together with many challenges: finding your route, belaying your partner up, finding anchor points, etc etc. Did I mention it's also really high??? Well, since I am too rookie to lead a climb (for now :)) I didn't have to bother with any of these, just to be patient and climb my way in total safety!

The wall, we went on a route in center-right

So, after a deep breath, I started climbing up. The ropes were really tight, as Dragos was concerned I would freak out at the possibility of falling. Which I did (the freaking out part, not the falling)! I arrived at the first stop stressed as hell, I guess I was overwhelmed of the huuuuuuuuge rock surface on top of us, and at the idea that we have to go up on ALL of it. There was no turning back.

Just look at my face, I am obviously telling myself "how the hell did I get into this?!!" This was taken some 40m above the ground, you can't really see below. The problem was I was carrying the camera and I was so stressed that I refused to take it off later on to take more pictures.

The first 3 lenghts went quite smoothly, really easy ones (I admit that now but back then I was scaaaaaaared!!). The 4th was more demanding technically but I managed to get through. I knew I could do it, but the fact that below me were like 100m of rock didn't really help with focusing!!

At the 5th and last lenght I went through a buch of places with many many nettles. I have some really bad memories with nettles on the rock, when I was looking for a hold and I put my hand right into one of these stingy plants. Can't they just stay in the forest, do they HAVE TO be on the rock as well??

Anyway, at the end I reached the top, sat in the grass, and for the first time I was able to look down. Phew! It was a looooooooong way, believe me!

Finally relaxing

All in all, it took us around 2 hrs to get up, which according to Dragos is a really good time. All I can say is that during the climb I was thinking that my only way to get out of this was to go as fast as possible and finish the hell on with it :))

Sunday the weather turned bad on us, and I was too chicken to go up with the possibility of rain and cold coming. It seams it was a good idea, since a big storm came over just hours after.


Snow and clouds on the mountains

Written at 4:22 AM by ioana.
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