Pyrenees: Going Climbing!

I've decided to break-up my awesome weekend into three parts, since there is a lot to say about it!

We started off for our trip at 7:30am on Saturday morning. We met at the gym, where the "club" (our social area) was open and there was tea and coffee and croissants waiting for us. Then we packed up the mini-buses and headed off to western France!

My favorite part of the drive was sleeping. Clearly. I was kind of tired after a week of getting up early and actually doing stuff. Although, I also enjoyed that in our 2.5 hour trip, there were multiple smoke breaks for the coach and the players! God forbid people go an hour without a cigarette.

So, after a leisurely drive to the Pyranees, we arrived in St. Paul de ????. Some small little village at the base of the Pyranees an hour or so from the city of Perpignan. We drove around a bunch of roundabouts (see: Jen Drives Stick Take 2) for another 30 minutes until we finally found the road we were looking for.

We pulled up in front of a gate at what turned out to be a gorgeous vineyard and orchard full of grapes, apples, plums, figs, and blackberries. It belonged to a friend of our coach named Pierre, who was a true outdoorsman. He told us not to touch his fruits, but we couldn't help ourselves and would reach-up to grab a fresh plum or some grapes when the temptation got to be too much!

After settling in a little bit, we set-up our picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful day. Soon after, Pierre brought us a bunch of climbing harnesses and got us ready to go for a climb!

We drove 3 minutes away to the base of a mountain that has several nice faces for climbing. We hiked 30 minutes through the brush until we reached the first face, where Pierre hooked up our ropes. Then, we got down to the climbing!

I'd been climbing a few times before, but it had certainly been a few years. I was confident before I got started, but about 6 feet of the ground I got stuck for a minute and my adrenaline started pumping. After I got past that one tricky part, I was good and shot up the rest of the face without too many problems. When I reached the top, the view was amazing, and I had a major high from the rush of making it all the way up!

We climbed 1-2 at a time, so once I got up to the top, I hung out for a while with some of my teammates while we waited for the others to finish. The views were amazing, and everyone was in a really good mood from having successfully completed a challenge. It was a positive atmosphere the whole time, with people helping each other out by yelling out encouraging words or telling them where there were nice footholds in the rock.

After we all finished the first climb, we started on the second. The second face was much more challenging, and the top was especially tricky. I was feeling good at this point and ready to go. I started my climb when the other person was 2/3 of the way up and was pleased when I raced past her and made it to the top first. Not that it was a competition, but it was a good confidence builder for sure.

I've felt like the last few weeks have been a challenge for me, and my body has been totally stressed out even if I feel OK mentally. Being on the mountain and really getting to know my teammates and do physically and mentally challenging tasks really had a positive effect on me. I could feel the stress leaving my body and I felt much more calm and relaxed than I have been since I arrived, like I was finally finding some balance. I love that about being in nature!!

After we finished the second climb, we started our descent back down the mountain before it could get dark. We set-up the rappelling and got down to business! I was a little scared because I couldn't understand ANYTHING that was going on during the explanation process. But, when it was my turn, my coach looked at me, told me not to worry that he had my ropes and he would make sure I made it down safely, and I sat back and started to rappell. It was smooth as glass, and a great trust excercise!

The trip down went quickly, and soon we were all on our way hiking back to the mini-buses. Everyone got excited when they saw there were "real" toiletts at the basecamp, so there was a mad rush for the bathrooms. Face it, it is much easier than going in the woods!!

All in all the climbing was fabulous! The day was gorgeous and the beautiful views and sense of accomplishment had everyone feeling like they were on top of the world.