Australia & New Zealand Outdoor Adventure Forum

I am not the most experienced climber, but I've done it a few time with my cousins, and let me tell you is far harder than it looks! We need to have the proper gear, obviously, but we also need the technique, that is basically putting our feet in the right places, and keep our body as vertical as possible, or else our hands and wrists will hurt a lot. Anyone climbing here?

Before I have tried any climbing, it always looked hard and a bit scary to be honest. But once I have tried a few times climbing, I find it not really scary... but I could tell where the difficult part is. It can be as easy as walking, or hard as lifting up a rock when it comes to slightly overhang or you have used up your power.

I'm not an expert climber, either. But I have already gained some valuable experiences with the help of some who have been climbing for a long time.

I confess I was a bit scared at first, but after I was learning the things (even the simplest ones... which are also very important), the fear gradually disappeared and today I don't feel more afraid.

Climbing is not at the top of my list of radical sports, but it has been gaining more and more space.

It's all a matter of balancing the body right, but those on the ground giving us pi give a lot of help, especially for beginners of course, they almost lift us up. I was fortunate enough to start on a beautiful place, so that helped a lot too. It's in Guia, Cascais, Portugal, beautful!

I have climbed few mountains and yes, it's not an easy task. Every experience is unique and so is the technique.

I found that the right gear makes the biggest difference. As the ascent get steeper the backpack weight get even more difficult to pull up. The oxygen level decreases making you light headed and sleepy.

It is vital to exercises months before the actual climb to acclimatise the body well.

to7update wrote:It's all a matter of balancing the body right, but those on the ground giving us pi give a lot of help, especially for beginners of course, they almost lift us up. I was fortunate enough to start on a beautiful place, so that helped a lot too. It's in Guia, Cascais, Portugal, beautful!

Hey man, that's spectacular!

Having the skills, drive and resilience to overcome obstacles and achieve anything you want to. Imagine knowing what it would take to perform to your maximum day in, day out, and believing you could do it. Imagine being able to assess and accept the risks of failure and progress as though you had no doubt you would succeed. Climbing gives me this.

You can climb on rock, ice, frozen waterfalls, giant snowy mountains and mountains that offer a mix of everything. My favourite type of climbing is alpine mountaineering where I can pit myself against the most inspiring and iconic peaks in the Alps.

To be honest, the only real climbing I have experienced is the climb of an unknown mountain (in the province of Zambales, Philippines). My friend and I were with 5 locals who urged us to try climbing. There was no gear and what we used were only our hands. In the middle of the climb, we were crawling like ants because the slope was kind of steep which makes it difficult to maintain the balance. That crawling went on for 30 minutes, I think, and the total duration of the climb was more than 1 hour. When we reached the peak, gee, it was one flat grassy area which can fit an airport. You can guess that we went down in the same style that we went up, i.e. in a crawling position.

PS. My cousin lived near that mountain until now although I haven't been there for more than 20 years.

kaacu wrote:

to7update wrote:It's all a matter of balancing the body right, but those on the ground giving us pi give a lot of help, especially for beginners of course, they almost lift us up. I was fortunate enough to start on a beautiful place, so that helped a lot too. It's in Guia, Cascais, Portugal, beautful!

Hey man, that's spectacular!

Thanks! That is why I was attracted to climbing, they were about to do it, the place is that you see, so when my arms start hurting I simply went for a swim. Nothing like the weather in Portugal, oh wait, in Australia and New Zealand has to be awesome too!

I have never tried mountain climbing but we did hiking. The first time I we hiked was way back 90's. It was when we visited my aunt's boyfriend's family who lived in the mountains. I always wanna go mountain climbing but I find it too thrilling and scary as well since I'm afraid of heights It gives me the chills whenever I'm in high places especially if the road is narrow or too steep. I wish I could conquer my fear so I could try this