Australia & New Zealand Outdoor Adventure Forum

I'm not an expert climber and when I climbed Mt. Apo, the tallest mountain in our country, it was my first time. One mistake I did was to stay behind the group during a climb. What happened was I thought I was still on the right trail until I noticed it doesn't look safe anymore. But I still went ahead. I tried to go up by following my friends' voices and I found myself hanging on for dear life on a near 90-degrees cliff. I can't move or the ground would fall with me. I was only grabbing onto a small branch or twig. Good thing a friend saw me and pulled me up. It was a relief but I was laughing after that. How about you? Any dangerous experience and how did you get out of it?

This is why I am afraid of climbing especially since I am not an expert. I am glad nothing happened to you, good thing your friend noticed you were in danger. I haven't done drastic climbing like you did climbing the highest mountain in your country, so I really haven't put myself in danger. I do have a friend who did have a bad experience though when we went on our first climbing adventure which I ended up not doing because of fear. But like youself he found himself hanging for dear life for not going in the correct trail he called for help and got rescued.

The fear of death is one of my biggest fear. This applies not only for me but also whenever any of my family member goes for climbing. I feel relaxed only when back home.

Every adventure trip has some risk associated with it. The risk brings fears. But giving into those fears is bad. Thankfully , I have never experienced any near to death situation but still there is always an underlying fear of the unknown.

I have never had any experience that I can consider so dangerous while I was climbing, most likely because I have always tried to be very careful.

Every detail must be well observed in this type of activity (even the simplest details, which usually we don't usually give the proper attention).

Safety should always come first.

This was just stupidity on my end but when we were climbing some rocky walls, I became too cocky and stopped using the pick for a while. My hand slipped and I almost slid down the rocks to my doom but luckily, the pick caught on something before I reached the edge. I was even warned about being too cocky. Nothing really happened to me in the past but the terrain is unpredictable.

I think the title of this thread is very appropriate since that was really a near-death experience for if you had fallen down then I guess you would be making your post in heaven. Anyway, that is a neat lesson for us when you go climbing and even trekking. Don't be left behind regardless if you know the route or if you are well versed with the terrain. The main reason for having companions in the climbing trip is for your own safety.

Well that is certainly enough to make you think twice. At the same time though I am sure that people who love what they do can use it as a learning experience and take it as a growth in respect, which is something I may struggle with, and by may I mean do.

I have had so many such experiences that I can write a book and still counting. On a serious note, being an avid traveler in hilly areas and adventure loving guy I face something worth mentioning every time I go out for an adventure travel. I have had the recent most experience in the month of January just before coming to Australia in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand while walking down to river area from Hanuman temple on very narrow path and almost slipped off down the path but saved myself getting hold of a small tree on the verge of the path.