On Saturday we got a call that we were bumped from the wait list and we could join an introductory rock climbing course offered by Bergsport Bordogna at a natural (outdoor) climbing wall near Solothurn, Switzerland.

Kay has been asking about a climbing course for ages, so I agreed to go and see if climbing was something for me or not. We got up at 6am on Sunday and headed on a train towards Solothurn. At 8am we arrived at Bergsport Bordogna where we met our climbing group to get fitted for harnesses and shoes.

This is when I realized the entire course would be in Schwiizerdütsch. Ahh.

This is the “easy” flatter wall where we learned how to climb in our rubbery shoes, how to tie figure eight knots and clove hitches, and how to belay partners with a top rope setup. Our instructor looked kind of like an old grizzled Daniel Craig with hairier arms and blonder hair, but obviously someone you would trust with your life.

I was feeling pretty good with our progress on the easy wall. Around 12pm we had lunch and then Herr Craig informed us we’d be doing a “real” climb on the much taller, much steeper, much scarier wall around the corner. I admit, I was a little nervous when we passed the bend and I looked up and saw people climbing very far up from us… Gulp.

I chose to start the climb so that in theory I would do less climbing all at once, but if you think about it… both Kay and I would have to climb the whole wall. (Well, duh!) I climbed up and secured myself into a standing point and then belayed Kay up. Kay climbed past me to the next station. I apologize if this sounds weird in English, but since it was all in Swiss German I wasn’t really told what the English terms are for climbing. When we make it to a station we were told to yell “Stand!” (shtand!) and then yell things like “Seile ab!” or “Bin versichert!”

I had no trouble getting up to Kay, but when we did our next routine upwards, it was again my turn to climb and that’s where I started getting nervous. The rock smoothed out quite a bit and there wasn’t much to hold on to with your hands or grip with your feet. In essence, I felt like I was climbing on a flat wall straight up, even if we had a pretty low grade angle. (Maybe a 3 on a scale of 10… I obviously don’t know much about rock climbing and I didn’t have the info for the area we were climbing in…)

Anyway, I kept going and I was getting more and more nervous, with my anxiety feeding on itself. I slipped a little on my way up to Kay and fell off the wall for a moment, grabbing on to the rope that Kay was belaying. I gained my footing again and tried to shake off the jitters, but I looked up and Kay was facing another climber and chatting at the belay station. Urp. (He did realize I slipped and held the rope tighter… so he was paying attention!)

I made it to Kay with a bit of ledge to stand on… but I had to keep going on upward. I didn’t even realize I climbed past the next belay point until Herr Craig yelled at me. I was too busy concentrating on getting to the top! But that made it even worse, I had to climb down the smooth, terrifying rock.

Herr Craig climbed up to me (with no safety rope or anything… he was like a monkey or an ibex) and gave me some tips which helped. Kay reached me and climbed on, we did our ladder routine once more and  before I knew it I had reached the top. Kay had no idea how freaked out I got during the climb, and part of me felt like “Great, I climbed all the way up here… now how the hell am I going to get down?” If it were climbing… I think I’d be stuck up there still.

Thankfully the instructors arranged some abseiling so we could all descend relatively quickly in a few trips to different points down the rock.

My fingers were pretty sore and kind of swollen the next day, but I felt tired in a nice way on Sunday evening. Kay and I both slept really well that night. If Kay is around, we may even try course number 2, if I can stand it. I’m still not sure climbing is for me, but I’m willing to give it a try.

Nothing says you trust your spouse like letting them belay so you don’t fall to your death descending. Trust in Kay, trust in Kay.

Have you ever gone rock climbing or would you ever consider trying it out?