Rock Climbing

Spotlight on Climbing

So today is the day you are going on a climbing activity, this morning you have been in the classroom and the sun has been shining all day as you look across Loch Long and wonder where exactly in the hills you will be heading to.

After lunch you and the rest of your group are taken by your instructor to have a talk about the session, long hair is tied back and various rings are removed as you again wonder if you will be able to get to the top or even off the ground. “Don’t worry about it” the instructor reassures us all with a smile on their face as we collect climbing helmets, harnesses and piles of rope. You and your group climb on board a minibus and drive around the loch to the mountains you were looking at earlier. 

The sign says Honeymoon bridge and the rock face looks a long way off, “Do we have to climb all the way up there?” someone asks. We all soon learn that crag as it called is not so far off and the instructors spend a lot of time making sure that the ropes are tied correctly and that our helmets and harnesses are put on properly although you really did most of the work.

The sun is warm and you feel like a real mountaineer in the Scottish Highlands, there is plenty of chance to practice and it really didn’t matter that the first time you didn’t make it to the top because each time you tried it after you made it. 

Then there was abseiling, it looked very scary! Perhaps you’ll give it a go, you lean, you lean a bit more and then by magic it is happening and you’re doing it, you’re abseiling for the first time.

You get back to Ardmay as you put the equipment away you start thinking about where you can do this again.