It's a Bird, It's a plane, It's.... Lis attempting to Rock Climb?!

I had an amazing adventure today attempting to rock climb on the cliffs of the Baltic Sea in Sweden.  First let me say it's not as easy as it looks... and it doesn't even look easy. 

I couldn't have asked for a better day to explore the world of rock climbing: the weather was gorgeous, the area was beautiful, and there is no better way to procrastinate on writing final papers!

This was taken right from where we were rock climbing - as we climbed we had an amazing view of the Baltic sea stretching towards Sweden... unfortunately, our faces were usually full of rock at the time. 

It was at this point in my endeavor to successfully climb the 3rd level course that my foot got stuck in a crevice. It was in my attempt to free myself from the captive wall that people attempted to motivate me but saying there was a child who needed my help at the top, or a puppy, or ice cream.  At this point I had already lost my mind and screamed such things as "I hate kids, but I like puppies!" and "I really want an ice cream sundae!"

Eventually I found a way to free
myself from the crevice and continue
on my climb to the top. VICTORY!

Despite my temporary insanity whilst climbing that 3rd rock face - I decided to attempt the most difficult one (at a beginner level obviously)... it is here, my journey truly began... as I started to rock swing instead of rock climb (due to my several failed attempts to initially get up) However, I managed to find a nice resting place about half way up... after I shimmied my way into a little whole. It was there I regained the sanity and strength necessary to make it to the top!

The easy part... the only easy part. And by easy I mean it only took me 3 attempts to reach that point (it was before here that I fell off and started swinging from the cliff, which was actually surprisingly fun)

Shimmying my way over - I needed to get to the jagged part on the right of me because there are no grips for your left hand on this rock face... so it was an interesting balancing act.

Once I had slid over to the right, I was stuck in this position for about 10 minutes as I debated how I could possibly move any farther. I asked my belay to let me back down, but he kindly refused. So I continued to simply hangout at this point contemplating my next move... and what did I decide?!

I scurried my way into a little chair of sorts - as I decided to rest half way up the rock face. Sadly, at this point my camera died and I need to wait for someone to load the pictures of me successfully defeating this cliff.  But don't fret, after I napped here for a little I managed to pull myself into a standing position and continue to conquer the cliff.  After that all I needed was a little dip in the Baltic Sea to call it a day... and by little dip I mean the Sea was so cold it sufficed as an ice bath for my aching muscles. 




Now I can officially cross Rock Climbing off of my to-do list!