So for the people who follow me on Instagram, I said I'd write a blog when I was in the Alps with all the adventure stuff that happened. Here is the said blog, but rather than going the regular travel way, I tried adding some stuff that could make you reflect on things or just be a conversation fodder, who knows?
So at the end of May, on one fine, not very summery or springy evening, post dinner with some friends who were going to the Alps that long weekend, one of them randomly suggested in his all too nonchalant attitude, "so you come with us tomorrow?" And mind you, I had no plans, let alone going to the French Alps. I replied, "I'm not packed and you're leaving in the morning", I mean, it was a 6-7 hour drive which they were planning on starting 5 in the morning and it was already 21h the previous evening. I was expecting the others so say, "Yeah it is very last minute", but everyone replied with, "Yeah, so you have 8 hours and we come pick you up in the morning" in their very nonchalant French way. So, I went back, packed whatever I thought/had would come handy in the mountains and my little weekend of "FIRSTS" in adventure sports began at 6h in the morning.
To avoid misunderstandings, I loved every part of that weekend, minus the early morning wake-up calls and the panic attacks. Mountains are wonderful gifts of nature and the Alps were just breathtaking. They felt like home away from home, and now I've seen two of the major mountain ranges on this planet. I mean, look at this!
So, the itinerary was:
Sometimes I wonder if all the things that randomly fit me or are available for me to use in such situations are a nudge from the universe to just get over myself and try things. I am sure it happens to everyone once in a while, where such situations just smack you in the face. Where you think you can get out of doing something due to lack of resources but then somehow everything you need is coincidentally there and you can't get out of it.
So, while I was watching them being monkeys on the wall with their tethers and ropes and chalk bags. I stood up to try one, call it me caving into peer pressure or just wanting to try and see if I could do it. It wasn't my first time on a climbing wall, because when you have sporty friends, they make you do sports. However, it was my first time climbing with gear, and I was terrified but they kept pushing and cheering me on. By the end of the evening, my arms were sore, my knees bruised, I had climbed both walls and braked the climb of people way heavier than myself. Naturally, following this evening everyone said, "You're ready for Saturday". And oh boy, was I not!
Me in my go to fashion kept negating, and all of them kept saying you'll see, it will be fun and you'll climb like you did today.
Come Friday, and they're all prepped in their hiking all terrain shoes, and I'm there in my Pumas. The hike was wonderful, it reminded me of home, hit all the mountain lover points, hard, and was just there in all it's gorgeousness. My lungs were complaining, my knees were tagging along the lungs so I picked up a fallen branch, broke it to a helping stick size and kept walking like I used to do as a kid hiking with my cousins and my father.
As we reached the ski slopes, the snow came upon us, and my tiny nightmare of trying to make my way through the snow in sneakers and a tree branch began. But when you are determined and have had a life full of trying to compete or try and be as equal as your cousins who are all men, most of your friends who are men, in a society which is very patriarchal, your mind screams at you to not give up or cry for help like a damsel in distress, even if you are sometimes.
Hence, I kept following the dry lands and avoiding having to walk on the snow as much as I could, kept declining aid from my friends who, bless them, kept at it even when I was kept refusing and cave only when there was no other option left unless following their footholds in the snow.
The day made me question that I have probably given a lot of unwanted rejection to people who have tried to help me in the past just because of the fact that my mind equates accepting aid to failure, disability, pity and lack of competence. And I might keep doing it because these biases are so hardwired that they're almost second nature to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one with these biases and habits and a lot of people out there have the same dilemmas when it comes to accepting help from people. But weirdly enough don't see it in this light when you're in opposite ends and want to help people instead. Or is it just me?
Then came Saturday and the dread of climbing started building up inside me yet again as I watched the others gear up and set the tether hoops to the tracks they wanted to try. For people who climb or know the coding related to climbing, the rock faces started from 4A and went up to 6C in terms of difficulties and they picked the 4A for me to start which had a change of cliff face, mid climb, overlooking a gorge, hurrah for me! I had, probably the first and a very severe panic attack in the middle of the climb and none of them wanted to break me down the track unless I finished it. Which happened again when I tried a transition climb from 4A to 4B onto 5A if memory serves me right. I got a, "We can stay here all night, it's a flat rock face, perfect for you to sleep" when I was chickening out and asking them to break me down.
I finished all the tracks I started, with a lot of complaining in the beginning, throwing fits and what not, but they kept pushing me. I could hear them saying, "C'mon Vi" or the term that was cooked and I think is staying for good, "You can do it, Warrior Girl".
Eventually, I got over the panic attacks, got over my fear of falling off, even though there was going to be no falling off, I finished the climb nonetheless and in the end, it was easy, and a lot of fun. But just the thought of difficulty and the fact that my mind has always questioned my ability to do something new or something, particularly a female, wasn't heard of doing where I grew up or among the type of people I was surrounded with in my life had kept me from doing or trying so many things. And when I did climb all of the tracks that I started, it was not only empowering but also a somber reality check of all the things I had kept myself from trying or was kept from. Just the fact that I was discovering unorthodox things (for the people and society I grew up with)I, as a woman am capable of doing with people who support or even push me to try was a very painful reminder of how my mind itself had put blocker on my will to expand and discover what more I can do in life.
People go to retreats, meditation camps etc to go on a journey of self discovery, but you don't really need a set up dedicated for this. You can do this anywhere you are, by just trying to break one of those many blockers your brain has on you. Haven't danced before? Go dance, by yourself at home or take a class, doesn't matter. Wondered how it'd be to paint? Get some color and brushes and go at it. Again, by yourself or taking a class. Or do whatever you haven't done but have always wanted to or felt like you could at least try. It doesn't really matter. Self discovery isn't just some divine encounter at a retreat where you are enlightened. You can discover yourself anywhere outside of your comfort zone. Which in experience, is the best way of finding out new things about yourself, your abilities and what you could potentially accomplish if you just gave yourself that benefit of doubt and took that spontaneity route once in a while.
Now, to move away from the heavy and for people who'd like to travel or at least know where I did all this, we went to a town called Flumet in the Rhone Alpes region of South-East France.
We hiked around the Notre-Dame de Bellecombe area which has a pretty good view of the famous Mont Blanc.
So at the end of May, on one fine, not very summery or springy evening, post dinner with some friends who were going to the Alps that long weekend, one of them randomly suggested in his all too nonchalant attitude, "so you come with us tomorrow?" And mind you, I had no plans, let alone going to the French Alps. I replied, "I'm not packed and you're leaving in the morning", I mean, it was a 6-7 hour drive which they were planning on starting 5 in the morning and it was already 21h the previous evening. I was expecting the others so say, "Yeah it is very last minute", but everyone replied with, "Yeah, so you have 8 hours and we come pick you up in the morning" in their very nonchalant French way. So, I went back, packed whatever I thought/had would come handy in the mountains and my little weekend of "FIRSTS" in adventure sports began at 6h in the morning.
To avoid misunderstandings, I loved every part of that weekend, minus the early morning wake-up calls and the panic attacks. Mountains are wonderful gifts of nature and the Alps were just breathtaking. They felt like home away from home, and now I've seen two of the major mountain ranges on this planet. I mean, look at this!
- Thursday, chill and maybe get some climbing practice
- Friday we hike the mountains all the way up to one of the ski slopes they skied last season and
- Saturday go climbing actual rock faces.
- Sunday, recover and drive back
Sometimes I wonder if all the things that randomly fit me or are available for me to use in such situations are a nudge from the universe to just get over myself and try things. I am sure it happens to everyone once in a while, where such situations just smack you in the face. Where you think you can get out of doing something due to lack of resources but then somehow everything you need is coincidentally there and you can't get out of it.
So, while I was watching them being monkeys on the wall with their tethers and ropes and chalk bags. I stood up to try one, call it me caving into peer pressure or just wanting to try and see if I could do it. It wasn't my first time on a climbing wall, because when you have sporty friends, they make you do sports. However, it was my first time climbing with gear, and I was terrified but they kept pushing and cheering me on. By the end of the evening, my arms were sore, my knees bruised, I had climbed both walls and braked the climb of people way heavier than myself. Naturally, following this evening everyone said, "You're ready for Saturday". And oh boy, was I not!
Me in my go to fashion kept negating, and all of them kept saying you'll see, it will be fun and you'll climb like you did today.
Come Friday, and they're all prepped in their hiking all terrain shoes, and I'm there in my Pumas. The hike was wonderful, it reminded me of home, hit all the mountain lover points, hard, and was just there in all it's gorgeousness. My lungs were complaining, my knees were tagging along the lungs so I picked up a fallen branch, broke it to a helping stick size and kept walking like I used to do as a kid hiking with my cousins and my father.
As we reached the ski slopes, the snow came upon us, and my tiny nightmare of trying to make my way through the snow in sneakers and a tree branch began. But when you are determined and have had a life full of trying to compete or try and be as equal as your cousins who are all men, most of your friends who are men, in a society which is very patriarchal, your mind screams at you to not give up or cry for help like a damsel in distress, even if you are sometimes.
Hence, I kept following the dry lands and avoiding having to walk on the snow as much as I could, kept declining aid from my friends who, bless them, kept at it even when I was kept refusing and cave only when there was no other option left unless following their footholds in the snow.
The day made me question that I have probably given a lot of unwanted rejection to people who have tried to help me in the past just because of the fact that my mind equates accepting aid to failure, disability, pity and lack of competence. And I might keep doing it because these biases are so hardwired that they're almost second nature to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one with these biases and habits and a lot of people out there have the same dilemmas when it comes to accepting help from people. But weirdly enough don't see it in this light when you're in opposite ends and want to help people instead. Or is it just me?
Then came Saturday and the dread of climbing started building up inside me yet again as I watched the others gear up and set the tether hoops to the tracks they wanted to try. For people who climb or know the coding related to climbing, the rock faces started from 4A and went up to 6C in terms of difficulties and they picked the 4A for me to start which had a change of cliff face, mid climb, overlooking a gorge, hurrah for me! I had, probably the first and a very severe panic attack in the middle of the climb and none of them wanted to break me down the track unless I finished it. Which happened again when I tried a transition climb from 4A to 4B onto 5A if memory serves me right. I got a, "We can stay here all night, it's a flat rock face, perfect for you to sleep" when I was chickening out and asking them to break me down.
I finished all the tracks I started, with a lot of complaining in the beginning, throwing fits and what not, but they kept pushing me. I could hear them saying, "C'mon Vi" or the term that was cooked and I think is staying for good, "You can do it, Warrior Girl".
Eventually, I got over the panic attacks, got over my fear of falling off, even though there was going to be no falling off, I finished the climb nonetheless and in the end, it was easy, and a lot of fun. But just the thought of difficulty and the fact that my mind has always questioned my ability to do something new or something, particularly a female, wasn't heard of doing where I grew up or among the type of people I was surrounded with in my life had kept me from doing or trying so many things. And when I did climb all of the tracks that I started, it was not only empowering but also a somber reality check of all the things I had kept myself from trying or was kept from. Just the fact that I was discovering unorthodox things (for the people and society I grew up with)I, as a woman am capable of doing with people who support or even push me to try was a very painful reminder of how my mind itself had put blocker on my will to expand and discover what more I can do in life.
People go to retreats, meditation camps etc to go on a journey of self discovery, but you don't really need a set up dedicated for this. You can do this anywhere you are, by just trying to break one of those many blockers your brain has on you. Haven't danced before? Go dance, by yourself at home or take a class, doesn't matter. Wondered how it'd be to paint? Get some color and brushes and go at it. Again, by yourself or taking a class. Or do whatever you haven't done but have always wanted to or felt like you could at least try. It doesn't really matter. Self discovery isn't just some divine encounter at a retreat where you are enlightened. You can discover yourself anywhere outside of your comfort zone. Which in experience, is the best way of finding out new things about yourself, your abilities and what you could potentially accomplish if you just gave yourself that benefit of doubt and took that spontaneity route once in a while.
Now, to move away from the heavy and for people who'd like to travel or at least know where I did all this, we went to a town called Flumet in the Rhone Alpes region of South-East France.
We hiked around the Notre-Dame de Bellecombe area which has a pretty good view of the famous Mont Blanc.
To climb, we went to the rock faces at Crest-Voland near Flumet. There are two rock faces, with track details available at the site (difficulty level and map layout of the rock faces) and a beautiful view to climb with. If you want to see some of the climbs, you can check them out on my Instagram highlights. You might even get to see my scared self, climbing one of the tracks.
I'll end with a go travel, make interesting conversations, try new things even with your scared self, it's worth it in the end and don't hold yourself back from every opportunity that comes your way. You'll be fighting the opposition forces, I still do and probably will keep doing it for a long time, but a small win is a win. So keep at it.
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