Canyoning and other near death experiences

As you all know, I went canyoning yesterday. It was tons of fun but really really really really terrifying. And dangerous.

So we left in the morning and took a bus for about an hour. Then we climbed up a bunch of stairs for 10 minutes to get to "base camp." At "base camp," we changed into wetsuits and put on harnesses. I had been told that they could provide shoes for me, but they apparently hadn't received this memo... They said my sandals were fine, but I felt nervous about going in open toed shoes. Luckily, they managed to find a pair of beat-up canvas shoes that fit me fairly well. Then we proceeded to hike for about half an hour. This hike was sharply up hill the whole way, and I was panting. It was hard work! When we got to the top, the two guides briefed us on safety and procedure, which took a whopping 10 minutes. Rebecca and I looked at each other with an "Oh my goodness, we're going to die" look. There was one other person on the trip, a guy named Jonas who we'd met the day before. He was really nice, although slightly less nervous then we were.

Before we started, the one guide turned to us and asked "So you all know how to swim, right?" Luckily, we all did, although it would have been nice if he'd asked this before we got to the top of the mountain.

We hooked our safety lines to the rope, and waited to start the canyoning. We would go one by one, rapelling down the waterfall once the previous person got to the bottom. One guide was at the top, and one at the bottom. I was the last of the three of us, which was fine by me. When it was my turn, the guide attached my safety rope to himself and started to hook me onto the rope that goes down the waterfall. The way repelling works is that you have the rope pulled through this thing called a figure eight stop, which is attached to your harness. One hand is on the side of the rope that leads to the bottom of the fall and the other hand is on the rope that leads to the top. When you loosen your hands or pull the rope up, you slide down. When you hold the rope still, you hold yourself still on the rope. You're feet are on the rock, and you are leaning back, sort of standing perpendicular to the vertical rock face.

So anyway, it was my turn to do the first waterfall, the practice one... It wasn't very long and was not so technical. Despite that it was pretty challenging and pretty terrifying. As you edge over the side of the rock and into the water, it takes a lot of strength to resist the strong force of the water, which tries to push your legs down off the slippery rock, which causes your body to swing toward the rock. You can't see anything from the water which is everywhere. The water is also freezing cold. If something happens, the guide at the bottom will pull the rope tight. This means that you will not slide down the rope any farther. However, you still have to regain your cool and finish going down the fall on your own. On the first waterfall, I lost my grip for a split second, but I got it back and was fine.

The second waterfall was a bit longer, but still pretty simple. The third was another story... The third waterfall, we later learned was the most technically challenging we would do that day. Waterfalls can be graded classes 1-4. The third waterfall was a two, but pretty close to a three. For one thing it was really long. 35 something... meters? feet? I'm pretty sure it was 35 meters. You go halfway down on really sheer vertical rock. Then, you get to a small pool. You swim through the pool to the next half of the fall. Let me tell you, swimming face first toward a waterfall while trying to hold onto a thing orange rope is pretty terrifying. I managed okay though. When I got to the edge however, I had issues trying to get my feet onto the rock again. I lowered my self down a few feet just hanging in the air, parallel to the waterfall. Then, I stopped myself and tried to rotate to face toward the fall and get my feet on the wall. I managed to swing around, but trying to get my feet on the wall, level with my hips, was a struggle. The water was really powerful and my leg muscles didn't seem strong enough to move my legs through the current. Finally I managed to get my legs in between the rock and the water so that I could put my feet on the wall in a sort of horizontal squat position. I pushed my legs out straight and started to walk down the wall, leaning back, in the correct position. Success! This however was VERY short lived...

After about 2 steps, my feet slipped on the smooth, wet rock, and I was hanging in my original position. My momentum in the slide pushed me into the fall and then I rebounded and swung around to the outside of the fall. Luckily, I crashed into rock covered by a thick cushion of moss on the outside of the fall. I decided, screw it, my hanging position was working just fine, and lowered myself down, feet first. I learned at the bottom that this was perfectly acceptable and in fact the easier way to do this particular fall. I was not the only one who'd had trouble with this fall. When I got to the bottom, I noticed that Rebecca had some blood and scrapes on the back of her hand. I glanced down at mine, and was surprised to notice a large, black and blue bump on the knuckle of my right pointer finger. The bump has since gone down, but today my knuckle is a lovely purpley black.

The last fall was the longest, but not as technical as the previous one. We did it in two legs. First we went halfway down and then we all stood in a crevice, waiting to do the second half. On each leg, one guide was at the top and one at the bottom, as usual. However, on this fall, our order changed. I went down the first half last, as usual, but then I was told to go first down the longer second half. I had been very comfortable in my position as it was nice to see that Rebecca and Jonas had managed and to watch the way they went. I was incredibly nervous to go first. But, I didn't have a choice. The guide strapped my safety line to himself and started to put the rope through my figure eight. He unhooked my safety, now that I was attached to the main rope, and i edged toward the edge of the long cliff. This waterfall was off an overhang, so we didn't have anywhere to slowly edge ourselves down, we kind of had to just jump and trust the rope...

As I got to the edge, we noticed the guide at the bottom flailing his arms in a "don't go" type of motion. The two guides yelled a few words between each other, at which point I noticed the guide at the bottom was not holding the end of the rope. The guide at the top hooked my safety onto his harness and unhooked me from the main rope. He led me away from the edge. Still, I was standing on a smooth rock in the middle of rushing water, which was nerve-wracking. The guide at the bottom waded into the pool and regained the rope. Then, I was hooked up again and edged over to the edge. By now, I was pretty terrified. If the guide had managed to drop the rope when there was no one on it, what was to stop him from dropping it with me on it? It's not impossible to go down a rope with no one holding on to the other end (the guides did it every time), but it's more difficult and much less safe. Luckily, he didn't drop the rope this time and I got down safely. At the bottom, there was a large group of Nepali teenagers watching us go down. I got out of the water and sat on a rock to watch the rest of the group come down.

Finally, we had lunch and walked back to the bus stop to go back to Kathmandu. Everyone had gotten leech bites except for me, and we were all a little bruised. Today, I was super sore. Canyoning was amazing, but I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon...

Today, I went to work as usual. Maya's father had sent a giant box of toys from Holland for the children. There were a million. It was really nice. Since Maya and Naomi and a bunch of moms were playing with the kids and the toys, I helped the cook, my friend Sanju, peel potatoes in the kitchen. We talked and she taught me some more Nepali. That's all for me of late. I can't believe it's my last week of work!!!