“I’m not sure when we first thought of climbing, but once we entered the welcoming doors of our local climbing gym, it no longer mattered. We took to climbing like I take to chocolates in the house; we kept coming back for more.”
Meet the winners of the Australian Climbing Festival Carabiner Guessing Competition: Monique and Simon! They’ve won an Indoor to Outdoor Climbing Course, and over the next 12 months they will be be sharing their journey from indoor climbing bunnies to outdoor climbing honeys.
Join them as they learn, laugh and discover the freedom and rewards of climbing in the beautiful Blue Mountains.
“Our climbing was clumsy at first. We scrambled up the wall adopting frog-like positions, then clutched for dear life once we made it to the top, looking down and realising how high we were all of a sudden.
Despite these necessary beginner-experiences, we could see past our less-than-eloquent clambering to the real appeal of climbing. We were in search of a new challenge, a new adventure. We were both heavily involved in sports when we were younger and were in search of something to fill the void.
Coincidentally, a couple of weeks after our first climb at the gym, a pamphlet for the Australian Climbing Festival turned up at work. This we could not miss. What a perfect opportunity to throw ourselves into the climbing world!
We both volunteered at the festival and we were blown away by the festival schedule. Where to start!? Should we watch the climbers compete in the Oceania and Australian National Bouldering Championships? Only if we could make it through the retail stall section without getting distracted by all the shiny new climbing gear!
In the end we planned out the day to make sure we didn’t miss any presentations. There was a huge list of high calibre climbers, all with really interesting stories that opened our eyes to the world of possibilities in climbing – literally a world of possibilities. There were presentations covering big walls in the Russian Arctic, climbing in China and even mountaineering expeditions to the top of Everest!
This was all amazing, but what we were really psyched about was the Blue Mountains Climbing School stall. Luck must have been on our side that weekend because Simon won the Climbing School ‘Guess the number of Carabiners’ competition, which gave us our ticket to the Indoor to Outdoor Conversion course.
So, with the amazing opportunity to learn to climb outdoors in our hot little hands (which we are incredibly excited and grateful for), we’ve been climbing our little hearts out in preparation for the big weekend.
And before we knew it, the 2 day climbing course was upon us. The momentous weekend has arrived. The weekend that marks the first of many outdoor adventures!
Wish us luck! We’ll check back post-course with how it all goes.
Simon & Monique”