Extreme Walling Experience

With barely an hour nap to keep me going, I met up with Analyn Aujero and her companion, JV at Coastal Mall for the three of us to join Stephen Dayandayan in a car pool in the nearby Caltex Gasoline Station.

We took a wrong turn (courtesy of yours truly) at SM Bacoor that took us to the two-hour ride of road tripping along the narrow streets of Imus. It was past 4pm when we finally got to the destination. Thank God, the couple, Cel and Carlo, were patient enough to wait for us at the mall. 

 The first thing that I noticed and got me nervous is that the floor didn't have crash pads on it! The next thing I learned that made me even more nervous is the fact that the belaying system is manual (I was used to the automatic ones at Market Market). Anyways, I wanted to make use of the fact that we were already there, so we better pushed through with the plan, no matter how scary it turned out to be. 

John, the climb instructor, was super nice. He took time and patience in teaching us the basics. The owner volunteered to be my belayer on almost all my climbs. He was patient in giving me crash courses in knot-tying. I mean, I had basic learning from MCG, but it had been a while since I tied some knots. Oh well, I didn't do so badly when I did a figure of 8 follow through. 

The holds were color coded, signifying the routes that a climber should take with their corresponding level of difficulty. I first tried the yellow route [5.7] then the blue route [5.8]. I had a failed attempt on the green route [5.10] and ended up following the red route [5.9], instead. The red route got me super flexible as it made me do an almost-full-split move just to get to the next hold. Talk about indoor extreme adventure! 

We had so much fun that we didn't want to end the night just yet, so we headed for Water Village Grill to have ourselves cold bottles of beer. Some intellectually-stimulating conversation took place even before the beer was served. It was then that I realized I was in good company that I would want to have regular sessions with... What a nice day to spend a stormy day!!!