Page 16 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

Exercise ESCALADA CADET
OCdt MACKAY
Saturday – After jealously watching the revelry and reworks of CC152’s Commissioning Ball we set off for Gatwick Airport in the very early hours of Saturday morning. Everything went smoothly at the airport and soon enough we were on our ight to Alicante. Having all perfected the Sand- hurst cadet art of treating every moment of travel as time to sleep, the ight was over very quickly. After a few issues with our hire cars we were off on the road to nd our hostel. Despite a few nav- igational hiccups, by midday we had arrived at our villa complete with swimming pool, beautiful scenery and plenty of sunshine.
Sunday – Sunday was our rst day of climbing. We had breakfast, packed our lunches and set off for the rst location which we hoped would be full of ‘3+’ and ‘4’ dif culty climbs. A few more navigational hiccups ensued as we decided to take a detour through the thick scrubland to nd the rock face we wanted when in fact there was a path straight from our car. Our instructor, Baz, then demonstrated how to belay and how to tie the correct ropes before we set about attempt- ing ourselves. After a few mistakes we quickly picked up the basic techniques and all began
We spent the afternoon and even- ing planning our rst trip out, get- ting acquainted with our climbing equipment and sampling the local beer. We were eager to get stuck into climbing the next day.
For many of us this became an exercise in overcoming our fear of heights!
our rst climbs. For many of us this became an exercise in overcoming our fear of heights! Despite the voice in the back of my head telling me I would fall to my death, I managed to complete my rst climb, as did every-
14 SANDHURST