Page 57 - Wish Stream Year of 2017

In the middle of December I and five other Officer Cadets departed to Spain to embark on a climbing trip in the Costa Blanca region.
All but one of us were novices with only a little bit of experience with top rope indoor climbing. The climbing that we were to attempt was ‘lead climbing’ along sport and traditional routes add- ing a bit more risk and putting most of us out of our comfort zones. We met our instructors at the airport and the group gelled really well together as we set off to the continent. We stayed in a small remote village called Abdet with only one restaurant but close to many well-known climb-
Exercise ALICANTE CADET
OCdt Flaherty
Our instructors were pleased to see us pick up lead climbing so quickly...
ing areas with a mixture of routes so it was easy to tailor our days to the experience of the group.
Our instructors were pleased to see us pick up lead climbing so quickly, starting off on low level grade 3s but
by the end progressing to grade 6s which can really get the heart racing. We also practiced trad climbing which requires a lot of thought, thorough analysis of the rock surface and a lot of trust in the kit! OCdt Cox, OCdt McLarnon and I also had the opportunity to try out multi-pitch climbing which is a rather long process but ena- bles you to climb to great heights which makes for a very nerve-wracking abseil down. Half-way through the week our leaderships skills were put to the test when a nearby climber had an
accident. Luckily OCdt McLarnon was fluent in Spanish and we were able to guide the emer- gency services up to help her out. OCdt Lemon and OCdt Stafford moved down to the road to guide the services in and we managed the situa- tion in a calm but quick manner.
Overall the expedition was a success and we have all come out as keen climbers already head- ing back to the indoor walls this term. The main lessons I have taken away from this experience is a bit more background knowledge of the area and the activity itself that is required as, although the accommodation and kit was adequate, it could have definitely been improved. Despite all this, every member had a good experience and all felt they had learnt something new and were pushed outside of their comfort zones.
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