Rock climbing in the longest day of the year

Versiunea în limba română a fost publicată deja pe mecanturist.ro.

The story I'm about to tell you took place on the 26 of October 2013, which was, as most of you might now, the longest day of this year, because that is the day when the clocks turn back an hour thanks to the Daylight Saving Time. 

  

First of all, you must know that I had absolutely no plan of going to Galați on that weekend. In fact I was going to be on the other side of the country, in Iași, attending and photographing a wedding, surrounded by dear friends. On Thursday I saw the climbing trip announced on the forum, and my mind started to go wild. Immediately I went online to find some train from Iași to Galați. The only option that I found convenient for me was leaving Iași with the midnight train to Bucharest just up to Tecuci. There I had to wait 2 hours and get on the commute train to Galați. But since the DST was scheduled at 4:00 AM which was right during my transfer, I had to wait in Tecuci 3 hours instead of 2 for the train to leave

After sleeping no more than 2 hours in the train, I arrived in Galați at 6:45, and by 7 o’clock I was in my room unpacking from the road and packing for the mountain trip. At 7:30, as planned, Dan and Doina picked me up and so the day started. After we picked up everybody else (Dan has a 7 seat car) we were on our way to Măcin, crossing the Danube by ferry, in Brăila.

It was a little over half past nine when we arrived at the base of the mountains. All we had to do next was to get our backpacks and hike up towards the climbing site.

After a 40 minutes hike, after the weight of the backpacks and the heat of the sun made us lose some layers of clothes (cause we were all dressed for autumn's cold), after a short rendez-vous with a fellow hiker, we arrived at the site at 10:20 AM

And now the climbing day officially starts!

I got there first and was so eager to climb that I just could not wait for the others to catch up. I just started unpacking and putting on the harness and gear. Ciprian who was right behind me was doing the same thing. After the others arrived we shown them the gear and some basic rappel techniques; I was the anchor point for the rappel simulation:

Foto © 2013 Dan & Doina Popa

After the small tutorial it was time for the climb, but first we had to set the anchor for top roping. To do that, someone has to lead climb right up to the bolts and set up the anchor. I volunteered to do that because I wanted to lead climb :D Although I did some indoor climbing, this was my first time rock climbing and if we add to that the fact that I was lead, it made everything even more interesting.

Foto © 2013 Dan & Doina Popa

For those of you who might not know, lead climbing means to start climbing free up until the first bolt, set a quickdraw there and pass your rope through it. Only then you are protected from a fall. When climbing, from one bolt to the other, the anchor point is below you so that in case of falling you go down quite a long way, almost twice the distance from two bolts, unlike top roping, when the rope stops you from falling to far. So yeah, it was a very interesting experience, and found that the same route seams much easier when top roping. It really is a pshycological thing.

After setting that anchor, one by one, every participant to the trip climbed the „Ionuț” route. In that time I installed another anchor and tope rope for the „Banana” route. Using this anchor, with Florin at belay I tried to climb „Măr Acru”, „Banana” and „Tropicana” but could only finish „Banana” route. (I know the names of the routes are funny)

Foto © 2013 Dan & Doina Popa

When everybody finished „Ionuț” and started to climb „Banana” I took down the anchor from the first route and, with Dan at belay I went lead up another route called „Balcoane”. It’s a pretty nice route and I managed to climb it up until the first regroup point. After reaching it, Dan lowered me so that I could recover my qickdraws since I had only 3 of them. I returned to the regroup point and continued my climbing.

Foto © 2013 Ecaterina Tucicovenco

Whilst climbing this route I discovered just how important the chalk is to the climber. Without it I couldn’t have even reached the regroup point. Unfortunately after that point, I could only climb up two more bolts before I found myself stuck. I was exhausted so I had to descend leaving a qickdraw there.

Since nearly everybody finished climbing the „Banana” soon after my descent we had our lunch break. It was during this break that others joined us. After we eat, some of the newcomers also climbed „Banana” and everybody rappelled from the anchor that I made at the regroup point on „Balcoane”

Foto © 2013 Dan & Doina Popa

After the rappelling was over, Ciprian also climbed „Balcoane”, top rope, with Florin belaying.

Foto © 2013 Dan & Doina Popa

When he finished, I climbed again, trying to go past the point where I got stuck last time. That just wasn’t possible but I managed to recover my quickdraw and replace it with a piece of cord so that I could descend. Because I hate leaving gear on the mountain but also because I was eager to rappel from the top, I gathered the ropes and went up around the mountain. Florin joined me, since he also wanted to rappel from the top. When we got there, after setting the anchor, he decided that he will skip the rappel and descend the same path we used to get there.

Foto © 2013 Ciprian Vasilache

On my way down I stopped to recover the piece of rope left there earlier. My arrival at the base concluded our climbing experience. Florin released the ropes from their anchors and returned with the group. Afterwards we packed everything and went back to the car, arriving there at about 5:20 PM.

It really was a wonderful day, with a great weather, the ideal atmosphere for a „climbing Sunday” surrounded by wonderful people, a day ended as usual with great music in Dan’s car, on the way home.

I thank everybody for this day and especially Ciprian who came up with the idea, brought most f the gear and made it all possible. Thank God for keeping us safe and close to the rock, and although I had a „close call” while I was lead climbing the „Balcoane” route, I managed to regain balance and avoid falling. Also I want to thank the photographers for all the snapshots taken that day, cause I was more focused on climbing than taking photos.

I can hardly wait for the next climbing trip, and I really hope that will happen soon enough, so that I can attend it.