Yesterday was a very exciting day for me because I got my first climbing experience of my life. First of all Anne-Marie my climbing teacher gave me some important information about what to know about climbing. She taught me about the names of all the equipment and in the beginning it was very hard for me to remember them. When I tried to repeat the names I always mixed it up. The croll I named chrumb for example and I could only remember petzl stop because it reminded me of a German cartoon figure. But not only the names were quite difficult to remember also their functions.

At that moment I was sure that I would never be able to climb… After one hour of hard work, I think much harder for Anne-Marie than for me, not able to say the right names I put myself on the rope and was very skeptical if I could do that. But after the theory I definitely wanted to see how it would work in reality. So I made my first steps on the rope and soon I was 2 meters above the ground. I thought that it was not very high and after going down again I went a little bit higher. All the time Anne-Marie stayed next to me and supported me in everything I did. After arriving at the ground again I needed a break and a chair. When I looked at the mast from a little distance I knew that I wanted to climb to the top and so I was very excited when we started to climb again. Without looking under me Anne-Marie and I went higher and higher and I was very surprised when we reached the middle. But that was not enough. We went on and on and soon I was so high in the air that I was afraid to look below me.

Finally I did it and it was such a great feeling. I liked it very much and I hung there for about ten minutes and enjoyed everything. The fantastic view over our embassy and the whole area, the wind that cooled down my hot body and of course the feeling that I made it. It was amazing. But I knew that I could not stay in the air forever and because of that we changed from the ascender to the descender to get down. After a minute I reached the ground and my first trip was over. I am sure that I will climb again and again and I hope that after a while of practicing I will learn everything, even the names.

By Katrin Enders