Climbing in Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
Feeling SO MUCH better after slaying the stomach bug and getting rehydrated. I've been at Cat Ba Island in Vietnam for nearly a week now. This place was never on my radar as a destination, but while leafing through a guidebook, I happened to see this beachfront town near Halong Bay mentioned as an "adventure sports paradise." Sweet! I love sports and I love adventure. So I reconfigured my itinerary on the fly and took the next bus/taxi/bus/hydrofoil/bus 5 hours from Hanoi to this picturesque little island in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Loads of tourists flock to nearby Halong Bay for its gorgeous, picturesque limestone karsts rising out of the sea, so I chose to come to Cat Ba Island to get the same scenery, but with fewer tourists. The views are just stunning. Halong Bay was the inspiration for the scenery in the movie Avatar and it's just one of those places that you can't believe looks the same in person as it does on film.
There's only one company in the area licensed to rock climb, so I did a full day tour with Asia Outdoors. The first half of the day we kayked through the inlets and bays created by the jagged rocks jutting out of the Gulf, and into lagoons where we ditched our sea vessels and went for an impromptu dip. I really wish I'd had the presence of mind to wear my Garmin watch so I could see how far we paddled. Since I didn't, I'll have to rely on muscle soreness the day after and estimate it was upwards of 100 miles. I could be wrong.
After a seafood lunch on the boat, it was off to a private island to climb. I've had very little climbing experience, but what I've missed out on in quantity, I've made up for in spades with quality. I first found a rock face -- I guess really it was an ice face -- in the Adirondacks a few years ago when our friends Tim and Nick invited us for a weekend of ice climbing. Yeah, the kind with pick axes and crampons that make you feel like a Viking explorer conquering the new world. Then this past Christmas I had the opportunity to climb in Bariloche, Argentina with friends Cheri and Dylan who actually created the routes and drilled the bolts.
By far the least experienced climber on the trip in Cat Ba, the guides were super helpful at helping me navigate the route and making me keep climbing when I thought I was too tired to keep going. Climbing is hard, especially when you're as inefficient as I am! As a new climber, it's natural to want to use your biceps and not trust that your feet will stick on the rock face, so you end up using a lot of small muscles that tire out pretty fast. But as the day wore on (and my forearms wore out) I learned out of necessity just to trust that my legs and shoes would hold me, even on what seemed to be the tiniest nub sticking out of the rock.
I had enough energy to ring the bell on 2 climbs and WOW the views were amazing from the top. We started from a very small beach on a tiny private island, so the money shot at the top was a view of beach, water, and mountain all in one. On the third climb, I tried a route that was way out of my ability level. I fell a couple of times, but it was exhilarating to keep trying the same section of rock and eventually mastering it.
I never made it to the top of that last climb, but it got me thinking about climbing and how it is a really great (and cheesy) metaphor for life. When you start the climb, it just seems so daunting and you're thinking how the heck am I ever going to make it up there. But then you make a plan, and it usually just involves thinking about the next place you're going to put your foot - the next step. (Great climbers and people are who are great at life probably plan more than just the next step, but I'm not a master of either yet.) And then you think, hmm where can I put my hand so that my grip is just a little better than it is now. And then you get stuck. And you can't see a way forward. And you ask for help. Or in my case you yell, "I'm coming down this blasted rock" while your belayer pretends not to hear you and gives you some more alone time to figure out a path. And even if you have no idea how to reach the top, you just keep finding one more foothold, and then another, and then another. And sometimes you fall. And you learn. And you punch that goddamned rock in the mouth next time you get to the tough section. And eventually you find the top, or you don't. And that's ok too.
The best thing anyone has ever said to me was an old boss back on Wall St. He said, "I've never seen someone happier than when they're trying to reach a goal they believe is achievable." And it's so true. It feels great at the top. But the pursuit of the peak is sometimes just as sweet.
Silly analogy or one you can relate to? What have you done that seemed so tough in the moment but so rewarding in hindsight?
