Into The Abyss

If you haven't been able to tell yet (or perhaps this is the first time you have read my blog) I love the outdoors and spending time camping, hiking and exploring the vast wildernesses available to me in Southern Alberta have been one of my favourite pass times since..... well as long as I can remember! spending time with friends and family in the mountains has always been a staple activity in my life! some of these mountaineering experiences have been from scout camps!

I remember one scout camp in particular, we started preparing months before and to plan and prepare for the trip! why so long before? we were going to do something we had never done before (I will leave you in the dark for now (that joke will be funnier later on I promise!)) there were skills we had to learn and procedures we had to memorize to ensure our safety! Yes our Scout leaders took us spelunking (Dry Caving)

to prepare for this trip we had to learn specific knots that we would use for specific repels that we would absolutely need and other knots we needed to learn to know how to climb back out in case of emergency that we hoped we would not need! we had to learn other skills and practice them so that they could be used when in the depths of the caves! skills such as repelling, climbing, "squeezing", Scrambling, orienting withing the cave walls! without these skills we would not have been able to get out! we also had to learn how to care for our head lights and change a battery in the dark! each of these skills absolutely individual and important! with all  but one of them we would not have been fully prepared! We practiced these skills during our weekly activity night for months until finally we were prepared and the time came for the camp out!

We packed all our gear and met early in the morning at the church! drove for about 2 hours to the Crowsnest Pass where the trail head was! we hiked up to our base camp and set up camp for the night! the next day we arose bright and early again to enter the cave for the day! another good assent! then we entered the cave! it was fun to walk into the mouth of this cave! it seemed huge! then we left the reach of the day light and found ourselves in a whole different world! stalagmites and stalactites, soda straws and the sound of water with no other evidence thereof! the only light available was our headlamps! it was incredible! eventually we were brought to the first repel sight! a 60 meter decent (if I remember correct) straight down into absolute blackness! here is where we were put to the test! did we know our knots and did we trust ourselves enough to trust the knots we tied! under close supervision provided by our scout master we tied our knots and went over the edge in the abyss! what a thrill! the rush and feeling of repelling into the darkness was indescribable! one by one we all went down (some of the other boys weren't such a fan of the feeling of free falling into the darkness as evidenced by their screaming) and all made it down safely! we continued on scrambling over this passage, squeezing through that gap, climbing over that wall and repelling further and further down! I very much enjoyed the trip, after all I was prepared! however once we got out of the cave (another tight squeeze that took us right through a glacial waterfall!) I overhead some of the other boys complain about how hard it was and how much they didn't like this trip! (I can only assume because they were not prepared)


How much like life here on earth this experience was! we must prepare for it! learn procedures and practice knots! some we will need for sure and others we hope never to use! as we study out the procedures from practice the knots and seek the guidance of our leaders we will be ready for all the challenges that come! challenges will come, that is a fact of life, but we need not face them unprepared! their are experts to listen to, guide books to read and personal experiences to be had! (I think you are smart enough to make unspoken connections to what these things represent!) and when we come out sure we will have little cuts and bruises, perhaps we hit our head a couple times, and maybe we got drenched by the icy waters near the end, however all these things have given us experience and have been for our benefit! I am grateful for my experience in the abyss, it helped me learn to better appreciate the good things in life, but more importantly taught me that the hard things are good things too!

WMI? BE PREPARED! ( IT MAKES THINGS EASIER!)