Canyoning-Guest Blog!

Hello everyone! There have been many requests, ok well just one, for me to write a guest blog. There’s not a whole lot I can add to Mal’s hilarious description of our time abroad, but here it goes. Last Wednesday a group of us went canyoning over the valley in the town of Otzal. It was one of the few times on this trip that Mal and I have spent time apart, but Mal was on her particular European re-charge cycle and, after our rafting excursion in Switzerland, I was feeling ultra outdoorsy and adventurous. We departed Innsbruck around 3 pm for Otzal, which was about 30 minutes away. Getting the tickets was a little tricky because, not only are we all not accustomed to using public transportation in our normal lives, but we also do not understand German to read the ticket machine. However, with the combined brainpower of five law students and an electrical engineering grad, we managed to figure out how to work the machine in about 10 minutes. When we arrived in Otzal, we were a bit late because the train stopped so many times, but the company was nice enough to come pick us up and transport us to the camp’s base. From there we were taken on a golf cart to put on our gear which included a full wetsuit, with a hood, booties, shoes, a helmet and a harness. Per usual the girls were ready faster than the guys, which our tour guides thought was pretty funny as they proceeded to tease the guys that it looked like they were drinking too much beer over here. After we were suited up, we drove 20 minutes to begin canyoning. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my outdoor adventures abroad it is that there are no rules. In America, anytime I’ve been on a guided outdoor adventure, it’s been fun, but I’ve never felt anything other than totally safe with the guides in control. Europe is just a whole other story. For one canyoning is pretty extreme on its own. It involves climbing through the canyon along the river, repelling down waterfalls, jumping off the canyon into pools below and sliding down rockslides and waterfalls. I think the moment I realized that we could actually get hurt was when I went to slide down a waterfall, clearly not something I’ve ever done or know how to do, and my arms were too short to get in the right position at which point I got pushed by the current down the waterfall standing up instead of tucked in a nice, little ball as I was supposed to. Despite that blunder, we all made it out relatively unscathed and all feeling very extreme for basically scaling a canyon in freezing water. After we finished canyoning, we all headed back to the base to change out of our wetsuits and leave. While washing our wetsuits, our friend Thomas put his wet, cold wetsuit against my back and, in retaliation, the guide helped me hose Thomas down. We then headed to the local burger joint for huge burgers and fries and beers. In true Eurotrip fashion, 2 people were also iced. We returned to Innsbruck at about 730 and met up with Mal and everyone else. I was glad to still be in one piece and, upon careful reflection, I have decided that I am retiring from sliding down waterfalls because one can only be so extreme!