My first outdoor climbing trip!

Wow, what a fun long weekend I just had! Chris and I, along with two other couples, went across to Vancouver Island on Friday. Our destination: the breathtaking Strathcona Park, about 45 minutes northwest of Campbell River. Our friend Dylan suggested we head here as his dad and stepmom own and operate the Strathcona Park Lodge. Chris took me on the back of his shovelled and, along with Emily on her bike, we met up with the rest of the group at the ferry Friday afternoon and we were off!
We had beautiful weather for the ride up, some rain on Saturday afternoon but a great day yesterday and an amazingly sunny and warm ride home today!
The weekend was absolutely fantastic- great food, great friends and I enjoyed my first outdoor climbing experience with the enthusiastic persuasion and encouragement from everyone. I'm most definitely a novice climber and only started climbing at the gym about 5 months ago...so I was totally freaked out as I stared up at these huge crags and rock faces that I was supposed to somehow climb! But, much to my surprise, and with Chris' constant reassurance and positivity, I successfully climbed my first outdoor climb. What a rush!!!! I can't describe how absolutely terrifying and exhilarating this was...but I did it!
Chris, Emily, Dylan, Arlin and Adrienne are all very experienced climbers and it was incredibly inspiring to watch them climb countless top-rope and lead climbs...sometimes even repelling back down after!
I hope to continue to push myself to become a better climber and trust my feet and my strength (both physically and emotional!). Here are a few shots from our much-needed mountain get-away! More to be posted later when I get some shots of our climb from Dylan:

Chris and Dylan figure out the climbing routes/map as we wait for our ferry!

The beautiful Emily Beach! Sexiest lady on a bike!

Shintysix xo

Chris, Arlin and Dylan on the ferry

Em and Arlin

Now onto planning our food map....

What this food map needed was more bacon!

From the back of Chris' bike, I took a bunch of Hipstamatic shots of Em in action!

Sweet old truck we caught up with in Courtenay at a pit stop. 

more and more of Em...

super fast!

Prepping for a climb in the rain!

Entrance to the trails

Chris, Dylan, Em and Adrienne all geared up!

Chris! Hiker babe.

More photos of the climbs to come very soon!!! Now back to reality....