30 plus 4 legs – spring climbing in Arco
Sometimes you need to fall in love with life again. If there’s a downfall (and from time to time sure there will be), first we tend to dive deep into self-pity, just to be able to grab and pull ourselves out of shit afterwards. As for me, I followed that strategy this time.
(Camping Zoo in Arco is surrounded with this kind of rocks all around. If you watch closely, you can see a face at the top of the rock with a styled crown: that’s the head of the king.)
(Perfect idyll somewhere close to Nago)
(The North side of lake Garda, between Arco and Riva del Garda)
For different reasons, recently I’ve been offended by climbing – adult behavior, I know. I protested with being absent only to keep myself away from amazing experiences. I was sure I needed to fix this and I truly wanted to fall in love with climbing again.
And life’s watching, because when you make a decision, life usually helps you with a possibility so that you can make your dream come true if you really wish so. This is how a 10-day long climbing trip in Arco, Italy (one of Europe’s best climbing hotspots) came into my life with the best possible timing.
(First night. The locals granted us a place at the far end of the camping, very visely.)
(No doubt that the flower power added to the beauty of our camp.)
(The Tibetan and the Decathlon flags.)
(Message says: ‘My love, this is the broccoli. Not that I don’t trust your cooking ability, but… 1) oil and garlic, 2) broccoli+salt+pepper 3) finally add some cream’)
(Remains of the pistachio liquor after a long day’s night.)
I wanted to go so badly, but by the time I made up my mind the minibus was already full. Days went by and somewhere deep in my head I embraced the thought that this was still possible somehow. I didn’t overthink it, just let things happen which is usually not the least my cup of tea: I normally want everything and at once. Then one day someone needed to cancel the trip and suddenly there was room for me. Bingo.
Finally our team counted up to 15 people, not to mention the fox that ate all our cheese every night.
(Beauty everywhere)
(Our beloved sector)
(Tristan and Kari sharing a love moment.)
(Advanced storing of chalk in a 4 litre cucumber bottle)
(Creative bottle opening with quickdraw.)
(…and the creatively opened bottles)
I don’t remember complaining about a single thing. Not even when first night it was freezing, the mountaintops around us got a snowy cap and our teeth chattered with the cold so hard that we could form a music band. That was the moment when I bury my swimming suit deep into my backpack, a bit ashamed for having been so optimistic.
(Preparation)
(Máté studies the rocks)
(Garda lake makes a nice background for Edina)
(Márk in full armour)
(‘Boss’ is watching the practise)
During the day we climbed at the best spots, in the evenings we would cook together and talk sipping some nice Italian wine or beer. We made barbeque by the riverside, gazed at the Big Dipper on the sky and gathered a pet: a freaking big spider that we called Giovanni, who was an expert of climbing more than any of us.
Our four-legged friend, Tristan followed us everywhere, watched us carefully and in the forest he would run back and forth just to be sure that every single member of the pack is all right.
(Amazon in the jungle with authentic tiara)
(Dani at the top)
(It’s not often when I photograph people from behind, but I had to make an exception at Corno di Bó.)
(Márkó and the combination of hat-helmet-hood trinity)
(Still life with lake)
(Szilvi surrounded by amazing rocks everywhere)
(Simply love.)
(Safety first.)
Climbing always teaches you. There’s always a point where you can decide if you want to fear of failure or concentrate on the task and just do it. This sounds pretty easy, but hell, it’s not. Sometimes it’s a mental training to choose the second option instead of the easy first one.
And you can adapt this knowledge to other fields of life, of course.
(Máté and Soma as master chefs)
(Yummy. Only regret that I can’t provide you with the smell…)
(Insta-sexy still life by Edina)
(Gábor is fishing. Or washing the fish in the river. Both might be correct.)
(Finally I got to know how to make the sexiest knot on Earth)
(Edina learns how to whistle with acorn)
And why this was so crazy good?! Maybe it was the magical place, maybe the rocks, or the nice company, maybe the sunshine or the cooking in the evenings, the big laughs, the physical activity, being in the nature or the joy of overcoming obstacles. I don’t know. Maybe all of them.
Batteries charged. Experiences stored. Falling in love with life again – check. Everything seems to be good for a little while.
(Practicing on tree. Business as usual.)
(Bus is already full so how the f.ck should we pack all these stuff?!)
(Storage)
In case you’d try climbing, check out Ujjerő / Gravity Boulder
gravitybudapest.com
Special thanks for Máté and Tomi for the help and for all the practical tips.
Cover photo by Daniel Stámusz.
