Higher and higher

Many of you may already know that I love climbing. When I came here to Sweden I was quite disappointed, that obviously noone was into that sport. But it took time to get me proven wrong... more or less until Sophie arrived ;).
Just before last Christmas we discovered, that we both were into climbing. So when I came back from Germany in January, I brought my climbing gear and we started of together. It was great, we had fun and had several climbing guest, of whom Michaël was the only one who sticked with it. Until Sophie had an accident in April and couldn't put force on her left foot. But she wouldn't be Sophie if she wouldn't fight, bite through the pain and started climbing asap. She got quickly better again and in August we decided to go for the next step: lead climbing. That means, instead of being secured by a rope coming from the top (therefore called top-rope climbing), you have to bring your own rope all the way up. This is a more exiting, but still safe, because you secure yourself with so-called quickdraws.

Annoying in Sweden (and obviously also Canada) is, that you need to prove, that you are able to climb. That means either a short check by an instructor or a complete course. In Germany it is rather simple: if you want to climb in a gym, you simple say what kind of securing device you'll use, sign and you are good to go...
I did lead climbing before, mostly outdoors, but rather simple and long time ago. So I decided to go for a complete course too. Also Michaël joined and we find a common day in the second week of September. The course was separated in two times two hours. First run was rather simple, we learned basics and got a few times up and down. Second time was a week after and consisted of repetition and fall. Unfortunately, we had a little accident: Sophie came down head-first. Fortunately, next to the shock, only a bruise remained. But we repeated the lesson the following week. In my opinion it was even nicer, because the new teacher was more cautious and gave more insight, tips and the confidence we needed.
At the end we left with the red "ledkort".
Since I bought the rope in April and the quick draws together with Sophie in August, we have everything we need, to practise on our own. And hopefully next year, when it is warmer and nicer, we can finally go climbing outside for real...