Week 6: March 20th – 26th, 2023 // Scattered Thoughts
This past week was a [healthy] balance of pure stoke and lazy.
The whole week has felt like such a blur, and if it wasn’t for my calendar or partial daily notes I semi remembered to fill in this week, I’m honestly not sure I’d know what I’d be writing about lol. I managed to get in a couple yoga classes, (which probably needed to squeeze in a few more with how hectic my brain+body have been feeling), but have been spending a lot of my spare time doing a whole lot of nothing, but also semi-productive? It’s hard because I feel like I could be doing more, but know it’s also important to let me body settle from time to time.
A reminder that rest is also productive.
I’ll also be honest in that this past weeks post has been a struggle to get through. I have so many various topics that I want to write about that I’ve had to rethink what I want to share so many times. I was going to talk a lot about what I’ve learned from traveling and exploring alone the past few years, but I’ve decided I’m going to make a separate post entirely dedicated to this topic, so I can get deep into it without disrupting the flow of these weekly updates.
So… in saying that…
Let’s skip straight to THURSDAY, because OH my GOD (the days prior to that didn’t consist of much interesting stuff to write about tbh). I got to climb a multi-pitch with Sam + Sammy (they both go by both names sooo for sake of clarity, Sam is one of Alissa’s roommates, and Sammy is one of their friends). For those who may not know, a multi-pitch is a type of outdoor climbing that involves someone trad climbing and setting the gear for the route (typically 20ish metres up), setting an anchor point somewhere safe, belays the second person up who is responsible for clearing/collecting the gear, then that person will climb and set the next part of the route. These can be from as “small” as 40m to the tallest mountain in the world (talking hundreds of metres). We climbed a “little” route of just under 60m, and to say I was losing my mind would be an understatement. Keep in mind, I’ve now only climbed outdoors 3 times in my life, 2 of those being rope climbing, which have both occurred in the last month…
I’m someone who has always admired people’s ability to do such big climbs, even have friends who climb parts/all of the chief back in Squamish, but never did I think that would be something I’d be brave enough to attempt. But something about getting onto the outdoor walls just clicked, and when Sam asked if I wanted to join him and Sammy for a potential multi-pitch – there was absolutely no hesitation or fear. We even had a bit of an unconventional method for descending that I’ll spare the details for my grandma’s sake (hehe sorry grandma, don’t worry though, we were still 100% safe <3). After about a 30min hike to the climb, I was feeling pretty good and SO ready to get up there. The first pitch felt really good, the views were amazing, the hangout spot was perfect. The second pitch though… No I’m not someone who fears heights, but when they talk about the exposure panic… let me tell you… the exposure panic is not to be downplayed lol. I had a little moment where subconsciously my brain realized just how high up we were on this pretty flat face of rock and all of the sudden my body was shaaaaking! It wasn’t until I consciously noticed how much I was shaking did my internal dialogue start to kick in and think “what the HELL are you doing?!” I was at a spot that I was struggling a bit with to get up, and neither Sam’s were able to have eyes on me, so I really had to get myself through it. It was here that I remembered my breathing techniques for calming the mind, and I just continued to talk myself through, saying things like: ”Sam’s got you at the top. Trust the gear and trust him and you’ll be okay. You’ve made it through the hardest parts already, just stay focused on the wall and the moves ahead of you. Trust your feet. And Don’t. Look. Down.” Adrenaline strength is for sure real because I was grabbing holds I’d never be able to hold onto in the gym! I finally pulled myself over the top, and I can just imagine the look on my face Sam must’ve seen! Pure shock, exhaustion, disbelief, and a healthy amount of “wtf did I just do.” The whole thing was so exhilarating, my first thought when we repelled back down was “I need to do that again.” I get it now. The feeling of truly pushing your boundaries, stepping out of your comfort zone, putting your mind and body through ultimate tests of strength, stability, and balance. It was an incredible feeling, and I was absolutely exhausted when we got back down. My mind felt like it had run a marathon, and my body was feeling pretty shocked from what it just experienced.
After a big day on the cliffs, I got to meet up with my friend Max for a well-earned dinner and drinks. Max is the NSW local I mentioned last week who’s been biking around the east coast and Tasmania the past 2.5 months without any real prior biking experience! A very inspiring, kind and humble individual.
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The rest of the week mostly revolved around organizing things, reading, getting stuff sorted for minor van repairs (I’m going to make a full separate post about navigating car stuff in Australia, there’s a lot I wish I’d known…). But the real exciting part is I finally got some van renos underway!! Thanks to a friend of Annie’s who works in construction, Rhys, we now have what started as a simple “I just want a little shelf and a rollout shelf for my fridge,” has now turned into “optimize storage space.”
When I first brought the van to Rhys and explained my minor changes I wanted, something to make storing my kitchen stuff and accessing my fridge a bit easier, he looked at the van and said “but what about all the unused wasted space??” I told him that if I had more time, I would definitely be redoing the whole design to be able to maximize every square-inch, but I wanted to be mindful of his time and our 2.5-week deadline. After a bit of back n forth + some brainstorming, we will be heading into what will be day 4 and [ideally] the last day of what would’ve been just a 3hour project had we gone with my original plan lol. I’m SO stoked though and can’t wait to show you guys the end results! The amount of drawer space I’m about to have is going to be a dream.
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On notes of dreams… to end the week I got to hold a rescued baby pademelon before my yoga class Sunday evening!!
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I’m going to leave this weeks scattered thoughts with you there as I head into preparation of my last 1.5 weeks in Tassie (crazy I know… time is flying WAY too quickly). I promise the future weekly updates will be back to a more regular structured set up, and keep an eye out for some exciting updates regarding other blog posts to come!
Stay passionate and curious,
Hunter 💛
