Morris Family in Mexico: Via Ferratta

I have so many things to blog about (twins' birthday, my sister visiting), but unfortunately we have been without internet at our house for almost four weeks. We are frustrated and kind of a little hopeless of our internet ever working correctly again. All that being said, I'm hanging out at a Starbucks trying to catch up on all things internet. Please say a prayer that a technician will first: show up and second: actually get to the root of the problem (we have been given three new modems and are on our second company). Who would have thought that lack of internet in the house would be such a integral part of life!

May 19, 2018 will go down as one of the coolest, craziest, stupidest, toughest, and definitely most adventurous days of my life. It was the day that we climbed the Via Ferratta. Our friend, Dustin Leonard and his son Derrick had climbed it a month or so before and the pictures that Dustin showed us looked awesome. Climbing, zip-lining and repelling...doesn't that sound like quite the adventure? Ben and I told Dustin that if he ever went again, we'd like to join. So, when Derrick's buddy was in town, Dustin scheduled another trip. True story: I thought I was participating in a sort of ropes course, not climbing to the top of a cliff. I knew that it would be physically tough,and also knew it would take 6-7 hours, but definitely did not know the extent of difficulty. The lack of knowledge was probably for the best; I wouldn't have done it if I would have known the difficulty. I'm so glad that I did it, but would never do it again. It was that crazy tough. (Ben is already hoping to climb it again with his brother some day.)

Our morning started with Dustin and a van of friends picking us up at our apartment at 4:45 am (we got a babysitter for our kids). We arrive at the Huesteca while it was still dark, met our guides, and were handed our climbing gear and helmets. It was so Mexican: no instructions, no certification, no signing waivers...just trust that if you showed up, you could make it to the top. Then our group of 10 rapidly started the initial hike towards the cliff. At this point in time, I hadn't ate a good breakfast and by the time we had hiked hard and fast for 20 or minutes, I had to take an extra break to eat something and get my blood sugar up. After that break, I seriously considered staying at the bottom; I wondered if I was physically strong enough to do the climb. Again, I'm thankful that I pressed on.

It started getting light as we began our cliff climb.

Take note of the different perspectives of the road and town as we climb; it will help you understand how high we ascend.

I was two people ahead of Ben. The majority of the climb we were stepping from one steel rebar step to another.

Sometimes your feet got a break and you rested on a wooden platform.

One of the coolest moments was when we climbed around the corner of the cliff and saw the beautiful sunrise.

Some of the photos in this blog, like this one, were taken by Dustin Leonard (who is an excellent photographer). I will mark his photos with a DL to give him due credit.

Here's Dustin; he used his go-pro camera for some seriously sweet shots such as this.

The view was breathtaking.

Again, this "spine" is a great marker to show the perspective of how high we climb (note the road as well).

Ben peeking around the corner.

So much further to go.

The rebar steps.

I loved all the vegetation growing right out of the sides of the cliff.

I was two people below Dustin, in the crooked white helmet (DL)

Two lines of life (as Dustin calls them). We were always clamped in by two ropes. By the end, my thumbs were SO tired from opening the carabiners.

Note how much smaller the spine and road are (that's a swimming pool on the left).

Cactus growing in a little nook in the stone.

Ben and Derrick.

Our fearless guide; he truly was fearless and scaled the cliff so quickly.

Lines of life and the small pueblo below, looking quite miniscual.

Climbing these ladders was my least favorite task; while they were bolted into the cliff with cables, they still swayed with others climbing. It was petrifying, not to mention very physically taxing. The angle I was at while climbing meant that I was having to unclamp the carabiners with my left hand, and there were several times that I really struggled to switch my lines of life to the next section.

Our guide preparing to climb the ladder. (DL)

Dustin looking down from the ladders. (DL)

Look how small the road is now! (DL)

After the ladder we go to this nifty steel cable bridge. I was the only one in the group that was unwilling to double clamp in and hold both my hands in the air. I have children to raise, people.

Brave (or crazy) Ben.

The clouds rolled in for part of the climb and we had no complaints; it meant that the sun was not blazing down on our backs the entire time.

After the ladder and the steel cable bridge, we got to the part of the climb that got a little too "rock climby" for me (Dustin thought that was a pretty funny thing for me to say, but again I'd like to return to the fact that I didn't quite realize that we'd be scaling a cliff). I put my camera away for the last 20 minutes to the peak, as I was physically tired and it was difficult for someone of such short stature (such as me), to find and reach different grips in the mountain. Taking pictures was no longer on my mind, only living to see my babies again.

We made it!! (DL)

Most of the group at the peak (we will soon zipline to that cliff behind us)

I'm thankful to have done this grand adventure with my love! (DL)

Our next leg of the journey included all of us zip-lining from one cliff to the next. Ben and I both loved zip-lining (first time for both of us!)

Here comes Ben!

Dustin took all the zip-lining pictures of us.

Final leg of the journey: repelling. I loved this as well.

Ben's turn.

These were no small repels. We all did the first segment as shown above. And then we all waited on wooden platforms until we could one by one descend the much longer, second repel.