My Experience

Simple Past Tense

My name is Eva Astri Arwina. This time I'll tell you about my experience while climbing. This was my first experience of climbing the mountain last year. Why was I interested in climbing a mountain?
There were several reasons why I wanted to climb the mountain. First, I was curious. Second, I wanted to try a new experience. Third, at that time I was too tired with my routine.

Therefore, I decided to join my best friends to climb Gede Pangrango Mountain in April last year. Like a novice climber, I needed a lot of equipment to climb the mountain such as bags, shoes, sleeping bags, jackets, flashlights, and many more. Basically, preparation, physical health and mental health were important in mountain climbing. However, the equipment itself also became very important because we were the ones who knew our physical condition.
At the time of my first climbing, my preparation was very fixed ranging from regular exercise each week to the diet which I had to watch in order to keep our physical condition stable.

Finally, my friend and I went climbing on the 25th of April 2014. We went with one group of nature lovers who were from Bogor. There were 22 climbers who participated.  At the beginning of the climbing, I already found it difficult. I got tired because I did not breathe well. I asked one of the other climbers and he said that we had to pay attention to our footsteps and our breath when climbing, so that we would not get tired easily. After walking for 3 hours, we decided to take a rest. There were many things we did when we were taking a rest. One of them was cooking, and it became my favorite part, because I found a sensation when cooking on the mountain.

Then, we continued our trip due to the weather condition that required us to immediately reach the place to set up a tent. At that time the weather was cloudy and dark because it was going to rain. After we walked for 4 hours we finally reached the place to set up a tent. At that time, we were greeted by heavy rain, and there were many other climbers who had set up their tents so we had a little trouble finding a suitable place to set up the tent. After searching, we finally found a suitable place to set up the tent. It was right in front of the edelweiss flower beds which were very beautiful.

Due to the rain, after the tent was set up there were no activities other than staying in the tent until evening. At night, the rain had stopped, and we were out of the tent and enjoyed the beautiful night on the mountain. The beautiful sky, cold air, and the togetherness with the other climbers gave a different sensation at the time.

As it got late, we decided to sleep. At 05.00 we all got up and continued climbing to the summit, hoping to get a chance to see the sunrise, but the cloudy weather made us a little disappointed. We only could see the fog. However, we did not regret it, because seeing beautiful scenery was only a bonus when climbing a mountain. The most important thing was we could get home safe and sound.

After enjoying the mountain top and taking pictures there, we finally decided to go down for fear of worsening weather. During the journey down, we met a lot of other climbers. One that I admired, we always greeted and encouraged each other when we met other climbers although we did not know each other.

After walking for 7 hours we finally reached the base camp and took a rest for a while and then returned to our homes.

Since the first climbing, I have made a lot of new friends, new experience, and I became addicted to climbing the mountain.