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Frothy water churned beneath me as I teetered at the edge of a rain-slicked ravine, inspecting the rocky canyon walls below. “I can do this. I can do this.” I mumbled to myself. “Wait, why am I jumping off of a perfectly good ledge?” The guide gave me a look and gently said, “Why don’t you take your hand off the rope first? All right, 3…2…1…JUMP!” I closed my eyes, tucked in my knees and threw myself into the water. It was just a bit after 9 am.

Just a couple days before, Britton had been clamoring about going hang gliding in Interlaken. Waving a fistful of brochures for the dozens of extreme sports agencies in the area, she wanted to follow up her skydiving experience from two weeks earlier with hang gliding in the Alps. You can also do things like parasailing (flying with a parachute rather than rigid wings), whitewater rafting and even zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant plastic ball – no joke). Then we stumbled upon the sport of canyoning, where you have to get through a whitewater filled canyon using a variety of climbing, jumping and swimming techniques. Without thinking about it for too long, I agreed to sign up, and soon we were carted off to the Grimsel canyon, about an hour southeast of Interlaken.

At the foot of the mountain, we changed into wetsuits, boots, jackets, life vests and helmets. Outdoor Interlaken kindly labels all of their helmets, so that you can distinguish people from each other. Mine was labeled a fairly innocuous “Digi-Bo,” but Britton’s was labeled “Stu Pitt,” and the other labels included “Harry Balzac,” “Master Bates” and “Ewok.” Our band of intrepid adventurers included about ten Americans and That Guy with Dreadlocks who hailed from New Zealand.
Continue reading Questionable Life Choices: Canyoning the Grimsel Pass →