Climbing With Rattlesnakes and Alpacas
It was already the 2nd week of May and I cannot believe that the hills were still green. By then we were used to dry, barren looking lands no matter where we decide to climb. The intermittent rain brought us beautiful fields to climb in, but it had also kicked up ALL of the pollen. My usual allergy medicine wasn't doing it for me -- I sneezed throughout the entirety of the day.
So my A4 is still in recovery mode -- I've finally gotten back into climbing sparingly, limiting myself to easier problems 90% of the time I climb, with a few tries on harder problems that has no crimps. For this trip, I decided to opt out of climbing completely and stuck to photography. In addition, I've been trying to do strength training to compensate for my lack of climbing, so I was actually pretty sore... it didn't help that every time I sneezed, my abs hurt. Ha.
Our group had been climbing when one of us looks out into the fields and goes,
"Hey guys. Hey. What IS that? Is that a big dog? A small human?"
We all stopped and looked into the distance. From our angle, the cute little alpacas looked like they only had 2 legs, walking strangely, accompanied by two other people. When they got a bit closer, we all agreed they looked a bit like llamas, but that would be extremely out of place. We've never seen any around here.
Turns out, The other group of climbers also brought along alpacas for their trip. Didn't think my first encounter with an alpaca would be on a climbing trip rather than a zoo. We weren't allowed to pet them as they were pretty skittish, but they were tied up nearby (with climbing rope and figure 8 knots!) to hang out while their humans climbed with us.
I ventured farther away from the group to get this shot. 10 minutes later, the other group of climbers found a rattlesnake chillin' about near the boulder. I had made my way back to the boulder by then, seeking solace from the heat. One of the climbers reached into the grass to grab his chalk bag when he heard something rustle.
"Oh, guys! There's a snake! Wait, is it a rattle -- yup. Yup! It's a rattlesnake!"
He then poured a bit of beer nearby in hopes of scaring it off. It worked.
And I... I didn't stray away from the boulder for the rest of the day. Guess the weather warmed up enough and now all the animals are out and about. Unfortunately, our climbing trip had to be cut short once one of my friends hurt his ankle from a bad landing (foot landed inbetween two pads).
Probably will not come back to this location for a few months now that summer has arrived. I can do without climbing in 90+ degree heat.
