Ready, set, jump! When will you go canyoning?

I heard about canyoning for the first time this past semester during the wildlife film festival hosted by the Nicholas School. I thought those people were crazy. Why would you voluntarily jump into water just feet away from sharp rocks?!

Well…my curiosity and adventurous spirit got the best of me and I went canyoning while visiting Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend with six of my courageous friends.

I loved every second of the 3 hour excursion.

While strapped into a wet suit, wet suit jacket, harness, life jacket, and helmet, I descended into two canyons. When we reached our first rapel our guides asked who out of the 12 of us wanted to go first. I responded quickly, “I’ll go, I’ll go first.” I’m not sure if it was the glacial cold water that was motivating me but once I was hanging off of the cliff I felt nothing except the hard rock against my feet and all I heard was the sound of the roaring water beneath me.

I trusted my feet and our guides and thus my experience was a success!

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All of us driving up to the canyon
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Getting pumped hiking to the top. Never underestimate how hard it is to hike in the heat in a wet suit!
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Our entry into the canyon on our way to the first rapel
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Down I go! All I had to do was lean back, step back, and keep my body horizontal as I descended. Most importantly, I trusted our guide to hold the rope.
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No fear going down
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Hands up!
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My first jump
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This was the hardest jump. We were over 30 feet in the air with rocks surrounding us on all sides. I continued my role of jumping first and I’m happy I did! Don’t think, just jump and trust yourself.
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All of us celebrating that we made it past the highest jump!
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Belly flop! Our other jumps were nothing compared to the one above.
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My superman jump into the second canyon.

For a look at my full experience…check out the video below! I have every intention of going canyoning again.

Enjoy.

Click on this link here if the video above does not load.