Man Proposes to Girlfriend at Rock Climbing Gym with Custom ‘Marry Me’ Route (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Xavier Almodovar proposed to Liliana Inkpen at their favorite rock climbing gym with a custom “Marry Me?” route

• Friends and coworkers helped Almodovar plan the surprise proposal, which left Inkpen feeling “shocked and excited”

• The couple have been together since their sophomore year of high school

A couple took their relationship to new heights by getting engaged at a rock climbing gym.

Xavier Almodovar and Liliana Inkpen climbed into forever on April 20 at Climb Nittany in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, when Almodovar proposed via climbing holds on the wall shaped into the question, “Marry Me?”

“I felt shocked and excited,” Inkpen tells PEOPLE of her reaction to the surprise proposal. “I didn’t have any thoughts other than I needed to say yes!”

Almodovar and Inkpen started dating just over six years ago on Valentine’s Day during their sophomore year of high school. The rock climbing gym “has always been a special place” for the couple, who are now both seniors at Penn State University, so Almodovar thought it would be especially meaningful to pop the question there. Plus, the location wouldn’t raise any suspicion.

“I did it there because surprising Liliana is super hard because she knows me so well, and this was one place she wouldn’t be suspicious,” Almodovar says.

The groom-to-be, who is a routesetter at the climbing gym, came up with the idea about a week beforehand. After getting Inkpen’s father’s blessing, he enlisted his friends and coworkers for help pulling the the proposal off.

Almodovar created the “Marry Me?” route with assistance from his boss, Mark Grumman, and fellow setter, Luke Wiley. Then, he brought Inkpen and three close friends — Aidan Campbell, Victoria Stetz, and Christopher Jasper — to the gym after-hours for a private climbing session.

“They had filled the waivers out prior, but when they got into the gym, I told them that they had to do the waivers so that their phones would already be out and it would be more discrete to capture the moment,” Almodovar explains.

He continues, “I felt super nervous … I knew she was going to say yes, but I still wanted the moment to be magical for her.”

After doing a basic gym tour, Almodovar looked at Inkpen and said, “I made a special route yesterday for you, and I am really excited for you to see it.”

“At that moment, I am pretty sure she knew what was going to happen,” he says. “And then I let her walk in front of me to see the proposal, got on one knee, asked her to marry me!”

Inkpen describes the big moment as “surreal.”

“I thought it would be during graduation week,” she says. “I was curious and had a million questions on all of the planning.”

Almodovar adds, “It didn’t feel real, but was super exciting.”

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Inkpen and Almodovar are “very excited to take the next step” in love and life. Following their graduation next month, Inkpen will pursue her master’s degree in applied statistics at Penn State while Almodovar will be an active-duty field artillery officer in the U.S. Army.

Read the original article on People