Learn Spanish (Latin America): Escalar cerca del abismo es más estresante de lo que imaginas. - Climbing near the abyss is more stressful than you imagine.

Normally, you use que for "than" when comparing two nouns or pronouns (like soy más alto que tú). But here, you are comparing the adjective estresante to an entire clause with a conjugated verb (imaginas). In Spanish, when you compare an adjective or adverb to a conjugated verb, you must use de lo que instead of just que.

Why does the sentence use the infinitive escalar to mean "climbing"? Shouldn't it be escalando?

In English, we often use words ending in "-ing" as the subject of a sentence, like "Climbing is stressful." In Spanish, you cannot use the -ando or -iendo forms as the subject. Instead, you always use the infinitive form of the verb, which is escalar here.

Does the adjective estresante need to agree in gender with escalar?

Yes! When an infinitive like escalar acts as the subject of a sentence, it is treated as a singular, masculine noun. If the adjective ended in -o or -a, it would have to be in the masculine -o form. However, estresante ends in -e, so it is the same for both masculine and feminine subjects.

Just to review, why is it cerca del abismo instead of ?