Why is "Yo escalaba en Yosemite" incorrect?

[Mark.hudon]

I’m trying to learn the past, pretérito and Imperfect. I came up with this sentence, “I was climbing in Yosemite” but a friend says it is incorrect, that it should be “Yo estaba escalando en Yosemite”.

Why?

[bath.man]

La traducción literal de "I was climbing" es "Yo estaba escalando", pero "yo escalaba" puede ser válida también en ciertos contextos.

[Chilotin]

Because you are speaking about an ongoing action in the past. In this case, English and Spanish use the same structure: was climbing = estaba escalando. "Yo escalaba en Yosemite" is "I used to climb in Yosemite" or "I climbed in Yosemite [during a specific time frame]".

[Mark.hudon]

Hmm... I’m trying to wrap my head around that. I think I’m getting it.

[albert985765]

night, i'm a native spanish speaker from Venezuela and let me tell you there is not such a big difference, it all depends on the context and the situacion . personally i will understand it either way. i want to practice my english, but sadly i have no one to help me with it, if you want, i can help you out with spanish and you of course with english, though im not very sure how things work in duolingo.. is there any message opcion besides this forums?