As our trusty leader, Bill Yeo?a mountain man if there ever was one?bounded up the mountain, we made the designation between short legs and long legs, along with the distinction between ultra-marathon runners (Phil Shaw '08) and those who are tired after four miles.
While only four of us remained for this second trip on our BOC mountaineering class, once we began to summit West and then East Bald Pate Mountain, we were happy we stuck it out. I found myself in a winter wonderland with tiny trees freshly dipped in a sugar coating of snow and surrounded by a view so spectacular it literally took my breath away, or I was possibly?most definitely?just that exhausted.
To keep our noses safe from the gusts of wind, we quickly took advantage of the photo-op, waved to our friends at Sunday River and snow-shoed our way down to camp. After our bodies had endured the miles, we collapsed into our bags, hot water bottles at our feet to help us brave the -10 degree weather as we fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up at 6:00 a.m. to a windy -22 degrees. Packing up camp as quickly as possible to get moving to prevent our toes from freezing further, we descended the mountain, our tired legs sliding and stumbling down in our bulky snow shoes.
Today would be our first true ice climbing expedition. Once we reached the base we would work from, we traded our snow shoes for our crampons, spikes that attach to the bottom of our boots?miracles for walking on ice. (I might start sporting them around campus to prevent those oh so embarrassing moments when you slip in front of that senior guy you've been crushing on.)
Gazing up at the ice face, watching Bill Yeo and his friend clamoring up and down the icy slope setting up the ropes, our fatigued bodies grew anxious. After we practiced different techniques for traversing the mountain, I soon found myself sprawled out clinging to a vertical ice sheet by a couple spikes on my feet and a recurve (ice axe) in each hand. With the encouragement of Bill Yeo echoing through the sun touched mountains, determination overcame my trembling muscles.
It was such a rewarding feeling belaying down after scaling this vertical sheet of ice. There is nothing better than physically challenging yourself while surrounded by the beauty of the sun migrating across water-colored mountains.