You know that feeling when you are laying in bed, awake, and you know your alarm is about to go off. You don’t want to look at your phone because you don’t really want to know what time it is. And, you know that if you hit the button, the phone will light up and you’ll instantly be stimulated when you should be resting. And it’s not just about looking at the time. You have to read that one email that came in at 2:47am. Once you have deleted that piece of junk mail, you might as well check FaceBook too. Then, the second you put the phone down, the light fades, you finally close your eyes and you become fully relaxed.
That’s the moment the alarm goes off.
By the time, layered myself up with proper clothing, my friend and I went downstairs for the hotel’s (crappy) breakfast. My hike leader and the rest of the group showed up, and we went over proper equipment, which of course I spent half a fortune to purchase. The group packed the cars and we set out for our “acclimation hike.” We drove a few exits down the highway and hiked Mounts Dickey and Welch. It was a total of about 4 1/2 miles. We got a slight idea of the snow we would face and learned how to use crampons. Although this was called our “acclimation hike,”
Mt. Washington was vastly different than these smaller mountains. We began our hike on the mountain at 7am on Sunday morning.
Mt. Washington was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Everything I thought about snow and serenity was put to shame before I started on the Mt. Washington trail.
Mt. Washington was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
Although the fog was a little thick, the snow-covered trees created the perfect motivation for me to keep hiking up the steep trail.
The trail was not packed as well as the trails I had been on the previous two days. I followed the trail leader’s steps almost exactly as I made my way up.
We made it to a large hut, about 1.5 miles from the summit. That was when my hike leader told us we would not make it. It was almost noon, and it would take us about 2 more hours to make it the rest of the way. That means that we would not have had enough time to get back down the mountain before sunset. It would have been unsafe.
Going down the mountain was my favorite part of the trip. This was my chance to fully enjoy the environment around me. I got to see the snow in it’s most true and pure form. I got to slide on my butt down the steepest parts, which my knees and ankles really appreciated. I now know that feeling of making a misstep and ending up waist deep in snow.
And I know the feeling of trying to get out of waist deep snow.
I also learned what it felt like to take hold of my fears and turn that energy into achieving something awesome.
Maybe I didn’t make it to the top of Mount Washington, but I still accomplished something great. I put myself out there to physically fail, and I succeeded.
This may be the most challenging adventure I’d ever been on. The hike was equally mentally challenging as it was physically.
I made it safely to the bottom with the greatest feeling of accomplishment that I have ever felt.
I left New Hampshire the very next day, after a wonderful night’s sleep.
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