Call me a sherpa

Turns out the off and on rain from the night before was mostly on for all of Tuesday. It was pouring when we finally made ourselves get out from under our shelter and embark on our tramping for the day. It was more of the same, with our instructors telling us where we needed to end up and then letting us loose. It was easier today because we could see our destination pretty clearly--the top of a mountain. We struggled through the bush all day, soaking wet and walking uphill the whole time until finally we popped out of the trees, into sunlight, and stared at the large mountain looming in front of us.

Unfortuately, we had to sit, exposed in the wind for two hours and wait for group B (the other half of our class) to catch up with us. That got very cold. Eventually, we were on the move again and made the slow trek up and over the mountain. By the time I'd reached the peak and was headed back down the other side, the wind had picked up and the rain turned to hail. As it pelted my face, I stopped, looked down at myself and thought, I have got to get a picture of myself. Hopefully you can see in this picture why...


I looked like a sherpa. I was wearing big wooly gloves, using a stick to hike with, carrying a ginormous pack, and charging up the side of a mountain peak. I thought it was pretty funny. Hopefully some of you can find the humor as well.

I call this one: Huddling behind a giant rock.

Shock of all shockers, we had to wait, huddled behind a giant rock AGAIN for group B to catch up to us. This time was even colder than before. From there, our instructors had us all stick really close together so we wouldn't lose anyone considering the pretty intense weather. We completed the remainder of our hike to the campsite by about 7:30 that night. We set up our "bivvy" (or shelter) as quickly as possible, had some hot dinner, and then all climbed into our sleeping bags as close together as we could muster.

This is me unloading for the night. Unfortunately, that outfit is actually what I wore for three days straight--except replace the chacos with hiking boots. It's not about style, just comfort and warmth.


For some reason, we were all slightly hysterical that night and the bedtime conversation was hilarious. That probably explains why Stefanie and I took more crazy pictures of ourselves. I woke up about 1am absolutely famished!! I had no idea how I was going to make it 'til morning, especially considering how I also had to go to the bathroom and I couldn't feel my toes. At about 4am, I realized that half of our group was awake and we all started talking about how cold, hungry or thirsty we were. It was hilarious. That was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me. Thankfully, I had my iPod and a good book to read in my sleeping bag as I didn't do much sleeping that night.
Here is a shot of the inside of our bivvy. The piece of wood that you can see on the left side of the picture is the middle of our shelter--that stick was holding the whole thing up. That's where I slept. I found out the hard way that if I bumped it, it fell over and the roof sort of caved in. Oops... The guy you can see at the bottom of the picture is none other than John Kappa, our instructor. I know you can't tell, but he was basically laying right on top of me and my stuff. Whatever it takes to be warm I guess. Don't worry--he didn't sleep there. He was just there visiting.