I conquered the mountain!! Okay, so it wasn’t exactly Mt. Everest. And we didn’t go all the way to the top for lack of crampons. And it was a beautiful day with 20 degree temperatures and slight snow flurries (gorgeous snow flakes, by the way). But the whole point was to learn the basics of winter hiking and frankly, I like 73 degrees and sunny. Dealing with extreme temperatures is not on my list of favorite things to do and on Friday morning, when it was 3 degrees in Boston with a -15 wind chill, hiking up a mountain seemed like a fairly stupid way of spending the weekend.
Thankfully it warmed up and 20 degrees all of a sudden felt downright tropical. What was that again? Oh yeah, everything is relative. So anyway, besides figuring out how many layers of clothing I need when hiking in the winter and that one should be eating constantly to replenish calories and stay warm (my favorite part), I also learned how to not get too lost using map and compass while bushwhacking. Super fun! Great people, posh accommodations, excellent food, mountains, trees, great views, snow. What else could one possibly ask for?! I’m hooked. Which can be a good or a bad thing considering the potential for spending way too much money on gear for yet another sport. This invites thinking along the lines of “since the discovery of ever-lasting polyester swim suits is saving me at least $150 a year, I can spend that money on other gear, right?”. And before you know it I’ll have rationalized my way into preferred customer status at REI and EMS.
The weekend was a winter hiking workshop organized by the Boston chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Why it took me so long to become a member is one of life’s unsolved mysteries. May have had something to do with being holed up in my own little grad school world. Or being busy with swim/triathlon training. Better late than never, I suppose!