When we first arrived at the bottom of the mountain it was decently cold, and we all got prepared for the hike up to the lodge. We lined up to have a buddy to hike with up the mountain. We got our snowshoes on with our packs and started our hike. It felt fairly easy as we started to go up, and I started to talk with Peter, who was my partner for the hike. After about fifteen minutes, I started to get hot in my big jacket, and I put it in my pack. I eventually shed off two layers of bigger jackets in about thirty minutes. As the hike progressed, it got harder and harder. The snowshoes helped a lot, but hiking with a pack on my back made things worse. We got halfway up and my legs were hurting, I could also tell Peter was having a hard time too. We eventually got up to the last half a mile, and trekked onto the final stretch. After what seemed like forever I made it to the lodge with Peter. We put our packs outside and sat down in the cabin. I went and put my stuff up onto my bed, which was pretty comfortable after a seemingly endless 3-mile journey up a steep mountain. We all waited a little bit and rested until dinner. By that time I had dry, comfortable clothes on. We had some chili for dinner, which was pretty great. After dinner some of us young men played poker for about an hour (shhhhh….don’t tell the YM leaders). Then we had a devotional that ended up having us look at the stars outside. I’m glad we packed together with the priests, because without their body heat I probably would’ve been much colder. It was very beautiful. After that we all went upstairs where the beds were. Most of us goofed around for a little bit and then went to bed. We woke up and had breakfast burritos for breakfast. After that we sat around for a little while, and then got our snow clothes back on. Most of us went up the hill a little more so we could sled. Up above our cabin the tree line ended and there was a steady slope of snow. The young men’s leaders and the priests built a ramp of packed snow, where most of us sledded and flew off of it. I remember one time that I went very high up the slope, and ended up flying a little too far off the ramp, and flipping over myself several times when I landed. By the end of the morning, we all packed up, and set our journey down the mountain. The hike down was much easier, and took a considerably less amount of time. By the end of our journey down I was pretty tired and ready to go home. That snowshoeing adventure was amazing.
Written by Andrew Wilhelm
Written by Andrew Wilhelm
