We’re Cool, You’re Not

So last Friday night, I went to Sean’s place in Southie to start packing his car.  Our girl Dustyn was supposed to show up on the Chinatown bus at 10pm, but didn’t arrive until 11:40pm.  We picked her up and tried to hit the Wendy’s up in Woburn (exit 36 off 93 N).  Of course, Sean does things his way, so we got gas first, wasted time at the gas station/inside the store, then hit up Wendy’s about 3 minutes after it closed.

We were starving.  After finally convincing Sean that I knew what I was talking about, we headed back toward the city and up route 1 north.  We hit up Bill and Bob’s, introducing Dustyn to some North Shore style roast beef and we were on our way up Route 1 toward 95n.

Sean was able to handle about and hour’s worth of driving, then it was my turn.  I drove from route 16 to the lodge we were staying at.  We were literally drove through the middle of the night.  Well, I drove through the middle of the night.  Dustyn and Sean slept.

I pulled into the Pinkham’s Notch visitors center parking lot at 3:36 a.m.  There is a lodge there that we had reservations at.  They knew we were showing up late, but we were expecting to get in around 1 or 2, not 3 or 4.  Another 30 minutes to find the person who was sleeping so we could get the key to our room.

Around 4:15am, our heads hit the pillow.

I can’t sleep well, so it didn’t take much for me to hear the group of little kids running up and down the hallway at around 7:30am.  I jumped off the top bunk, got my gear ready for the day’s adventure and let the adrenaline take over.

We got ready, ate the buffet breakfast (which was great), and talked to the people at the information desk.  We asked where to go, they pointed out the window.  Apparently there are State Rangers and Volunteer Ski Patrol people who hang at the base of the mountain, so we figured we’d follow the crowd and ask questions when necessary.

At around 9:30am, we started hiking from about 2,300 ft with around 35+ lbs of gear on our backs.  There were a bunch of people hiking with little to no gear, but a brave bunch did have skis/snowboards/boots/winter gear.

It started off pretty easy, but after about the first 10 minutes, we were hurting.  Every single step was a step up.  There may have been a 10 foot section that leveled off for a moment, but literally 90% of the mountain was a step up.  Rocks, snow, streams, and bad traction didn’t help.  We did score with weather that couldn’t have been better.  Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and just cool enough to keep you cool while sweating on the way up.

The mountain is broken into 3 sections.  From the parking lot to Hermit Lakes, which is the ranger station and where there are a limited number of lean-to’s which are a 3 sided shelter which is just enough to give you a roof and a flat surface to sleep on.  From the parking lot to here is 2.7 miles.

The next section takes you from Hermit lakes to the base of the ravine.  This is another .7 miles and a sketchier climb.  When we got to the base of the ravine, prior to even taking our packs off, I’m talking within about 30 – 45 seconds of us getting there, a HUGE ice boulder broke off the mountain.  Everyone started screaming like a bunch of chicks (no offense), and a group of people went running.  It was AWESOME to see nature doing it’s thing.

The final leg is another .8 Miles in snow gear, up the mountain we were going to ride down.  This took over an hour and was the most physically stressful, mentally challenging tasks I’ve ever been a part off.

Truth be told, we ate lunch and chilled before climbing which cause me to tighten up, realize how tired I was, and gave me the feeling that I had already accomplished something, so I didn’t really need to continue.

Sean and Dustyn took off following 2 other skiers, so they were 3rd and 4th in line to climb the boot pack…the boot pack is where people have already climbed almost creating stairs.

I kept falling behind at which point Dustyn yelled back “C’mon, Andrew!! Think about how good you’ll feel when you accomplish this!”  I got pissed at that and yelled that I already felt accomplished and putting myself through the torture wouldn’t do anything for me.  I was bitter for sure.  They kept going, so I kept going.  Just slower.  I paced myself b/c I didn’t want to sweat, so I would take a few steps and chill for a few deep breaths.  We stopped 3 or 4 times to take our packs off when we could find a boulder on the side of the mountain we could tuck ourselves into.

On the final leg, I got what is called a ‘runner’s high’ which allowed me to get out ahead of the pack and be the first in our group to reach the summit.  Sean was passed by Dustyn, but he made it.

We chilled at the top for a while.  Sean got anxious and didn’t like hanging around at the top so much.  It was an aw inspiring view and made us feel so small and insignificant in this world.  We literally couldn’t see over the drop-in at the top of the mountain.  It was sketchy and there was a rock field we had to avoid.  My legs were SOOO SPENT that I was worried about just getting down.

If you fall going down, you’re in trouble because there is really nothing to stop you.

We all made it down, had a group hug, and held back tears about what we had just done.  It was crazy.  There was only a handful of people around, and we were the last of about 6 to 10 people to climb down the mountain.

It was exhausting both physically and mentally.  Describing the torture we put ourselves through doesn’t do it justice.  I’ve never felt so healthy and proud of myself.  EVER.

I still can’t believe I made it.

Check the pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=17jju6fb.b49kzjjv&Uy=rc7kyp&Ux=0&UV=654795809838_487827001603