Semester 52 2nd Expedition: “The Winter Trip”
Group A: Willow O’Hara
My favorite part of second expedition was our day skis and the jumps we found on them. I enjoy backcountry skiing and do it often at home, so it was fun to do it in a new place, with people who had never toured before. We found one slope in particular that was very good for skiing. It was close to our second quigloo site, north facing, and there was a good jump to the side of it that was very fun to go off of. The only thing that would’ve been nice is if it were longer. I also really enjoyed summiting Homestake Peak, as I’ve been looking at it my whole life and work very near it at the 10th Mountain Hut but had never climbed it. I had also never summited a peak on skis before. I will always remember this trip and think of the great memories we made in the snow whenever I look up at Homestake Peak.
Group B: Sam Acosta
Second expedition was a freezing adventure of new experiences. Spending ten days in the Sawatch range had its ups and downs but was so worth the trip. Having a bbq with my cook crew in the snow kitchen and digging out the quigloo are times I will never forget because of the chaos and the laughs. An ideal day in the mountains looked like waking up from inside the quigloo and starting to make pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards we would group up, put on our skins, and hike up the adjacent mountains to ski down. After seeing some amazing views, eating a few cliff bars, and skiing down some fresh powder we would get back to camp and enjoy some downtime like playing some spikeball in a heated game against the I team. Since we had all finished our exped work we would send it off the ski jump until circle after dinner. For circle, we would circle around the fire and share our experiences. Once that finished we would all go back to our quigloos, make some hot drinks, then talk till we fell asleep. Though these days were tough, I learned some valuable lessons about myself, the outdoors, and made so many memories of skiing through narrow forests and down open mountains with my friends.
Paulina Ramirez:
For my second expedition at HMI, I spent ten days in the Sawatch and Mosquito Ranges of Colorado. The preparation leading up to the expedition was fun but challenging. Never before had I skied in my life, but thanks to my teachers, who encouraged me and stayed with me, I was able to be in a comfortable place on my first day of skiing. Unfortunately, two days before the expedition, I got sick, but thanks to my instructors and friends taking care of me, I made a full recovery during that time, and when I did not feel well, I felt comfortable enough to communicate my needs to instructors and friends. The expedition also allowed me to meet people I did not know before. During the expedition, we had to build quigloos, be in the cold, sleep together, and make food. All these experiences allowed the group to get close. One of my favorite memories of the expedition was building a quigloo on our third campsite and blasting music while we built, ate, and danced. Overall, at first, the days were rough, but as the days went on, they turned into core memories I will forever cherish and tell people.
Group C: Sarah Egan
From the moment we started our trek, sleds heavier than ever, unable to do anything but pant and drag ourselves to our first camp, I knew this experience would be hard. But “hard” was how the instructors had described second exped. “Hard” left me unprepared for the incredible, yet equally horrible adventure we had started.
Expedition left me terrified at times. I was terrified when I paused shoveling to unfortunately witness our first evacuation. I was terrified when I went on an optional ski and found myself flying down a black diamond like slope, whipping past trees until I flew right into one and was buried in a mound of snow.
Still, there were times on expedition when I felt hopeful, lying in our quigloo that we haphazardly chipped into shape. Every night tucked into five layers of pants and coats, I was lulled to sleep by Phoebe Bridgers, her sad lullabies somehow erasing our melancholy. Squished into a quigloo with Iris, Coco, and Sydney we held onto each other. Our hold kept us from sliding out of the sloping entrance of our quigloo. We held onto each other’s toes during tummy time when they became numb. We held each other’s sanity as hysteria became laughter, parodies, and tik tok dances.
And even though we were cold and tired, frostbitten and miserable. I would choose to return to the mountains and do it all again. For the day when we summited Mount Buckeye and saw the incredible view unfold. Because of the crazy skiing that I got better at day by day. For the winter olympics filled with dancing and gaga ball. The conversations carried out in our dirt filled kitchen the instructors kept suggesting we “beautify.” I would live out those moments and all the bad ones again just to spend ten more days with the 16 people who I came to know.
To quote the poster in Jill’s office, We Are Thriving.
With sunburnt faces cracking in pain when we laughed, our laughter echoing off the mountains and into the falling snow.
Group D: Nolan Staples-Roy
Second Exped was potentially the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my 17 years of life. We started off extremely strong with a very rough two mile first day, with about 0.5 miles being almost straight uphill. Regarding the fact that I was carrying a 30-40 pound sled and a roughly similarly weighted backpack it was not an easy task. Oh and don’t forget the fact that we started at about 11,000 ft. I haven’t struggled to breath so badly probably ever. Once we got to the top of that terrifying hill we started to construct our camp. This consisted of us building a kitchen (digging out a small area and piling the snow up to make a shelf) and digging pits where we would set up our mids (tents) to sleep for the next two nights.
Unfortunately my group didn’t do the best job at making sure our ground was level. This resulted in some pretty uncomfortable nights. You might think that sleeping on snow is super soft but boy are you wrong. When your body heat melts the snow at night and the cold air freezes it at the same time it feels exactly the same as sleeping on rocks. Not comfy. The next day we skied a solid 0.5 miles uphill to the first clearing where we hangout and ate some snacks, shortly after we traversed (traveled slightly uphill on a slope and walked in a roughly straight line) to our very first quigloo sight. Here we mounded snow for a few hours and my group made an absolutely massive one. It was magnificent. Never did I think I could get so sunburnt in the snow (it only got worse).
The next day we skied back up the same route as the day before and began to dig out the quigloo. This involves one person going on top of the quigloo and digging down while someone on the bottom digs up. During the excavation process I might have done a poor job of making sure the top was rounded. Not my proudest moment. This resulted in our entire quigloo dropping, making an insane sound, and cracking in at least two spots on every wall, while I was inside. It was a little scary. These cracks throughout our stay there grew genuinely ten times bigger. Carson and I were convinced it would fall on us at night. We stayed at this site for only a couple of days but while we were here we played mini golf with a working windmill, gaga ball (I love gaga ball), and cut Sue’s hair. I got the first cut.
For our second sight we had to ski roughly 0.5 miles again but because it was switchback it was so much easier. This site was so much different than the first one. First of all we were above treeline and second of all we dug out our quigloos from a snowdrift. This snowdrift was so amazing. Before we even piled any snow it was 215cm deep. We only had to pile about 30-35cm. It was awesome. We got to chill at this site for only about a day because of the absolutely insane storm that ended up ripping through on our last two days. During those days we sat in our quigloos for 36 hours. Carson and I had an interesting time. We read the same book about one and a half times and went outside a couple of times and experienced genuine insanity. The wind was probably 50-60 mph, and we got roughly 2-3 feet of snow. During the storm, JT (our Instructor Team member) came to check on us, and when he removed the backpack door, a mouse sprinted inside.
It was climbing all over our bags. It almost climbed onto Carson. Luckily it crawled into Carson’s glove and it was fairly easy to get it out after that. Once we got hungry we decided to eat some of our birdseed and that’s when we noticed the little mouse sized holes in the bag. We still ate it (we were hungry). The last day we headed back with no food, no water, and for some reason half of us had no skins. It was a great time (it wasn’t). Looking back on it now it was really funny how messed up everything was that last day. Anyway, this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I know that I will never, ever forget it.
Sue Kelman:
Second Exped was – luckily for me – probably one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. The first day, we went almost half a mile uphill, carrying both a full backpack and a sled. I swear, I was carrying somewhere around 70 pounds, which is a lot for a 5’2’ kid. There came a point where my telemark skis started sliding down the hill I was trying to climb. We dug a pit in which to pitch our tent, and then we slept. The next day, we hiked further uphill, and then spent most of the day building a mound of snow for our future quigloo, which is a type of snow cave to sleep in. The third day we hollowed out our mound, and, presto, we had a snow cave to live in for the next couple of days. We spent the next few days relaxing – playing mini golf and gaga ball, having a photo shoot, skiing (downhill this time!), and chatting with other kids from exped. I even got a haircut!
Considering that everyone took turns cutting off a lock of hair, done in the dark with trauma shears, I would say the final result is surprisingly decent. We made another quigloo, mostly skipping the mounding step by choosing to dig into a cornice. We hung out around camp for another day, hanging out, playing soccer and baseball and working on our schoolwork. Then the storm came. Our quigloo was snowed in – the entrance was fully blocked by a massive pile of snow. Adults came to dig us out in the morning, and our entire quigloo decided that we needed to pee. I volunteered to go first. All I’m going to say about the experience was that I decided, when I had to pee again, to pee in a water-bottle in full sight of the other kids in my quigloo so I wouldn’t have to go outside. That day we had to stay inside because of the storm. All we ate was bagels and about a liter of water split between the four of us (Note: do NOT put tomato powder and oil on a bagel. It won’t magically turn into a pizza-bagel). The next morning, we skied out with no food and water.
The experience was crazy, and physically uncomfortable 90% of the time. But I’ve never felt closer to people in HMI than the people on my Exped, especially those in my quigloo – we had some crazy conversations in the quigloo the day we were trapped.
Cerro Castillo Gap Spring Trek
Rocks and Gap!