Three
years after my 23-day Mountaineering Course in the San Juans
I still think about it every day. It was probably the single
most important thing I have ever done.
It was the summer of 1996. I graduated college the year before
and had been working for a year. Bored out of my mind with
the corporate world I was looking for adventure and ... WOW!!
Did I find it!!! I will never forget stepping off that bus
the first day and looking almost straight up at these huge
mounatains.
Obviously I looked totally disoriented (being from Maryland,
mountains was not something I was used to) so one of the instructors
came up to me and asked if I was alright. I said, "Are
we going to climb those mountains". He said, "We
sure are". Me, "Dont we need ropes or something".
"Oh...we got plenty of rope".
We were off! For the next 23 days I witnessed magic. I saw
stars so vivid and so intense I could amost pluck them from
the sky. I saw the moon so full it was as bright as a spotlight
shining down from the heavens. Rain showers and freezing blustery
days and gorgeous sunny days, the sky so blue with cotton
clouds floating around as if I was in a dream. Some times
I would laugh so hard I would cry, other times I would curse
the God above for putting me in so much pain. I would dare
say I felt more emotion, highs and lows, in that short 23-day
period then I feel for years in the 'real' world. I felt life
so deep, so intense, I felt life straight down to the marrow.
Wow, was I ALIVE!
Since my OB course I am a different person. It is hard to
explain. Once in a while during my busy days I will see a
sight or smell a smell that reminds me of OB and Colorado.
Maybe it is a full moon, maybe it is a clear night with crisp
air and stars twinkling in the sky, or maybe it is something
quite ordinary like a bowl of Ramen, once in a while I see
these things and I stop and think back to that magic three
weeks I spent on the grandest adventure of my life. Was it
a dream I ask myself. Did I really climb those huge mountains
with a heavy pack on my back, did I really get stuck in a
lightning storm on top of a fourteen thousand foot mountain,
did I really spend three days and three nights on solo, did
I really make some of the best friends I have ever had. I
really did it. And I smile.
Three
years after my 23-day Mountaineering Course in the San Juans
I still think about it every day. It was probably the single
most important thing I have ever done.
