Hello hello~!
Wow, this past weekend was incredible. I’m going to try to tell the story through pictures rather than words, though, so here goes!
(A bit of background/introduction first: A few organizations (VICE, College Outside, etc.) came together and hosted a collegiate overnight trip for students from all over the Northeast. It was Friday evening through Sunday morning, with Valentine’s Day in between. We stayed in a lodge in Madison, NH!)
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This is Katie on the drive there. It was a 3 hour drive and she was a pal and helped out so I wouldn’t have to drive the entire way! Keep in mind this was a huge van that could seat 8. I’d never driven anything remotely that big before!
The lodge! Specifically, Camp Tohko’s Osceola Lodge. (Fun fact! My guide (we split up into groups of 10 for the actual ice climbing day and each group had a professional mountain guide) Kevin Mahoney actually owns the lodge! Or rather, his entire family does. He grew up in a house nearby on the same piece of land!)
And so many college students….so many! Just off the top of my head, there were kids from BU, BC, NU, Brown, Colgate, RPI, MIT, UBM, Lyndon State, Champlain, Brandeis, Olin, and Wellesley.
As you can see, it was pretty crowded….haha
In the end, my friends Katie and Elle and I slept on the ground floor with 16 Colgate kids, because the upstairs had run out of bunk beds and floor space (!) haha. It was really comfy though! They had mattresses for us all.
And the next day we woke up at 6:45, got dressed in a TON of layers, met up with our groups/guides, and set out! Kevin was taking our group, which was Mixed Climbing by the way (ice and rock mixed!) to a place called Trollville. (Isn’t that a cool name?)
And something else that was really cool is the fact that Kevin, my guide, is one of the biggest figures in the realm of ice climbing. Another major ice climbing dude, Will Gadd, recently climbed Niagara Falls (oh, yeah) and get this–Kevin and Will are good buddies. Yup. Kevin also knows Jimmy Chin. And Conrad Anker. And has met Cedar Wright.
I mean!! These people are just…first of all they’re all incredible. And secondly they’re all super big names in the climbing world. And then–they’re all friends! It’s like one big posse of super fit, super athletic, super kick-butt people!
And I got to ride in Kevin’s Subaru!! I sat in his car!! I spoke to him! I was in his presence for a day! Totally reveling right now in the privileged experience that this weekend was.
And here Kevin’s teaching us the basics of ice climbing:
And at the end of the day we finally get back to the lodge…it was so nice to be back inside and warm again! But also back into the super crowded mess that is 100 young people living in a 2 story cabin…haha
I got a photo with Kevin!!
And then we had presentations and a raffle! You can see the table full of free gear in the back. 😀
There was also a burpee contest for free gear…
And then we all stayed up past midnight playing ping pong and hacky sack, and doing yoga (because we were all sore from the day haha). It was great.
And the next morning we set off! Didn’t take too many photos except this one of Katie eating cheezits as she drove haha.
And that was my weekend! Loooots of photos, I know, but I hope they were more enjoyable than overwhelming! I can’t think of any previous blog post that had this many photos haha.
Anyway, Happy President’s Day everyone! I am currently at…you guess it, MetroRock. I’m chilling in the back lounge doing work with Katie. 🙂
I have a lot of reading to do before classes resume tomorrow, so I’ll sign off now.
Take care, and stay warm!
Until next week,
~Emily