My First Mountaineering Trip

Willey's Slide

Yesterday I went mountaineering for the first time with a class through Salt Pump.  It was a lot of fun, I definitely learned a lot of new stuff, and when I got to the top of where we were climbing and looked down I wasn't even a little nervous either.

I packed for the trip on Friday night, knowing myself enough to know that I wasn't going to be able to wake up enough to make sure I wasn't missing anything the next morning.

After a quick meeting at Salt Pump me and my climbing partners headed out to North Conway in New Hampshire, to meet our guide, Jimmy, and borrow gear from Cathedral Mountain Guides.  Quickly we were back on the road, on our way to Willey's Slide.

Our view of surrounding mountains!

First part of the day we learned the basic stuff, like how to use crampons, how to use the mountaineering axe, self-arrest, ice tools, etc.  We had beautifully calm weather, with next to no wind, and cloud cover, it was perfect for a first time mountaineering.  Considering all the snow the rest of the east coast has gotten in the last few days we were very lucky.

We did get to do some low-angle ice climbing, as well as learn a bit about running belays (AKA Simul Climbing), and eventually went almost all the way up what you saw on the left side, in the first picture.  It was an all around amazing experience.  With proper layering I wasn't cold most of the climb, except my fingers because I was wearing the fingerless gloves convertible mittens for my gloves.  Let me tell you, swinging an ice tool with numb, tingly fingers is extremely difficult, I do recommend better gloves.  I think I will probably leave my down jacket on while climbing next time, and maybe lose a top base layer instead.  In just my base layers, fleece, and shell I was a bit chilly, even when climbing.

Me, super psyched to be outside climbing for the first time!

We went up, and then hiked down a trail through the woods instead of going down on the mixed ice and snow, it was the easier way to get down.  Walking through the deep snow made me appreciate being so active normally, because though it was a bit tiring on the legs I ended up being the only one, other than our, guide who wasn't sore afterwards.

It was a fantastic trip, and now I'm just really psyched to get back onto the ice.  I'm planning on going Thursday morning back to Willey's Slide to tackle the middle section of just low-angle ice with my co-worker, Zack.


No matter what I know I'm going to be getting outside more this winter.  Usually I avoid the snow and cold like the plague, this year I think I will be able to enjoy it more.  Today I even went on a short winter hike to a waterfall near my house.  As amazing as it is to go out and find big adventures there are also small ones close to home, that is something I need to remember when the "wanderlust" sets in.

The Swing

I am fortunate to have strong determination, or, I'm just stubborn.  My strong determination (stubbornness) gets me into a lot of fear facing situations.  I try to do some things outside my comfort zone, sometimes though, they are so far outside my comfort zone I should probably just skip them.  Today I did one such thing; the swing at Monkey Trunks.

To those of you who aren't afraid of heights a drop off a platform 35' in the air might seem like lots of fun, and not terrifying in the least.  However, I am afraid of heights.  So going off the swing, even hooking people on and sending them off is a scary idea.  Which is exactly why I didn't go off myself until today.

A couple of weeks ago I'd wanted to go off, I even got all hooked in ready to go off, but I got scared and made my friend hold the rope (which isn't light) so I didn't go off for probably 5-10 minutes before chickening out, and not doing it.  Today was his last day so I decided I had to let him send me off, since he'd been nice and held me there for so long last time.

As I expected, I disliked the immediate drop, but it wasn't quite as jerky as I thought it'd be, which was good.  We'd figured out how to send me off so it wouldn't be jerky before I went.  Other then that, it was just as scary as I thought it would be.  The actual swinging was fun though, I knew that would be the case before I went off.

I had a couple of things running through my mind, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go off.  First, I trust my friend, and if that wasn't the case I wouldn't have even gotten attached to the swing in the first place.  Second, I remembered a question my bosses asked me during my first day of training, because I'd gotten so nervous being at heights "Do you really want to be a safety instructor?" That question helped me on day 1 go off the ziplines, which is now my favorite part of the course, and it helped me go off the swing today.  Third, the song Sugar, We're Goin Down by Fall Out Boy was definitely in my head, not going to lie.

Here is a video of what the swing is.  This is a different location, but it's the same kind of swing.  The drop in this video looks fairly smooth, like it was when I went off, though this isn't always the case.

In the end, I'm pretty glad I did it, but I'm not sure I'd do it again, but who knows.  At the beginning of the summer I wasn't sure if I was ever going to do it, maybe by October I'll try it again.