Earning My Turns by Christian

Earning My Turns

 

By Christian

                                                      8th grade - HPSEL

I'll never forget the first full day at the hut.  We all got up and had and awesome breakfast.  We talked about our plan for the day, hike to the saddle behind the hut, then climb the ridge.  We got our stuff together for the hike.  Skins were securely attached to skis,  snowshoers strapped on their shoes and we were off on our adventure.

At first everything went well, the sun was shining, everyone was happy.  Then all the skiers in the front, especially the ones breaking trail, started to realize snow was sticking to their skins.  At one point Mrs. Bangtson had 8 or 9 inches of snow on the bottom of her skis.  Many of the skiers were banging their poles on the side of their skis in attempt to get the snow off.  Daniel ended up bending his pole so he gave it to Michael to bend back.  Michael hit it against a try, and broke the pole in half!  We tried to fix it with sticks and duct table, but nothing would work.  Daniel ended up hiking up the mountain with one pole.


 
Finally we got to a clearing near tree line.  It was a breathtaking view with huge peaks all over.  We  
hiked up to the edge of the clearing and began to get lunch together.  We dug a trench and made benches out of skis.  For lunch we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, along with Nutella and tortillas.  We shared a bag of wildberry skittles for dessert.  When everyone had their fill we packed up and got ready for the final push.


We hiked up to the closest peak.  Right as we left the cover of the trees the wind picked up and it got cold.  Once we got near the top everybody got ready for the decent.  Mrs. Bangtson dug an avalanche pit and we all took turns getting in it and looking for weak layers of snow.  After that we did an isolated column test and found out the snow was pretty safe, but still a little dangerous because of weak layer pretty far down.  We decided to take a line down that wasn't as steep and was closer to the trees.  Mrs. Bangtson went first and then a couple of other people.  Finally it was my turn to go.
  


As I dropped in, I experienced a feeling like no other.  I was free and in my own world.  I had earned my turns.  I was freeing my heal and freeing my soul.  

After that we all regrouped and went into the trees.  We weaved in and out until we ended up on a lake that had been frozen over.  We put on our skins and hiked up through a beautiful glad back to the hut.  At the top a few of us decided we would take a run down through the glad.  The snow was awesome.  It was like a freshly groom run, only natural.

At the bottom we put our skins back on and hiked back to the hut.  When we finally got back we all took off our sweaty clothes ad chilled out around the hut.  Some people played card games, some people prepared dinners, and some people worked on the dog puzzle.

I'll never forget that day.  It was one of the biggest and most fun adventures I had ever been on.  I'm so happy I was able to be a part of it and it will be in my memories forever.