The day I almost died

These are some older pictures, but I haven't shared it yet besides with the people who went with me. I made it to almost the top of a mountain in two days!

I wanted some adventure that weekend. In fact I was going to ask Kevin, Mr. Hardcore-in-shape, if he wanted to go for an extended hike in the afternoon. I am eating lunch when he comes over to me and asks if I'm up for a hiking overnight stay! How fantastic is this! I immediately agree and go to my room to pack and get ready.


After some delays, where Kevin took the longest to pack, we stopped to pick up a giant block of cheddar cheese from the cafeteria, numerous protein (and in my case, candy) bars, some supper for the road, along with four of those giant hiking backbacks filled to the top (with, in my case, much borrowed gear), we are off.

To a completely different destination than we had originally planned.
Plan A involved a couple-hour hike, riding a cable car across a river to hike another hour to cabins for the night.

Plan B involved us monkeying across the cable that held the car because we couldn't get keys to said cable car. In the dark, because we had taken too much time trying to find the keys.

Plan C involved us climbing up an entire mountain in the dark, aided by flashlights and headlamps, setting up tents (in what we discovered was a thin layer of snow!), and getting up to climb to the top the next day.


The overestimation of my physical ability pulled us down like the heavy bag on my back. Hannah offered to 'trade packs with me', which was generous considering she had no pack at the moment. She and Leah had split a bag so at any one point one person was burden-free. Even when I was unburdened, I was only keeping up to everyone else.

Leah also traded packs with me once, and Kevin constantly stopped to wait for me. After five hours of hiking in the dark and cycling the weightless pack throughout our group (with a bias towards me), we made it above the snow line.

This is at a time of year when there was no snow, so we ascended the seasons as we climbed the mountains.

This photo is what I woke up to the next morning. We took a few photos, ate breakfast, packed one bag to carry lunch and extra layers, and hit the trail again.

We hiked above the level of the lake, into what became alpine meadowland. They were so picturesque, slightly reminiscent of some scene in the European mountains. Maybe Heidi was around the bend.


Being a city child, of course I hadn't eaten enough at breakfast, so every step I took drained me of an already low reserve of energy. Sarah, sticking to my painfully slow pace, urged me to take it step by step, and encouraged me with the promise of food once we reached the top.


There we had a picnic. My mood was elevated, my body was reenergized, and I knew that there would be no more climbing up. I clambered down the mountain like a nimble little mountain goat - well not quite, but I can say I survived the Garibaldi Hike.