Taking the Path Less Travelled

This past weekend I honestly believe I had the experience of a lifetime, climbing Mount Helvellyn in The Lake District near Plinth.  I also managed to go to St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Aquarium as well since I last posted too...
This "little hike" up Helvellyn had been in the works for the greater part of two months or so.  I was anxious to go, but completely unaware of what to expect.  I guess if I had to pin down what my expectation was, I was thinking an easy, liesurly climb up a marked path with a defined 20 minute lunch break.  I wasn't any of that...especially the lunch break.

The day started at 4:30 am for me, when I woke up and got showered and dressed, having packed a couple days previous.  We met Nick (Jill's - the program directors- husband) and a friend of his (Simon) at 5:00 am outside the Crawford Flats.  We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us and we wanted to get up on the mountain while it was still morning.  If you take a look at this picture here, you'll see clearly that it took less than 5 hours:

That's in mph

When we finally found the right parking spot for Helvellyn, we geared-up and began the climb.  It was "easy" at first, with a clearly marked path and what looked to be a reasonable hill to climb.  As you know, I'm not the most physically fit person, and in all actuality probably the least physically fit person on this hike.  I was already feeling it 20 minutes into the climb.  I was annoyed because I kind of knew I was going to be breathing heavy and really fighting my body - and my nerves too - to get to the top, but I didn't know that I would have to do so from square one.  I just drank a lot of water and kept going, I never once complained (except for a lack of snow...which I was soon corrected on):

found it

Nick Fenton, our fearless leader who did the entire climb with that camera around his neck

That's our destination...I didn't know it at the time.  I thought I was just taking a picture of a mountian

Once we got to what seemed to be the top, there was more.  We took a 2 minute break to water down and take some pictures, but then it was off again.  Nick's general directions were something like: just climb up a ways, then sort of take a right.  I didn't really know what he meant by that at the time, but as you can see from the picture of this ridge, this is the "right" he was talking about:

It's bigger than it looks, probably took 45 minutes to get there and get over it

Not a lot of room to sit

Up and to the left...now I was kind of figuring that out

See the ridge right above my head?  Yeah, that

Going back a bit: after that initial climb up, we walked along a more gradual incline as we positioned ourselves for this "scamper" across what Nick told us (afterwords of course) was the most famous ridge in all of climbing in England.  When I was actually doing the climbing, I was scared beyond belief, but I tried to keep that all internal.  I mean if a rock I was holding on slipped or if I shifted my weight wrong, who the heck knows what could have happened...I like to think nothing to serious, but I don't really want to even think about it.

This climb was a reality check I guess for me because I've never done something so physically demanding while questioning the entire time if I'd be able to actually do it.  Until we started climbing across the ridge, which was actual "rock climbing," I though to myself that I could do it as long as it didn't get any harder.  When I saw the people ahead of us securing their packs and beginning to look for good hand and foot holds, I got nervous.  I was picked up and thrown outside of my comfort zone so far, I didn't even know what to do really.  As I realized this thing was getting more difficult than I anticipated, I swore to myself that I would not only climb this ridge, but I would then ascent the next art of the climb and get up to the top.  I needed to prove to myself that I could do it, that this kind of physical exertion wasn't outside my capabilities.  That still didn't take away the fear I had throughout the ordeal, but as you can see, I still manage to take some pictures:

Sarah

Don't know these guys actually...

Just looking back to see what we just climbed across

After scaling this ridge thing, I was looking for at least a 5 minute break to eat the tuna sandwich I had made at my flat earlier this morning - which made me think, I'm climbing here on almost no rest at all...  Well, we got enough time to take some pictures and that was about it.  We walked on a zero-degree elevation (first time all day, and this was about hour 3) for about a half hour or so behind the snow drifts that you can see lining the edge of Helvellyn:

training mission...I hope so

We had one last ascent before we began our 2 hour descent back to the Lake and the parking lot.  I did what you called "championing" this one.  Up until this point, I was never in the lead, I hung back in the group and dare I say fell behind a little in the early goings.  But I was so pumped up with myself at making it across, and doing what I would have never pictured myself ding in general (let alone in England) that I wanted to raise the anti a little.  I started walking faster, taking longer strides and going up some of the softer terrain.  I passed the people in front of me in our group, then passed a couple people from other groups.  I made it to the top of this final ascent ahead of the rest of my group; hard climbing for 20 minutes without stopping.  I felt like I was on a StairMaster of death or something, like it was a never ending push to the top.  I knew that as soon as I made that "break away" that it'd be pretty bad for them to catch up again, so I was pushing all the reserve energy I had into my thighs and calf's to make this thing happen.  When I got to the top and stopped, the view was amazing, I couldn't believe it.  Nick showed me where we climbed up and the path we had taken (I didn't believe him at first) to get to this final spot.  Then we started the descent, which was more annoying than anything because of the pressure put on my knees the entire time.  I completed this portion with a friend, Sarah, who apparently was totally expecting that ridiculous climb and cardiac work-out.  I jokingly asked her why she didn't tell me.  I'm glad now though that she didn't tell me in advance because I probably wouldn't have gone.  Yes it would have been my loss, but I wouldn't have known that'd I'd be losing the experience of a life time:

That's the spine of Helvellyn

We had to get down there to complete our descent

You can't see that I have no standing room so just take my word for it

 I just came down that...proud of myself but still scared as all heck

Words can't really do justice to the view from the top, and the testing journey to get up there and then back down.  I wasn't sure if I could physically do it all, but as you can see I did, and I'm very happy that I did.  Before this, I  only did two other physically arduous things in my life (both through Boy Scouts) that really helped me see the possibilities if I took a step back and did something I'd normally never ever give a second thought to.  One was a week-long 50 mile canoe trek through upstate New York and the other was COPE (challenging outdoor personal experience).  Both pushed me beyond my limits.


It's funny as I sit here and write this, I feel as if that experience, being up there on the mountain this past weekend, gave me an opportunity to think a little as to what I've done and what I still need to do with my life.  Let's keep it simple and say that I'm feeling great about what lies ahead.  Also, the Bead and Breakfast we stayed at was swell, this room topped the one in Bayeux (which I thought to be impossible...):

The shower looked like the phone booth from Get Smart

BREAKFAST!!!

I'll put the pictures from St. Paul's and the London Aquarium up later, I've got class soon.

"It's always further than it looks.
It's always taller than it looks.
And it's always harder than it looks."   
-- The 3 rules of mountaineering.

"After a days climb everything has twice its usual value"
~Anonymous


 Stay Tuned...