Winter Blast Short Story

In Matthew Hedger’s article “Yosemite National Park Day Hikes: Vernal Falls Death March”, he claims that you don’t always know what you’re getting into and find that things are harder than they seem. Hedger supports his claim with a story of his hike up Vernal Falls. His purpose is to inform his readers that you can always get through difficult things and that they’re stronger than they think. The intended audience is anyone who enjoys a good story and wants to know about hiking.

We were all encouraged to choke down as much food as possible. Any kind of energy was essential. A melancholy atmosphere hung heavy as the journey progressed. Minutes walking slowly progressed into hours, the sky seemed to darken steadily. All of us were oblivious to the danger shrouded by the dim evening. Only moments after scaling a rather steep ledge did nature dice to turn sour. A deafening rumble made each climber perk up. Snow began to descend at an alarming rate. Thunder began to mic the steady beating of a drum, causing more concern among the ranks of climbers. The powdery snow became more of a risk than ever, climbing under pressure and leaving nothing to stand on. Third base was more than three hours away. Three hours wasn't possible at the rate. Snowfall this bad could be detrimental to the climb’s success. Snow obscured vision and numbed faces. Shouts and orders deemed lost in the screaming wind; people’s figure became shapeless blurs frantically shifting, hoping if they struggled against the wind hard enough, they might find someone. Of course, this was to no avail. Not a single person doubted their demise would come at this point: the stakes were high and no-one could play too well against Mother Nature. The snow crept up to knee-level, making it harder and harder to travel. Death and I were face-to-face. To some, they couldn't bare the idea of dying up here; they had families and friends, children who need parents and

We had reached the base of the hay bales and we started to climb. Once you got to the third highest hay bale you had to make a leap from the bale you are on to the fourth row of bales. There was about a five foot gap in between this leap so it was a extremely dangerous jump. I am the first one up because I have done this before and the other guys wanted to see how it was done. One must position himself on the far side of the bale then get a running start then launch themselves into the air and grab onto the straps that hold the bales together. Using all upper body strength, pull oneself up onto the bale. This will challenge our ninja warrior skills.

“Those who participated in this school camped along the river north of Seneca Rocks. Each climbing instructor had a total of ten men to train. At the end of the first week the instructor had to drop the weakest climbers and the remaining six got an additional week of advanced climbing.” (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT)

The course continued on in the woods for a brief distance and then exited the woods and continued up towards the top of the ski mountain and back into the woods for a short time and then exited to the next obstacle that started out with crawl underneath the obstacle and then a ladder wall type climb up the obstacle and then a short rope ladder traverse on the top of the obstacle and then back down the other side of the obstacle via the same rope ladder. The course again found its ways back in to the woods and came a rock climb that was draped with a rope net to assist with getting up the rocks that at least on Sunday where really slippery. The course continued on a short distance more through some really technical trails and came to a slack-line traverse that had a slack line for the feet, but a loser rope for the hands, I found this was an easy obstacle as long as you used your bodies weight and leverage to be an advantage. A very short trail distance later came the next obstacle that was a nice and easy ladder wall to climb up and over.

I have always wanted to go on a zipline. I break out into a sweat as I headed up the steep mountainous terrain. One foot at a time I reached for the unstable scattered pegs on the tree cautiously. As the fear of falling came to mind I stopped and thought to myself...I can do this.

I then happen to notice movement as someone scales down the rocks. The climber--a young man about my age--notices me, then cautiously approaches and sits beside me. He removes his sweatshirt, drapes it across my shoulders, and opens an umbrella. He gazes at me with both fear and concern.

First thing in the morning, we decided to get this zipline over with right after we had our daily coffee. During the day, the rope looked even more thin and and higher up than it did last night. My fear arose as I was about to jump of the peer.

Ashlyn Buchanan climbed up to the zip line and everyone turned their attention to her. She had already tried to go down, but she was too scared to go. Even when everyone that is supposed to be pulling me up goes over to cheer her on, I walk over to the ladder, to be strapped and buckled in.

I had only two groups ahead of me and then it was my turn to take the lift. As the others ahead got on, I examined the way they mounted the seat. As each seat took off, they would walk up behind it as another seat, without stopping, would scoop them up from behind. Now it was my turn. When the group ahead of me got carried away, I moved up quickly so the seat coming from behind me wouldn’t knock me down. As I watched the seat draw near I noticed there were no seatbelts! How stupid of me. Of course there wouldn’t be seatbelts. Once you finally get to the top, you have to get off quickly otherwise you’ll miss your chance and the lift will take you back down. It was too late now, the seat was right behind me. As it grabbed me from behind, I could feel my board and legs begin to drag across the floor. When I lost contact with the earth, I clung to the side railing as tightly as I could. Every second that passed took me higher and higher. The cable suspending my seat bounced up and down as more passengers were added to the weight of the lift. I looked down and realized I was already about twenty feet in the air. The gravity pulling down on the snowboard attached to my foot felt as if a demon, whose name was Acrophobia, was dragging me down to the depths of

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” These words were spoken by the exemplary Benjamin Franklin. Prior to climbing the mountain, Leatherman Peak, I had to prepare in various ways to make sure I would be ready enough to accomplish the nature of my task. The training I did included breaking in my hiking shoes, strengthening my legs, and

“Violet, did Sarah look odd to you at all?” I ask unsure what to think.

Climbing has not always been easy for Eric. Eric defied the odds and guided his blind friend Erik Weihenmayer.

I have never climbed a mountain before, so I don’t know what mental and physically challenges they when though, but after watching the film it has opened my eyes on how hard it would be to climb a mountain like the one they did. I had dreams before I watched this movie and in my dreams my rope has come lose and I am falling, falling, and all the way down I am screaming, "Stupid! You're so stupid! You climbed all the way up there just so you could fall back down!” Now there is a movie that is more frightening than my nightmares. “Touching the Void” is the most harrowing movie about mountain climbing I have ever seen.

Ten minutes earlier the guide was telling me to put my harness on. Heights have always