Item 57; Hike to the Top of a Mountain

Let me preface this post by stating that I am a descendant of plains people. My ancestors are known for their ability to run forever in 120 degree weather with 99% humidity on flat land. We do not climb mountains. That's just the way it is. So when my friends asked if I would wanted to climb a mountain with them, I of course jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't want to climb to the top of Mount Timpanogas, at night, in the cold while trying to avoid sliding down massive glaciers, right after a rain storm? It sounded brilliant.
When Dave approached my friend Melissa and I on a Thursday night before institute about hiking a mountain the next night we of course said yes, perhaps not yet realizing just how epic this trek would be.
We gathered at Dave's apartment at 11:30 that Friday night in the middle of a downpour. Melissa and I were wearing many layers because we knew the top of the mountain would be freezing and we each brought some granola bars and a couple bottles of water because we thought there may be a chance that we would get thirsty at some point in the hike. The group decided that we would go to the beginning of the trail and maybe it would stop raining. I honestly thought that we probably wouldn't end up hiking because where I'm from you generally avoid high ground and trees during lightning storms. We got to the beginning of the trail just as it stopped raining. We thought the trail might be kind of bad due to the incliment weather, and again I thought that we probably wouldn't go very far before turning back. We began hiking up the trail and we didn't get very far before we encountered another group of hikers telling us to turn back because the trail was really bad and there were some massive glaciers farther up the trail. The group decided to ignore this advice and try to hike it anyway. When agreeing to the hike, I was unaware that I would be hiking with professionals. The pace was rather fast up the trail, and did I mention that it was dark out, it being night and all..
We didn't hike for very long before I realized the error of my ways and began thinking that if I made it out of this alive I would never again try to climb anything larger than the worlds tallest hill (which happens to be located in Oklahoma, by the way). The pace was grueling and the breaks few and far between. I'm not sure how far we were up the mountain when we encountered our first glacier. This first test wasn't to difficult. We had to crawl, but the distance across wasn't too far and we were feeling good when we made it safely to the other side. Not too much farther along the trail we came across our second glacier. This one was slightly larger than the first, but again we made it across without any mishaps. Unfortunately we lost the trail somewhere under this second glacier. Our fearless leader, Dave wasn't worried though. We continued in what we believed to be the direction of the trail until we encountered another glacier. This one was very large. Let the record show that I said we shouldn't cross it, and maybe we'd be better off if we just turned back. However, I was outvoted, by everyone. After taking an excrutiating amount of time to cross this extremely large and slick glacier, we eventually made it to the other side only to find another glacier immediately following it. This one wasn't quite as large as the last one, but it was the slickest thing we had encountered and it was a very difficult passage. When we finally reached the other side the trail was again nowhere to be seen. The rest of the group wanted to explore and try to find it just by continuing in the same direction. Dave decided that he would go straight up the mountain and try to find it farther up. Melissa and I decided to stay where we were until the trail was found. Need I repeat that it was the middle of the night? The other members of our group got treacherously close to the edge of a cliff before heading back towards us. Dave eventually found the trail..back across the last two glaciers.
The trip back across the glaciers took as long as the first time we traversed them, and after an hour-long detour we were finally back on our way. By this time I was ready to just lay down on the side of the trail and wait for them to collect me on their way back down the mountain. However, somehow I found the power to persevere. I don't really recall much of the trip for the next little while, until the next glacier that we came to. This one was located over the top of a waterfall and we had to pass over high up, but not too high up because there was a hole in it. This was the most treacherous crossing of the hike. It was extremely slippery. I was about three quarters of the way across when I looked back just in time to see my friend Brandon slip. It was the scariest experience of my life watching him sliding down the glacier with the rest of us powerless to stop him. By some miracle he stopped just in time. As we finished the crossing I knew that I had just witnessed a miracle.
We continued up the mountain and the rest of the trip I was in a daze. I was completely exhausted and I was running on auto-pilot. We finally reached the shelter at Emerald Lake a mere six hours after starting out. From this point we watched the sunrise, but I was honestly too exhausted to really care about it. I could hardly move. This point is considered by many to be the top of the mountain, but we were about thirty minutes from the actual summit. Thirty minutes, that is, when the trail is clear. From here it was nothing but glacier the rest of the way. After some deliberation, Brandon and I decided that it would be best not to go any farther (did I mention that I could hardly stand up, let alone walk?). The rest of the group wanted to continue onward, so they did that and Brandon and I began the descent.
Our trip down didn't take too terribly long, considering that I could barely shuffle my feet to keep moving. It is actually incredibly painful to your feet to walk downhill for an extended period of time. We were fairly annoyed to find that the glacier that almost killed Brandon could have been avoided entirely and we crossed some very steep areas during the night that we couldn't see at all. We made it down in half the time that it took us to get up. It only took me about three days to get over my soreness and exhaustion.
In the end, I think that this trip was worth it. Even though it was very greuling, it made me push myself like nothing had in a very long time. After all, it's all about will power.

Things I learned from this hike:
1. Never agree to hike at night.
2. Always go hiking with a group of beginners that won't want to go too fast.
3. Take lots of water.
4. When your gut instinct tells you to not cross the treacherous ice fields, don't do it!
5. Don't go longboarding for 2 hours the day you plan on hiking a freaking mountain.
6. Do take a long nap the day you plan on hiking a freaking mountain.