Higher up we go, to Tuckerman's Ravine...
SO HERE WE COME TO IT, FOLKS: When we end up prepared, we move to our second phase: unqualified confidence.
The trail we took to the top was one of the most direct, and it had just opened on that day. The guides at the base told us to be careful, because there was snow on the trail. We thought it would be slippery and icy. We didn't realize the trail would be utterly obscured by snow. (See above).
For a minute it was fun. We were tired, but it was cool to walk on snow while sweating in tank-tops and t-shirts. I threw a snowball. But Jack didn't want to walk in the snow, wondering what was underneath it and if it was stable. And I wasn't sure if that was the right way up anyways. So I posited that we try a different route, to the right.
As we got too close to turn around, we realized it was a steep rockslide waiting to happen, with a waterflow underneath to make it more plausible. Nervously, we continued, trying to stay calm, trying to stay alert.
"People who can see us down there must think we're like, experts."
"People who can see us down there must think we're FUCKING STUPID."
"And I know they can see us, because your pants are so pink."
The gallows humor got us through. We tried sticking to the sides, in the case of a landslide, those would be the slowest parts. We got ourselves in too deep to get out. We saw a path that we could just barely get to, and prayed, prayed, that the rocks would not give way beneath our feet, that we wouldn't fall to our deaths or get crushed trying to scramble out of the way.
We didn't die. But we could have. We came very close. And, someone else did (not that day, but his remains we found.)
Count our blessings that this blog post made it.
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