Miles: collective 36 (Tom, Evan, Morgan)

My friend Caitlin succinctly described the moral of this trip: “sometimes it’s important to find your edges.” As a novice backcountry skier contending for the first time with subpar conditions– serious ice crust, mushy snow, and boot postholes– it was quickly apparent that I had reached the edges of my physical abilities. Dynafit blacklight edges? Damn near impossible to find. I am humbled by my lack of the skills that were demanded during this trip. I’ve been recently thinking about my desire to only see relentless linear progress in many things: career, physical fitness, relationships:

I want to believe that I am the greatest runner that I have ever been at this moment. I am so much closer with my friends than I was in the past and we’ll grow even tighter. I am better and better at my work every day. I have been learning to ski and improving at skiing and skiing a few moguls and I can ski down volcanoes! Okay, maybe some humility was overdue.

Many thanks are in order to Tom for carrying my pack and coaching me down the mountain and to Evan for freeing me from a twisted ski after a fall and holding me when I was scared. I think we’ve been having a lot of wild adventures recently that have been putting me out of my depth. I’m excited to just go hiking with my friends and keep my own two feet on solid ground. Maybe after this weekend, we won’t be degree of closeness = (years knowing one another)*(experiences shared +1)+ like mindedness better friends. I’m just happy to spend time with them before I upend my life for grad school.