Compass story #6: SUMMIT PARTY!!

One thing I'd like to say about my team and La Vida: Each and every one of us had a supportive family around us all the time. Period. No, scratch that: Exclamation point! The Bush and the sherpas, who I shall call BK and Lynn for want of better pseudonyms (and more imagination), were there for us all the way and we were there for each other. Everyone had someone who prayed for them the day they shared their life story, and sharing mine with the group the first night on the backpacking trail was incredibly powerful bonding with the group for me. We all could be and would be totally open. When we were at Claymore on campus...bliss.

This was unbelievably important, because the next day we climbed Giant Mountain.

Wearing our packs, we climbed up boulders, stumbled across streams, etc. When we reached a tall rock or something difficult to climb, a guy like Skyscraper or Samwise would get a boost up (taking off their pack if necessary), and help pull others up, and spot us so we wouldn't fall. Our LODs, I think Sparky, Skyscraper and The Joker, would call a stop when we needed one, but otherwise we kept pressing on. We reached the alpine section of the mountain where normally it would have been cold, but in our t-shirts and shorts we were still warmer than was comfortable, due to the fact that we were carrying these huge packs up a mountain.

I enjoyed talking to Glove Love on the way up, about school and apologetics and stuff like that, and the troubles he's been having at school with jerk teachers who mark him down for writing about his faith in a personal essay and stuff like that. Not only did we have a good conversation, but it helped keep my mind off the trail and on dealing with, say, biased teachers and stuff. Nevertheless, it was a hard day, exhausting and painful, but there weren't really any moments I can remember that had utter despair (or gooey black mud). It helped that I spent about half the climb under the delusion that we were "almost there."

Finally, though, we reached a spot near the top and Samwise let out a yell of excitement and joy (WHOOO-HOOOOO!) because we were in a cloud. That was so cool for him. It was mere minutes from then when we reached the top. After a few minutes of joy, freedom and feeling like we could fly (the one perk of the backpacks was the feeling you get when you take it off) we dashed for our layers, because it was cold up there! Then we found a spot mostly sheltered from the wind and pulled out the stuff for lunch.

Lo and behold, Lynn and BK had brought candy, confetti and noisemakers for us to have a summit/day-after-Enrique's-birthday party! We went around and said things we wanted to celebrate that day, and mine was "surviving to the top of the mountain." Enrique said, "I think I speak for the group when I say we're all proud of you, little sis." I'm the second-youngest in the group. "You stuck with it and now, you're at the top of the mountain with your family."

"That's right, I'm with my family." I said, and meant it. Who says we can only have one family anyway?

We took group pictures on the mountain, funny pictures like the one of The Bush next to The Joker, who, true to form, had that morning taken charcoal from the fire pit and drawn a beard on his face to resemble that of The Bush, or the ones of The Friz saving me from "falling" and vice versa, and generally messed around.
Taking in the view was truly spectacular, staring at a huge bowl of land wayyyyy below us with the shadow of clouds moving across it from clouds almost low enough to be at our eye level. We could really see and feel the glory of God from that mountain, and be moved by His presence what with the view, and the love of the group for each other, and the success of having scaled the mountain up to the summit.

And we rested for the descent. The summit had been worth the climb, and the incident of the previous day, in my opinion.