Article March 30, 1974 Issue

A Challenge in the Mountains

DIANE ELIZABETH RICHARDSON

I signed up to take a unit of mountaineering at camp last summer. You were expected to carry all your food and clothes on your back and hike sixty-five miles during the seventeen-day period. I sure found out fast how to put to good use all those things I'd learned in the Christian Science Sunday School.

I'm from the Florida flatlands. Standing at the foot of a mountain, looking up, I thought, "This doesn't look so hard." And it isn't—just standing there looking at it. The trouble seems to start when you are about halfway, or even nearer the top. You get the feeling of exhaustion. Because the air at twelve thousand feet is somewhat thin, it can be difficult getting a good deep breath.

And on top of everything, you begin to suspect that your cook partner maybe didn't take quite her share of the food, because your pack seems so much heavier than when you started out. Or that the girl in front of you is going too fast. What is she trying to do, set a record for the five-mile run?

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