Sunday March 30, 2008
Today was my first mountaineering expedition. It was a day trip where we met at 8am (although I actually left the house @ 6:30 am to make it there on time by bus since the metro doesn’t open until 8am on a Sunday). We all packed into cars driven by the Chilean students who were able to aquire them for at least the day then headed up into the mountains.
We split into 10 groups of about 7 or so, each led by an ayudante, or student helper. We all proceeded to hike up and then back down into a valley where the mountainside was full of little rocks and perfect for the day’s lesson. We all learned how to stay in control and slide/ski/surf down the mountainside using our piolets (ice-picks) to steer, balance us. It was adventurous, fast, athletic, and quite dirty, which for me equaled a very good time. After having lunch in the vallesito (little valley) we headed back up to do come obstacle course sliding with and without the piolet.
While learning all of this we also learned that if a rock starts falling down the mountain the first thing you should do is yell “piedra” (rock) and then get out of the way. Throughout the day various students got taken by surprise when a rock they couldn’t see hit their foot when the person up the mountain from them jumped out of the rock’s path. It was also quite comical when someone would start to slip down the mountain and the ayudantes would yell “alumno” instead of “piedra”. I will definitely not forget that word; it may be the last word in Spanish I ever remember but I can tell you right now I don’t think I could forget it if I wanted to.
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