The trek in the Andes mountains was challenging to say the least, yet an experience completely out of this world. My muscles are still sore, but it was completely worth it. My husband and I travelled from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela to a small town named Mérida, where we allowed ourselves to acclimatize to the high altitude. A cable car ride over the breathtaking Andes mountains transported us on top of Pico Espejo, also described as Mirror Peak. We were met by the stunning views of the majestic snow-clad Pico Bolivar in front of us. The climate on top of the peak was chilling to the bone, even through our winter clothes. The route we had to take on was no short of any challenges, full of steep snaking climbs, strewn with pebbles all along the
In early November, Zebulon and his crew spotted and tried to climb a mountain. A mountain that would later be known as Pike’s Peak. They made it at least two-thirds the way up the majestic mountain before having to turn back. It was a smart move because there was snow all the way up to about their waist and torso. In addition to the harsh weather conditions, Zebulon and his group have not had eaten for two days straight. Those were the main reasons that forced to crew to turn
In the memoir Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin, the author Mark Pfetzer is faced with an extremely amazing yet scary challenge of climbing Mount Everest. Each event is the story has something to do with the nature that is around them at that moment but Pfetzer shows the readers that nature can be a way of life.
Ulrich and Georg Znaeym have a quarrel about whether or not Georg is trespassing onto Ulrich’s land in Saki’s short story “The Interlopers.” (Saki) Ulrich von Gradwitz lives in the relatively, newly formed Carpathian Mountains. Mountains can be formed in five main ways, but they are mainly formed due to movement of the Earth’s crust or tectonic plates. Mountains have no direct definition, but they have some similar characteristics that bind them together. They are not the same because of different formations, rock compositions, or the environment in which the mountain is present. One mountain mentioned in “The Interlopers” are the mountains in Europe called the Carpathian Mountains. Mountains are all very different, but they have a few similar
He fig-ured that the normal half hour walk home might take as long as two hours in snow this deep. And then there was the wind and the cold to contend with. The wind was blowing across the river and up over the embankment making the snow it carried colder and wetter than the snow blanketing the ground. He would have to use every skill he’d learned, living in these hills, to complete the journey without getting lost, freezing to death, or at the very least ending up with a severe case of frostbite be-fore he made it back to Ruby.
Mountains are significant in the writing of Jack Kerouac and Donald Barthelme as symbolic representations of achievement and the isolation of an individual from the masses of the working class in industrialized capitalist American society. The mountains, depicted by Kerouac and Barthelme, rise above the American landscape as majestic entities whose peaks are touched by few enduring and brave souls. The mountains of Kerouac's The Dharma Bums symbolize personal freedom and accomplishment through achieving a connection with nature distant from the constraints of materialism and a polluted industrialized American society. Barthelme's "Glass Mountain," however, envisions a mountain removed from nature as a modern skyscraper office building, an edifice that embodies the degradation of an emerging American society in the 1960s that is in search of "the American Dream" through material or monetary gains. "The Glass Mountain" remarks on the movement of Americans away from nature, religion, and humanity as they look to false golden idols (the golden castle at the top of the mountain) for inspiration to be successful, while Kerouac's The Dharma Bums emphasizes a return to nature and devout religiousness to inspire virtues of charity, kindness, humility, zeal, tranquility, wisdom, and ecstasy (p. 5). The top of the mountain, for both authors, represents a fearful ascent from the masses of the working class huddled in polluted cities in order to achieve a heightened state of knowledge and success, but both explorers fall short of true fulfillment because they are never far removed from human flaws of greed, excess, and materia...
After a great night of sleep we headed out to the world renown mountain of Jackson Hole. It is known for being the steepest mountain on which a ski resort is set up. It is also know for having a great view of Grand Teton, one of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains. We could not have asked for a better day of riding. there was a fresh 14” of snow under our boards and after a little bit of exploring we found some great out of bounds and woods riding.
The mountains were tall (11,000 feet +) and covered with bright powdery snow. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was eager to set-up camp and prepare for our nine day hunt. But, Dad said that we had to drive around and check out all the good places, just to make sure that we were in the best area. This was partially understandable, but since I am a teenager I'm not supposed to understand anything! So, we spent another several hours driving. We went up and down through the mountains and then we saw it. The spot was beautiful; it was right on the edge of a vertical drop-off, over looking everything. It was like paradise, but colder!
It was simply amazing hiking out there, the mountains covered in tall trees that dug into the rocky soil, the beautiful sky, when visible. Even in the midst of strenuous exercise I still en...
The freezing wind had chilled my hand to the bone. Even as I walked into my cabin, I shivered as if there was an invisible man shaking me. My ears, fingers, toes, and noes had turned into a pale purple, only starting to change color once I had made a fire and bundled myself in blankets like ancient Egyptians would do to their deceased Pharaohs. The once powdered snow on my head had solidified into a thin layer of ice. I changed out of the soaking wet clothes I was wearing and put on new dry ones. With each layer I became more excited to go out and start snowboarding. I headed for the lift with my board and my hand. Each step was a struggle with the thick suit of snow gear I was armored in.
“You are to look upon this grim opening as travelers on foot confront a steep, rugged mountain: beyond it lies a most enchanting plain which they appreciate all the more for having toiled up and down the mountain first,” (Boccaccio, pg. 7).
By 4 PM we had conquered most of the peaks. As we were climbing what we thought was our sixth peak, Big Red, a storm struck. It was a cold driving rain that froze us as we struggled up the mountain. We reached the top jubilant, but exhausted. As the crew tried to get a bearing I came to the slow realization that we were not on Big Red, but another peak. We had two peaks to climb, and in freezing rain! With no options, we hiked on.
As the two men hiked, they came upon many rugged trails and hills that were difficult to overcome, however they did it together and kept moving on. The view from the trail was beautiful with many places to stop and admire the view, but they couldn’t seem to get above the canopy of the trees to truly take in the whole view. The man that strove to see the beautiful scenery from an unobstructed viewpoint was trying in every way to get above what was around him to see the true beauty of the mountains.
I almost fell off a cliff on the side of a mountain. I was in Pitkin, Colorado, on a camping trip during the summer of 2009. The trees were green, the air was fresh so were the lakes, rivers, and ponds were stocked with fish and wildlife was everywhere. Usually, on these camping trips, I would be accompanied by a large number of people. However, this time, it was just my parents, my three brothers, and my two sisters. I was almost 12 years old at the time and having three older brothers made me very competitive. Naturally, when my family decided to climb one of the mountain’s which were around us, I wanted to be the first one to reach its peak.
there was no possible fishing hole in sight. All I could see was a river
One of the most enjoyable things in life are road trips, particularly to the Colorado mountains. Getting to spend time with your family and friends, while being in a beautiful place, is irreplaceable. The fifteen-hour road trip may feel never-ending, but gazing at the mountains from afar makes life’s problems seem a little smaller and causes worries to become a thing of the past. Coming in contact with nature, untouched, is a surreal experience. My family trip to the Colorado mountains last summer was inspiring.