Once Upon a Steep Mountain

It’s me again! I’ve been in Pamplona for about a month and I still love it. It is definitely a smaller city but I think it is absolutely charming. This last weekend I joined the mountain club at the university to go snowshoeing! I met the bus on Saturday morning at 7am. Bright and early. The trip there took a little under two hours (perfect cat nap). Once there, I realized that the level of difficulty was going to be much higher than I had anticipated. Rather than rolling hills, I was looking at a ski mountain. As in everyone else had come to go DOWN this monster, not the opposite. At least I wasn’t alone.

Everyone strapped on their snow shoes and headed out. I have to point out that it is quite frustrating when you are halfway up an extremely steep slope,  out of breath, sweating, and scared for your life only to look to your right and see people happily riding the chairlift UP. I actually think it is grounds for cruel and unusual punishment. After 3 hours we finally reached the top. The next challenge: manage to get back down. A few minutes into the decline, I was thinking I would rather climb some more. I didn’t have poles which made things a little more difficult. There was a lot of sliding . We stopped for about an hour at a rest point called the “polar club”.  It was really sunny out so we sat outside and ate our lunches before heading back to Pamplona.

I walked in the door of my apartment at around 6pm and fell asleep almost instantly. It was a hard day’s work and completely worth it. I climbed a mountain! I can’t wait for the next adventure.