Veteran's Outward Bound Mountaineering, Day Three

September 25^th, 2013

This morning we woke up with about a 1” of snow on the ground and clear skies.  Today is to be our climbing skills day and then travel to our camp for our shot at summiting Mt. Broken Top. 

We got started a little late on climbing training to let the rock warm up.  We hiked a short distance to a small crag and practiced traveling by fixed rope, which I had never done before, and vertical climbing.  The vertical climbing was probably only 5.8 or so but with numb hands it made for a tough time.  John did really well with his artificial hand, I know he wanted to do better but I thought he did well.  I think the climbing would have been more fun if it wasn't just so cold out.  It’s hard to enjoy rock climbing when you can’t feel your hands.

           We got back to camp about 2 hours later than we planned but we still had plenty of daylight to make it to our next destination.  The hiking was a lot of up and down but I felt really good.  Our camp is by a small pond under our objective for tomorrow, the summit of Mt. Broken Top and views of the Three Sisters (a group of three mountains).  We have to break ice to get water but it’s not too bad.

          Everyone in our group seems to be working together, helping out and getting along.  This is turning out to be an enjoyable group of veterans.  It has been some long cold days but at least I’m sleeping well.