Mountaineering Specialization
Winter skills were hard for me. Winter is simply a harsh environment. One must be very proactive to survive. And to survive well is another matter. It takes skill and knowledge to be able to enjoy the winter wilderness for very long.
One of our winter skills was telemark skiing. Telemark skies are different from other skies in that they have grooves on the bottom that allow you to travel uphill as well as downhill. Interestingly, despite having to fight gravity, I found it easier to go uphill than downhill.
I had an extremely difficult time staying balanced on the skiies going downhill. Every time I would attempt to do even the basic turn I would fall. Sometimes I would fall simply going straight down the hill. To make matters worse, because there was so much snow getting up was difficult. In addition, I had a 30 pound pack on my back.
Typically I tend to dislike things I am not good at. Telemark skiing included. My attitude towards telemark was pretty bad. I hated every minute of it. Despite my inability, everyone on my team, especially the instructors, were extremely patient with me. Indeed, by the end, I was almost overwhelmed by the love that I was shown.
Then I had a chance to show that love back, but I almost missed it. On mountaineering specialization, one member of the team was not as physically capable as the rest of this. Because I knew this beforehand, I allowed myself to get annoyed that this person was even doing mountaineering. I thought my fun would be hampered by having to travel slower, and not being able to do super intense things because one member of the group wasn’t able to.
Then I was struck at how selfish I was being. I was thinking that life was all about me and what I wanted to do. I was beginning to dislike this person and allow myself to get more and more annoyed at the slow pace.
But somewhere along the way I realized I needed to show the same love to this person as I was shown during skiing. Then I further realized I was being given an opportunity, not just an obligation to show this love. My focus changed to being all about me to attempting to love this person the way I knew how. I don’t think I was perfect in my attempts, but I did try.
Interestingly enough, the leaders of mountaineering specialization chose I John as the text for the 4 days. I John deals a lot about loving our Christian brother. Ironic almost. I learned a lot of things on mountaineering specialization, but this is probably the most important thing.
Some photos + the destruction of our quinzhee.
By Mom, February 10, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Great thoughts. Thanks for the laugh!
By Drew, February 12, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
Considering my experience with FFI, you’ll still be learning things from your experiences up over there even after you’re done.
The movie was pretty funny, thanks for posting it, but I still want to hear the rest of the Sunday Mission story!
By Garrett, February 12, 2008 @ 6:14 pm
The Sunday Mission hopefully will be finished. We have classes all day this week except Friday. Did you get my email, Drew?