Making mountains out of molehills

Still feeling somewhat pleased with myself following my dalliance with mountaineering at the weekend, I decided to tell my class all about my experience today. However, rather than receiving congratulations and plaudits for my escapade, my story was greeted with comments such as "so you walked up the small hill, eh?" and "maybe next time you can try the big one" (Mr C., you were right!).

I immediately realised that my feat was distinctly less impressive than I'd imagined, and as a result perhaps my previous post would have been better off being titled The Englishman who thought he'd gone up a mountain only to be informed that he'd really just walked up a large hill. This realisation was confirmed when Sarah, a colleague of mine here (hi Sarah!), left a comment on that post explaining that she and her husband had climbed the same peak two weeks ago, sharing their baby carrier between them.

So, weather permitting, I shall attempt to scale Kangiqsujuaq's east peak this coming weekend, although given the fact that we now have snow forecast every day between now and then, I can't promise anything; I'm such a fair weather mountaineer!

The Englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain

After a week when I've hardly been able to get online - problems with my laptop and router rather than Tamaani on this occasion - everything seems to have magically corrected itself today, so I can at last fill you in on my activities over the last few days.

My back is much better now, but I've saved some of the pills they gave me at the nursing station just in case I suffer I relapse, which is a distinct possibility at my time of life; Sophie next door put my age at 34 when we initially met though, so I think I'll let her be the judge of chronological matters from now on.

Given my relative sprightliness I finally decided to tackle the mountain that lies to the west yesterday, and armed with sandwiches and flask I set off on what was one of the most adventuresome things I've done for some time. OK, it was hardly Man Against Wild, Bear Grylls-style survival, but it was a challenge nonetheless, and I felt a great sense of achievement upon reaching the summit. Parts of the climb were quite steep and I must admit that I had to take a few breathers on the way up, but the effort was well worth it in the end.

(click to enlarge)

Whether the edifice that I climbed is actually a mountain or nothing more than a very steep hill I really can't say with 100% certainty, but at approximately 1100 feet it certainly meets some people's requirements for mountain status so it's a mountain for me and besides, mountain climbing sounds far more rugged than hill walking. On more than one occasion it looked as though I'd reached the final peak, only for a whole new climb to appear once I'd made what I thought to be the top, and for a brief moment I was able to get a little inkling as to how the survivors of the plane that crashed in the Andes back in the early 70s must have felt, only without the need to resort to cannibalism.

Speaking of strange meat I'm currently defrosting a slab of something that I got from the community freezer earlier in the term; I've no idea what it is - could be caribou, could be whale - but I'm going to eat it tonight and I'm determined to enjoy it no matter what. I think I deserve it after my expedition!