Our First Climb

     The big thing to do if you live in Laramie is to climb Medicine Bow Peak. From the top, on a clear day you can look all the way from the Snowy Range to the town of Laramie. With an elevation of 12,000ft the climb to the top of Medicine Bow Peak can be straining to some, especially for our new SUS friends that came from basically sea level. The base our team has always been adventure training. Being able to get out, climb mountains, swim lakes, bike to another town, anything with a large goal that sounds like fun. Every previous year that I'd been on the team we'd run up around and down Medicine Bow Peak, once even in a blizzard. Even it sometimes it was type two fun, I always enjoyed climbing mountains with my team. The day that we drove the SUS skiers up to the Snowy Range I think there was some apprehension from all of us. They were still adjusting to our high Laramie altitude, and we were about ready to make them go even farther. 

---

     Our goal was to get everyone to the summit, and we made a game plan to make sure no one was left behind. The abilities of the people the UW team has always spanned a wide range, now more than ever with our new teammates. We planned to go up separate ways dropping our SUS skiers off at a parking lot closer to the summit so they wouldn't have to do the full loop. While they struggle, strained, and breathed hard to make it to the top they all did it. It's one of the things that I love most out this team. We want to make sure that everyone is included in the goal of our adventure. While I may take being able to run up Medicine Bow Peak for granted, it's not that easy for all. It was amazing to see all of our new skiers in the parking lot at the end of our adventure. We all sat and ate out snacks and stretched together smiles on our faces because we call had accomplished something great that day. That day I was really shown the grit that our whole team had. Today we were climbing a mountain, tomorrow we'd be skiing a marathon, and in just a few short months we'd be on our ways to Nationals

---

Author

Madison Tinker