An experience is worth a thousand books. That was the thought on my mind when I was on my way back home from this trip. The feeling I had was amazing, incredible, phenomenal; it was my best experience in a long time.
It all started a month before when I had started looking into where and how to try ice climbing for the first time. After a lot of research (about 20 minutes of browsing through 1st time lesson options on google), I chose to try ice climbing through REI Adventures and I’m glad I did. The entire experience (even though things didn’t go completely as planned) was incredible. I have been rock climbing on and off since 2009, so the idea of ice climbing for me was always something intriguing that I wanted to try.
I signed up for the trip and was sent a giant list of gear that I didn’t have. I wasn’t even sure what some of the gear did and I had definitely never used most of it before. So, I went to the REI store closest to me and one of the employees walked me through what to buy step by step. After about 2 hours of walking around, explaining and trying things on I had most of the equipment I needed. I opted to buy some of the equipment (the stuff I knew) online through REI Garage and others.
A few days before the trip, I received my REI Adventures welcome package which had a t-shirt, a neck gaiter and a notebook. I was ready to go. Of course, me being who I am, I couldn’t possibly just go to one place. This was my itinerary:
Day 1:
- Dallas, TX to Boston, MA
- Boston, MA to Lincoln, NH
Day 2:
- Ice climbing in the White Mountains, NH
Day 3:
- Ice climbing in the White Mountains, NH
- Lincoln, NH to Montreal, QC, Canada
Day 4:
- Explore Montreal with a childhood friend
Day 5:
- Montreal, QC to Boston, MA (With a stop at Haskell Free Library in VT)
- Boston, MA to Dallas, TX
I spent most of day 1 travelling. I drove, flew and walked until I finally reached the Holiday Inn Express in Lincoln, New Hampshire. As a treat on my way into the hotel parking lot, I passed by the gorgeous ice castles in the town and I was already falling in love with the atmosphere.
Day 2 started at 8 AM. We were told what to pack and what to expect as well as shown how to use our equipment, since the majority of us were beginners. We headed out at about 9:30 AM to the area where we were supposed to climb, but it was packed because it was a holiday weekend. Someone had jokingly said “all of Massachusetts is up here this weekend”.
Our guides took us to a different area and we finally started climbing at about 10:30 AM. There was only one route set up and 10 of us, so the wait to climb was very long. The guides decided to split us in half and took part of the group to a different route so we can all get ample climbing time.
Everyone seemed a bit disappointed at their first try, but the disappointment diminished the more we climbed. It was really hard, I had seen videos of professionals doing it and they made it look super easy. A fellow climber told me “that’s what professionals do, they make things look easy.” I tried the route multiple times and I did slightly better each time. It was getting late and a snow storm was supposed to hit so we packed up and left at about 3:30 PM. Although I was far from the best climber, the first day of ice climbing was amazing.
In the evening, we had dinner as a group, exchanged contact information and really built a better bond with each other. We headed back to our Holiday Inn Express to sleep and get ready for the next morning to meet at 7 AM.
Day 3 started right on time and even though everyone was yawning, the energy was super high. Everyone was excited to get a full day of climbing. We were the first at the location we tried to climb at the first day, so our guides set up 4 different routes for us.
The day was absolutely exhausting yet incredibly enjoyable at the same time. The progress I saw in the 2 days of ice climbing was absolutely unreal. The main way ice climbing is different from rock climbing is that in ice climbing, you have way more gear that you need to trust.
At first it can be quite a bit daunting, but once you learn to trust the gear (and your legs) the improvement is very noticeable. After a successful day of climbing, everyone went back to their respective states as the REI trip was over. The bond we had built however, will stay with us for a long time.
I continued on with my trip, driving to Montreal, QC. The drive took about 3 hours and was very easy (compared to ice climbing). I saw my childhood friend, we had dinner, then I went straight to bed.
Day 4 of my trip was spent exploring Montreal with my friend. Montreal has a very unique and beautiful vibe. It feels European yet North American, very French yet very English, very Canadian yet very independent, cold but very warm and welcoming – I loved it.
Everything was frozen and the snow was piled everywhere in the city. I was experiencing Montreal in its natural state, not the touristy, fun version of it. I ended the day with a trip to Mount Royal Observatory and a nice French dinner in Downtown Montreal.
Day 5 was the day to head back home but I had one last stop to make. The Haskell Free Library in Vermont was a place that had always intrigued me.
Actually it wasn’t the library itself that intrigued me – it was the idea of any city, town or building that defied international borders and existed where it shouldn’t. I love places where things crisscross and mix. Why? Because they show how superficial and unimportant borders really are.
The experience of being able to stand in a building that’s half in the US and half in Canada showed me how much the idea of borders is insignificant. I think there will be a point in the future, when humans will get over their differences and live together as one people, one society, one planet.
Thinking about all of this on my way back home made me realize that all the studying, reading, researching and learning I had done meant nothing if I didn’t actually experience things.
You can be a genius by reading a lot but you can be an expert (and a lot happier) by experiencing a lot. Climbing a mountain, whether real or metaphorical, is a life changing event and I highly recommend it.
Special thanks to REI Adventures and their awesome guides for setting the climbing portion of this trip up. I hope I motivated you to go on your own adventure.