i played in snow....in july.

the other day i hiked up a mountain. yes, i did.
hm what should we do on saturday? i asked monica. we talked about it and i came up with the idea of taking a bus to the sierra nevada mountain range where we could then hike to the top of the 2nd (ALMOST 1st!) highest peak in spain. sounded like a pretty sweet idea, right?
so we bought our bus ticket for 10 euro and woke up early on saturday morning (this time bringing PLENTY of water) and went to catch our 2 separate buses that would take us high up the mountain to drop us off for the hike that we would do.
the bus ride was about an hour long and the entire time, the bus was just huffing and puffing as it climbed this massive mountain. luckily i sat on the side of the bus that had the view of the small lakes that had formed in the hills and the waterfalls of the snow that was melting from the peak. it was absolutely beautiful. the trees were much greener and i could sense the air was getting cooler. yay!
the bus dropped us off at the highest point it could go and we got out and i took a deep breath of some of the cleanest air i have ever breathed (except for the air in bellingham, which, i must brag, is in the top 10 of the cleanest air in the WORLD, thank you very much :). however, though the air was clean, it was thin and i could immediately tell the difference because of the altitude.
i looked up at the peak that you could supposedly climb "in 6 hours" and somewhat laughed to myself thinking it was WAY too far away to do it in 6 hours. the others agreed.
"oh well, we will just go as far as we can and turn around when we want to or need to" i said.
we started walking. and oh man......
after a good 10 minutes i was definately feelin the steep incline in my legs and in my lungs. we were hiking up this terrain that was real difficult to walk on, as my feet kept slipping on the thin rocks that never seemed to stay in place.
"oh no....what did i sign up for????" i thought to myself. oh well, im in spain ;)
kept going and saw that the others we went with from our residence hall were far behind us and it was only brett, hillary, monica and i up front. we kept hiking as we were determined to somehow get as close to the peak as we could.
we hiked for another 20 minutes until we hit the first patch of....... thats right, snow.
let me tell you, snow was the LAST thing i expected to see.....in july....in spain..... after all this heat i have been living in this past month, snow didnt seem to exist to me anymore.
we walked around in it and picked it up and i am not lying to you, i most definately kissed it when i had it in my hands. the cool, crisp feeling it gave was so refreshing and renewing.
we didnt stay in the snow long as we knew we had to keep going. a small road was up in the distance and i thought about walking on the road to see if it would be easier than this impossible trail. once i got there, i found that it was much easier to walk up the road than the trail. so hillary and i decided to take it for a little while, noticing that it ran parallel with the trail.
as we walked, we saw cows (what!?), ski lifts that were not in use and ski jumps that no longer were cushioned by snow.
what a beautiful hike it was.
eventually we met up with the others as the road intersected with the trail. "that peak is a day away guys, lets stop for lunch. we wont get to the top, so no need to be in a hurry" brett said.
we agreed and decided to walk a little further for a good look out place to eat lunch.
we walked another 5 minutes and monica, who was ahead, yelled, "YOU GUYS! GET OVER HERE!" we ran over and as we met up with her at the top of this hill, we saw what she was talking about.
there we stood at this cliff that overlooked not only the second highest peak in spain, but also the highest peak. there were cliffs that plunged into the valley and rocks with jagged edges that could easily split you in half.
"ok... this looks like a decent place to eat...." i joked.
that was probably the most beautiful view i have ever had while eating a simple sack lunch. we sat there with our legs over the edge and took in the beauty of spain.
after 20 minutes, we decided to keep walking to see if we could get any closer to the top.
as we got higher, the wind blew harder and definately made the "hard" status hike move up to the "difficult" status.
we had been hiking for about 3 hours until we realized that we may actually be able to make it to the top.....it seemed possible! after realizing this, we seemed to pick up the energy and keep moving as if our lives depended on it.
we got closer and closer....but not without getting more and more tired.
i was close to telling the others that i had made it high enough and that i was satisfied with the view i already had, but i went against what my body was begging of me.
we were almost to the top and i started to get so excited.
finally, there we were. at the top of spain, literally.
the air was so thin up there. when i would breathe in, it was almost as if i was breathing nothing, as the air pressure was minimal. (which didnt exactly help the lungs at that point....).
i looked around and off to one of my sides, saw that we were standing above the clouds. wow. we were pretty high up there....
we took some pictures of the beauty.....gave each other "high fives" for our A+ effort ;) and then had to make our way back down, knowing that the bus would leave at 5, with our without us.
as we made our way down, i was excited because i was sure that it would be easier coming down than going up.
not so much.
i mean, dont get me wrong, it was EASIER.....but.....there are harder aspects to walking down a mountain than there are walking up. hillary and i were talking about how you totally use different muscles in your legs to walk up something than you do when your feet are stomping on the earth as you walk down something in order to keep you from tumbling down ;)
as we were walking down, we had about 45 more minutes and man were we ready to be there. we were exhausted.
we were on hour 5 and half of pure movement and i was ready to check in.
we were so close when all the sudden....."is that a sprinkle of rain????"
it started down pouring on us.
now, when i got dressed for a hike up a mountain in the mid of summer... in spain....i did not dress for rain. so of course i had a tshirt and shorts on and was getting drenched by the rain. "um......dear mother nature, im not in seattle. please stop raining. love, katie." ;)
luckily, after about 1 minute of rain, it stopped as if mother nature knew rain was the last thing a girl from seattle wanted while she was hiking a mountain in spain ;)
we were so close to the end of the hike when hillary goes, "gosh.....it would have been nice if they would have put some signs up....like, 'warning, this hike is difficult.' " HAHAHA!!! "so true!" i agreed.
if you ever go on a hike in spain, dont expect any signs of where the trail is, where it leads, "warning-possible land slide" signs, or the level of difficulty. in spain, i guess you can use the term that, "they throw you at the wolves." they kinda see what your made of. well, i guess that keeps things interesting huh? ;)
we made it to the bottom and we all felt so accomplished. us girls all passed out at the first table we could sit at. we simply put our heads on the tables and the guys were nice enough to make sure our stuff wasnt stolen as we passed out for what appeared to be a long winters nap.
i definately made use of the ibuprofen my mom packed for me. i havent needed ibuprofen so bad in my life. not only were my legs sore, but my hips were throbbing in pain. yeah, i have gone 2 hours or so running around a soccer field, but i have never gone 6 hours with solid physical activity. yikesabee.
since the hike, i have been pretty much drowning in schoolwork here. i guess the spanish culture is to trick you into thinking that school here isn't too bad....then BOOM- "its the last week! we should give you big projects and tests, all due on the same day!"
man do i miss the structure of the american school system. (but thats really all i miss about the american school system ;)
so i have been busy making powerpoints, studying random art history spanish vocabulary, learning the various mountain ranges and rivers in spain and of course preparing for an oral presentation on the differences between spain and the U.S. aye aye aye, hello books.
well, despite the massive loads of homework that i must now return to, i can now say that i hiked one of spains highest peaks the other day.
be physically challenged while abroad: check!