Verso L'alto: Adventure at Lewis Pass

Hello, all.  I know I haven't been doing a great job of keeping up with the blog since spring break, but fear not--updates are coming!  My adventures have certainly continued since then.

On September 13th Becca and I met up with the Catholic tramping club in the St. Teresa's carpark.  We drove up to Lewis Pass to hike to the Ada Pass hut, hoping that the sun would come out!
We were an international group,with members from New Zealand, the US, France, England, and Germany.  The hike up was pretty wet, but nice.  The trees were coated in moss.  We crossed a number of little mountain streams, but most of the views were concealed by clouds.

On the trail we befriended a little robin named Pierre.  It was a long hike in the drizzle, but it was excellent company, so we were all chipper when we arrived at the hut.  We could finally see some mountains through the misty clouds.  We changed and heated up some water for tea, then had a beautiful Mass before dinner.  Evening activities included training in "the Cup Song," a ridiculously fun version of charades that culminated in "a community of dentists imitating a haka," and a possum named Barnabas.  Long before bed we were all best friends with each other.

The following morning we were up with the sun and had a lovely morning Mass.  The clouds had all cleared away, leaving azure skies and mountains lightly rimmed with the last of the morning fog.   We washed up in a clear mountain stream, took a group photo, and headed back across Billy Goat's Gruff bridge towards civilization and the ice cream that waited for us there.

 We said a Rosary on the way back, enjoying the nicer weather.  It did end up getting a little chillier as we went along, though, which was nice for our speedy pace!

 We made it back really quickly and made plans to reunite at the next event, our Frozen Unfrozen night.  All in all, a wonderful weekend with friends.  So much fun!

Father, Cathy, Patrick, Dan, Hillary, me, Becca, Bianca, Thomas