Into the mountians

July 4

We finally got out to the field today- we choppered in to this high saddle between two mountains. I thought "okay not too bad". That is when I learned we were still 2 km away from our first sample location. Getting there involved a lot of hiking up a decently sloped hill covered in lichen and alpine flowers- still not to bad. Then we entered the cloud layer so it looked like a foggy day in Halifax, it was absolutely gorgeous; very mystical.

We didn't find much of anything all day, but I did summit a peak (2000 m at the top, though I only had to go about 500 m since the chopper did part of the work). Its true what they say about how going down can be harder than climbing up (sometimes). We had an elevation gain of about 400m from our starting point and then 600m down to the end of the traverse on the other side of the peak and despite my bitching about the hill climb, the down part was much steeper and more difficult to balance. It was quite chilly and damp, and I was very out of breath many times, but all in all I came out of it not to worse for wear. Not too bad for my first full day of work as a graduated, professional geologist.

-A.