November 9, 2008

Sunday. Issue day. Anticipation nibbles. Sitting by an empty pack surrounded by long underwear, gloves, potato pearls, snickers bars, ropes, harness, map, compass, sunglasses, water, bottles and various and sundry other things that probably won’t fit in my pack on the first try, I find myself thinking back to the first issue day. The excitement, anticipation and fear; “What if I mix up cream of wheat with powdered milk?” “What if I’m bad at map reading and I get my group lost?” “What if everyone is better at this than I am?” Checking the stove kit and rolling up the dromedary it is strange to think how intimidating these things once were…

But, at the end of the day, issue day for the third expedition was actually much the same as the past two expeditions. We spent the day packing food, gathering our gear, splitting group gear into even amounts, going over routes for the next ten days, and generally getting ourselves totally ready for our upcoming adventure. Groups were sprawled everywhere: one group in the library, and others outside on the porches of the Main Building and the East Building, all working hard to gather everything we need to be prepared for the canyons.

The gear this time is a little different because of the weather conditions and the new environment in the canyons. Our destination requires us to carry fewer layers than on our last trip because of warmer temperatures. Furthermore, it will be much harder to find water and therefore we will be bringing two dromedaries per tarp group. We will fill and carry the dromedaries on days when we will be dry camping during our expedition. Some of the expedition groups will also be doing some technical routes that will require repelling into the canyons. Thus we need more equipment including helmets, harnesses, and ropes.

So, all in all, RMS XXI spent the day in a bustle of activity. We ran around trying to find all of our gear that has been lying stagnant for four weeks. We packed and repacked our backpacks. We are all so excited to get out into the field with our awesome expedition groups and to explore the canyon country of Utah.

By: Olivia Fantini, Peter Engh & Mackenzie Gurrola