Mountain Day

Illos montes salutamus cantacis carminibus
Quibus echus recinantes silvosis culminibus
Cum cantacis admiscebunt ab ventis et fontibus
Dum resonant hilariter collibus et vallibus.

Okay, so I fudged a little bit on the meter. The Washington Gladden original, in a more suitably cheesy vein, can be found with background story here. For those not familiar with the idiosyncracies of Williams College, one of the first three Fridays of October is declared "Mountain Day", announced the morning of by the chiming of "The Mountains" from the bell tower, and celebrated- classes having been cancelled- by festivities held on Stony Ledge, featuring a spectacular view of Mt. Greylock and environs.

I began my fourth and final Mountain Day in the bell tower at 7am, having been given the coveted task of "ringing in" the festivities. Tensions were high this year as the first two Fridays of the month were passed over due to rain. This time, however, it seemed that Morty- that is, President Schapiro- had managed to placate the weather gods and a cloudy morning gave way to a gorgeously sunny, brisk autumn day.

After Mass and a quick breakfast, 10:15am found me assembling in the Field House in gaudy floral attire, along with three others similarly garbed, in order to take part in what the Outing Club called the "Eco-Challenge"- a combination climbing wall traverse, mountain bike route, and run/hike to the summit of Stony Ledge. Representing the Williams College Choir, the letters "SATB" emblazoned in duct tape on our backs, we led off the competition at around 11am and were the first to arrive at Stony Ledge with a time of 1:57, though we were ultimately edged out time-wise by subsequent arrivals. We did, of course, claim the award for best costumes, which turned out to be vintage pewter plates from the 1996 winter carnival (in case you're ever wondering how I came to possess the 2nd place award for the Women's Giant Slalom).

The highlight of the Eco-Challenge itself, besides my utter inability to traverse the climbing wall, was biking down Stone Hill Road and glancing at an oncoming Jeep only to be momentarily stunned by an apparently empty driver's seat staring back. After the first second of shock we realized that the driver was on the right, and the jeep was apparently an unmarked mail delivery vehicle, at least judging from the frequent stops it made at mailboxes after turning around and passing us again. After that rather surreal experience the rest of the course passed relatively without incident.

After hanging out on the ledge, downing doughnuts and apple cider, witnessing performances by a capella groups and singing with the Choir, we headed back down to our bikes at the foot of the mountain only to encounter the "other" Team Choir who had unfortunately become lost en route and never made it to Stony Ledge, having wandered up and down the wrong mountain for several hours. Thankfully they were all right, albeit rather tired and hungry. Biking back to campus, I grabbed dinner before attempting (lamely) to start some homework and instead ending up collapsed on the Newman couch for a pre-Friday-night-Adoration nap. Sic transit Mountain Day. May it continue long after I have passed into crusty alumhood.