My dream of going home and seeing all my friends was scattered abruptly by a tapping on my tent. It was 4:00 am, and today was the day that we were to summit Baldy. the troop was divided into two groups, the Urgles and Team Eragon.
Eragon went first about 30 minutes earlier. As the Urgles left, the sun was about to peek over the mountains. I was the pacesetter, and we took off at a furious rate, scrambling up the base, resting only to drink and eat occasionally. It was hard work, and it was even harder when about a third of the way up was switchbacks only. I ran back down the mountain alone to retrieve a forgotten nalgene bottle.
Only about an hour or so into the hike, we caught up with team Eragon. We let them go ahead, only to catch up with them again. That time, we passed them and went on up to the meadow, about 600 feet below the summit. We stopped here for a while, and once everyone had caught up I decided to exhaust myself even further and run up a hill at the meadow to admire the view. The lack of oxygen was rather discouraging, seeing as I collapsed after sprinting about 10 paces. However, me and Kyler decided to go on ahead and start the Zenith. It was harder than I could have imagined, with the angle of the slope being almost 75 degrees the entire time. I passed Kyler along the way, and pushed myself to almost the breaking point. However, when I was only 10 paces away from the peak strangers started cheering for me and told me to run. So, I sprinted to the top of Baldy and fell, gasping for air, seeing the indescribable view spin before my eyes.
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