It was an early morning wake up today at UBC, and not because some Shads woke up early to do P90x! Instead, our daily physical activity was going to be completed in a more outdoorsy way..... such as hiking Mount Garibaldi! This popular hiking destination, located 90 minutes away from the UBC campus was where 51 Shads and our PAs spent the day....literally. From 6:30am till 8:00pm we had the chance to hike up the mountain, eating lunch on a rocky cliff with the mountain range behind us. All the climbing was worth it once we finally (after 5 hours) reached the summit: a glacial lake! After taking thousands of pictures, mostly of the snow capped mountains and crystal clear waters, tired hikers somehow found the en
ergy to unleash an insane snowball fight! Though the trip down was much easier than the way up, travelling through the snow possessed some challenges and there were definitely some rough moments, one Shad even dropped his camera into the stream!Although we were a little behind schedule,
which resulted in the pizza dinner arriving at UBC 3 hours before we did, I believe I can speak on behalf of everyone when I say that was the best cold pizza I have ever had! Our PAs could have fed us anything and we would have ate after all that hiking, one Shad even hiked with a sprained knee, using hiking poles as crutches! Following our late night dinner we were given time to work on our upcoming house project presentations, and what better way to end a long day at Shad then by doing laundry!Prior to Shad, outdoorsy would be the last adjective one would use to describe me. However, after all the activities I have gotten to experience during Shad, such as camping in a desert, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, and canopy walking, I can definitely say Shad has been a life changing experience.
Alex Duffield, Shad Valley UBC ‘11
Hometown: Stoney Creek, ON
