A quick update from instructor Joe: Hello from Washington! Our time on Adams reminded me of something my father used to tell me as a child: “It’s called fishing, not catching.” In our case it was important to remember it’s called mountaineering, not summiting. Some got to the top, while others had to turn around due to low visibility. Our time on the mountain, however, left me more proud of our group than if we all made it to the top in record time. The students really bonded on this outing. This tends to happen when you are forced into tents for multiple hours because of foul weather; but I heard no negativity, only laughs, stories, and quality conversations. I heard students really opening up and sharing themselves, and I’ll take that over a summit any day. We played games, told bad jokes, and simply enjoyed the alpine world. Snowball fights were had, and lots of glissading put smiles on faces. Now that we are back in camp, I am finally seeing one group of leadership students instead of several pods of past trips. We are preparing for our North Cascades backpack, and our instructor team is ready to pass the lead to the students. I am confident in their abilities, and I have already seen a lot of great moments of the students running the trip themselves. I’ll be sure to tell you just how great these kids are when we return from the Cascades.