The feeling of loneliness is only broken by the occasional thunderclap that rattles his whole body.
Cold and afraid, sophomore Blaize Schumacher is pelted with a barrage of hail. The near golf-ball-sized pieces of ice tear through his shelter–a single tarp tied between two trees with a line of paracord–forcing him to curl up on the damp, freezing ground.
For years, Schuhmacher has looked forward to his Pecos experience, an opportunity that both faculty and friends have sworn will change his life and give him a new insight into himself.
But when he finally makes it, there’s no quiet introspection, no journaling of his thoughts and no time for the pondering of his future.
There’s only the cold and the hail.
The thunder and the dirt.
The river and the rain.
Often deemed the most important part of the St. Mark’s Wilderness Experience, the 24-hour solo that all Marksmen must complete to graduate has given students the unique opportunity to embrace the wilderness and be truly alone with their thoughts. It’s something that all alumni, no matter their age or occupation, have in common.
But this past summer, some groups of sophomore students were unable to partake in their solos when inclement weather descended upon the New Mexican mountain range, causing groups like Schuhmacher’s to lose an essential part of their Pecos experience.
“I was actually really excited for my solo,” Schuhmacher said. “I had heard a lot about it from upperclassmen, so I wanted to experience it for myself. It was a mixed bag of emotions. I was kind of excited and kind of nervous for it at the same time.”
Throughout the week, the weather had not been great, but the groups still trucked on.
“It just rained a lot,” Schuhmacher said. “We would get one to two hours of good, sunny weather a day, but it would always end up raining for the rest of the day and our stuff was always wet.”
On the day of the solo, however, the weather looked as if it had turned a new leaf.
“Surprisingly, when we woke up, the weather was great,” Schuhmacher said. “It was basically perfect. It might’ve been a little damp, but otherwise amazing. When we got to our new campsite, though, it started raining. At first, it wasn’t that bad. We were still gonna go (on the solo), but on the way to my site, it started hailing. There was so much hail (that) we had to lay down on the ground and put a tarp over us so that we weren’t getting hit as much.”
The situation got so intense that the group ended up sharing their shelters with a few other visitors.
“Two or three random hikers came to our site because they didn’t have tents,” Schuhmacher said. “They had to stay in one of our tents because it was just freezing and hailing.”
After another day of unceasing rain, the group said goodbye to their tentmates and trekked out to their solo spots under the gray clouds that loomed over the mountains, but due to the storm the day prior, they were only able to complete half of a normal solo, returning back to camp after half a day.
Although they missed out on a large part of their Pecos, the group arguably learned a lesson just as valuable as what they would’ve found on their solo: strength is found in the team, not in the individual.
“If somebody in your group is struggling, you can’t just leave them there,” Cameron Hillier ‘13, Director of the Wilderness Program said. “(You need to think) how we help everybody move forward. It’s not an individual experience, it’s a collective experience.”
Hillier believes that these atypical experiences on the Pecos are essential catalysts for the learning and growth that the week aims to cultivate, and in some ways, they may be more impactful than a sunny, vanilla solo with no confrontation or challenges.
“The Pecos is where the rubber hits the road,” Hillier said. “It’s all the stuff we talk about in the classroom, and (the Pecos) forces the issues. You have to have the guy who’s always positive and laughing and telling jokes, and it’s going to be a tough week, but the groups that come together, that do recognize (the learning), they come back (from) a great week.”
Every single Marksman has a different Pecos. Some might enjoy a pleasant, 24-hour solo, some might hike thirty miles through biting rivers or some might not even get their solo at all. Regardless of what happens to them, though, every Marksman will return to 10600 with a story to tell, a story full of highs and lows, triumphs and failures and challenges and successes.
“If you’re scared to be alone for 24 hours with your thought, you’ve got things to think about,” Hillier said.
