Climbing the mountain
Last week our labs were closed for Easter break, so I went to visit friends in Switzerland!
One of my favorite parts of the trip was hiking a section of the Hardergrat trail. We started in Hardkulm where we could see three of the most famous mountains in Switzerland from across Lake Brienz: the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau. We walked along the ridge line toward Augstmatthorn (a much smaller summit than the three giants across the lake) surrounded by absolutely breathtaking views the entire time.
When we started out on the trail, the markers were easy to spot. There were families hiking around us and runners passing us by. As we got further along the trail, the markers were harder to see and there were fewer hikers around us. Eventually, we hit long stretches of snow on the path. Luckily, there were lines of footprints for us to follow through the nearly knee-deep snow. We followed the footprints along the ridgeline dodging barbed wire fences and stray tree branches until our “trail” all but disappeared.
Fortunately, we spotted a trail marker and another set of footprints – about 200 feet down the mountain from us. We had two options: literally retrace our footsteps and figure out where we deviated from the original path or cut across a long stretch of who-know-how-deep snow. We chose the latter. At one point, I was buried up to my thighs. A friend hiking with me was trapped for about 10 minutes when she sunk waist-deep into the snow. Eventually, we made it out – a little colder and more damp than we had started – and back to the trail.
We could see Augstmatthorn ahead of us and the three snowy giants across from us, but at that point, we were exhausted and a bit beaten down. We kept searching for sign posts indicating the turn off for Niederreid, the lake town where we would catch our train home, so that we could begin the “easy” downhill stretch of our hike.
It wasn’t easy at all. Hiking uphill through the snow was one thing – hiking downhill was worse. It was a challenge to find footholds and even when we did, they were very slippery. At one point, I lost my footing and tumbled 50 or so feet down the mountain. My boots were still slick, so I ended up digging my hands into the ground to control my fall as much as I could. For all of my effort, I still ran into a (small) tree. But I recovered, got back on the trail, and, little by little, made my way down the mountain. We were so thankful when we reached Niederreid. We made our way through the twisting roads of the town to the train station where we waited for 45 minutes for the next train. We were bruised and scraped, our legs were sore, and our shoes had more leaves in them than a small forest. As we sat at the station, I looked across the beautiful blue lake to the incredible mountains beyond and I thought, “You know what? That was actually a really great hike”.
I think that getting a PhD (or doing any form of scientific work) might be a bit like this climb. When you start out, you can see your end goal ahead of you and you think “I can do that. It’s not that tall or that far away”. You’re inspired by the other scientific achievements around you, no matter how gargantuan they may seem. You begin the uphill battle and it’s challenging but you’re excited. There are lots of people on this path with you, though you each have a slightly different goal in mind. As time goes on, you start to realize that your goal is farther away than you initially thought. You only pass by one or two other people on the path. You’re not sure you’re going the right way anymore. You might get completely off-track. You wonder where you went wrong and try to get yourself back to the original path as quickly as possible. You reach a point where you can see your end goal – the last experiment, the thesis, the defense – but you’re not quite there yet. The other summits around you seem to be taunting you. Sure, they’re amazing, but you’re working hard and you’re no longer impressed by the awesomeness of it all. You just want to be done. You have to steadily work your way to the end and if you go too fast you risk making the process even longer and more challenging. You get to what you think is the end and find you have to navigate a few more revisions to your thesis. Finally, you’re done – it’s out of your hands – but you still have to wait for your advisor’s final sign off to officially begin the next part of your journey.
Right now, I’m hiking uphill. I know I’ve got a little bit more work to do before I can start seriously looking at the end of this adventure. The process has become exhausting, but I still need to invest a lot more time and effort before I can even consider finishing this project. I just hope that when all is said and done, I can look back and say “You know what? That was actually really great”.
