Of all the remixes I received from my classmates, probably the most influential and helpful was that of Jess's. .:Kris:.

It was a dark and cold night in mid January of 2005. A blizzard was brewing in Boulder, Colorado where I had been living since moving away from parents to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. I had run into a rough spot in my life. I was alone, over 2000 miles away from family or friends, living in poverty, failing all of my courses and beginning to follow path I knew I wasn't going to surface back from unless something drastically happened. At the time, I didn't really care what happened to me; I didn’t think anybody else actually cared about what happened to me either. On a whim one night to try to ease my depression and heavy drinking from nights prior, I decided I wanted to go rock crawling in my lifted Jeep, alone. I knew just the place; it was about 25 miles outside of town. I hadn't really put much thought into whether it was going to be a smart idea or not, but more or less that it seemed like a good idea at the time. What did I have to lose other than my life? Even though the odds of someone finding me for a couple of days were grim, I decided what the hell, why not!

That night I prepped all of my snow gear that I had at the time, which wasn't very much. The gear for the trip consisted of mainly some base layers of polyester clothing, a very low quality mountaineering coat and some -50 degree Fahrenheit boots. I then proceeded to pack all of my spare Jeep parts such as drive shafts, tools and all other things to work on my Jeep if I had to. Unfortunately, I thought I had packed all that I might need, but it wouldn’t be until later that night I found out how wrong I really was...

After all things had been packed, I went out to my Jeep to prep for a very adventurous night. On the precarious trip alone out to the trail I pondered as to what exactly I was getting myself into, but honestly, I didn't give a shit what happened. All I cared about was the fact that I was doing things that I never thought I would have done if I hadn't up and left home to create a life for myself the best I could.

I finally arrived at the trailhead to Lefthand Canyon trail (which isn't a trail, but a creek bed filled with enormous boulders and snow). I had gone rock crawling before and as a routine I would air down my enormous tires to around 11 pounds per square inch and lock up all my hubs for 4x4 engagement. Once things were all set I went ahead and headed into the jaws of the trailhead. This wasn’t an easy feat. There were several obstacles that I had to traverse before I could get to the end of trail. The trail is like a boulder field, with the boulders smashed into an enclosed area about 12 feet wide surrounded by an embankment of snow and trees. After much negotiation and some assistance from my winch to traverse some obstacles that would of been normally doable aside from the fact that they were covered in ice and snow. After several hours, I finally completed most of the trail or at least the best I could do during a midnight blizzard run on this dangerous trail and I decided to head out the top of the trail and back down for the night. That's where all things turned very bad...

On the way down the trail that leads back to the trailhead I was over come with the feeling you get when you complete something that you know you couldn't have normally done. It was a euphoric feeling. I was enjoying that feeling when my Jeep’s electric fuel pump decided not to pump fuel anymore. The disgruntling sound of a motor puttering to its demise wasn't so comforting when you know you're shit out luck for finding help on a stranded mountain outside of town. You see this was a problem since I drive a vehicle that is powered by a V8 and a 650 Holley Carburetor that drinks gas like there is an endless supply. At the point where my vehicle up and died I promptly said, "Shit! What am I going to do now?" In a blizzard, where freezing to death was defiantly a possibility, I decided I would inform the only individuals I knew at the time, my parents, that I was stranded on a mountain with no help and a dying cell phone. My parents weren't too pleased with the situation to say the least and unfortunately they couldn't help me from half way across the United States. I didn't really get much time to explain things before my cell phone died because of how cold it was and the situation just got that much more complicated.

At that point I had no other option but to search for the problem, however, I could not locate it. I was able to dismantle the fuel pump in the dark, but after much deliberation on the fuel pumps condition and a differential diagnosis of possible problems, I decided to call it a night and try to find a way back to my dorm. In my substandard gear, I began the long trek down the mountain to a local campground that was situated on the mountain about two miles from the trail head and so happened to be fortunate that it was occupied by a family. Thank god these people were friendly enough to call my friends Chris and Ty, who in turn called the police and the search for me was initiated. Though it seemed like my problems for the night were over, I was wrong again as I so often am...

Although people looked for me, unfortunately, no one was able to locate me. I knew I had to get off the mountain some how; I couldn’t stay with the nice family forever. So, I decided to trek down to the main trailhead to where it intersects with the main road that led into the mountains and wait inside my piece of shit emergency blanket for someone to find me. The blanket did not do a very good job at keeping me warm. After about 4 hours of lying on the ground and shivering to death a truck rolled by and the young man and woman inside told me they'd give me a ride back to town after they got done what it is they were there to do. I agreed to the arrangement because my other option was dying on the mountain. After about an hour or so, they came back down and gave me a lift back to Boulder. I was finally able to get off the mountain and back to the warmth and safety of my dorm. I wanted to find an adventure that night and I certainly did.

I made several changes and additions to the overall theme Jess provided, but I was really pleased at how she so gently made my narrative that much more literate. .:Kris:.

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