

| Come answer a question, share a laugh, encourage one another, and bring me a coffee! | 
| 
I was out one winter day with a couple of buds who dared me to scale a cliff. We lived on the Iron Range in Minnesota, so the cliff was in an old mining pit, filled with water and frozen over (it was about ten degrees outside). I made a fair distance when the crumbling cliff gave way and went down onto the ice with a large amount of rock, too much for the ice to support. I completely submerged in the frigid water but came back up through the opening and was able to crawl up and onto the ice only because it was cold enough for my wet clothing to stick to it. There was no way I was going to scale the cliff, so  I ended up walking along the cliff on the ice until I reached an area I could climb up with the help of my friends, then we hiked back to town and my house. It was cold enough that my clothing froze stiff, making walking difficult, and by the time I was safely home it had dropped below zero. I suffered hypothermia and frostbite to my face, hands, and feet. It was also the last time I did anything on a dare. "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. | 







