MCW treks Paine Mt. during annual survival weekend

By Kylee Dalmata
Norwich Guidon Off-Campus Editor

Forty hours outside, no sleeping bag, no tent, and no food creates what many would call a bad way to spend a weekend. For the members of Norwich's Mountain Cold Weather Company (MCW), however, it was a walk in the woods.

Both mountaineers in the unit and rescue team members spent Nov. 7-9 on Paine Mountain participating in a survival weekend.

"I had a good time. I like being out there; it's relaxing and lets me get away from the hassles of school," said rescue team member James Bithorn, 21, a senior English major from Rockville center, NY. "It was down time for us."

Most of the team members who went thought the same thing, but for the planners it was anything but relaxing.

"We had to get everything in place before the groups got there, and we were only a couple steps ahead of them the whole time," said MCW's executive officer Joe Gorgol, a 21-year-old rescue team member and criminal justice major from Manchester, NH.

"At one point I was carrying 50 pounds of rope and climbing equipment, trying to get it up the mountain before it was needed," Gorgol said.

The weather worked in their favor, which was a good thing, as participants weren't allowed to bring much of anything in the way of cold weather gear.

Those going met at the MCW shack, their training and supply building, at four p.m. on Friday.

"When we got there they checked for contraband," Joe Reagan, 20 a political science major and rescue team member from Swampscott, Mass., said. "That meant just about everything."

Participants couldn't have lighters or matches, a sleeping bag, excess gear or food

"Everything we had had to be able to fit in a butt pack," said Bithorn.

"It was a survival operation," said Mathew Gottschling, 20, a business management major and rescue team member from Hilltown, Pa., is the company's first sergeant. "They had two quarts of water, a poncho and poncho liner, a knife, and cold weather clothing like polypropylene if they wanted."

The overall mission, given out Mission-Impossible style before they set out, focused on land navigation and survival skills.

Each two-man rescue team or three-man mountaineer team was given grid coordinates once they arrived at the base of the ski hill. They then set out to reach those points in a limited amount of time, according to Reagan.

"The first point brought us to our camp site, which we got to set up in the dark," said Reagan. "Then we got another point to find matches.

Saturday, the groups woke to a day of more navigation; anytime they needed something, they had to go find it.

"I had no idea when we were going to get food. No one told us; it made things miserable," said Micheal Vieira, 20 a criminal justice major and rescue team member from San Diego, Caif.

It wasn't until nine thirty or ten on Saturday that food finally came, in the form of a package of saltines and a container of Raman noodles, per group.

"Saltines had never tasted so good," said Ben Buotte, 19, an international studies major and mountaineer from Saco, ME.

The next point led to the rock quarry, where a bag of food hung from a ledge, according to Gorgol.

Tasks like this kept the teams busy all day, getting a carrot here or a potato there. By evening, everyone was looking forward to the chicken dinner they had all been promised.

"It was amusing," said Reagan. "Most people weren't accustomed to dealing with chickens."

"Everything but the chickens went well that weekend," Bithorn remarked.

Even Gottschling, who had to get the live chickens to the campsite, commented on how terrible they were. "They kept breaking out of the cages and peoples' grasp."

Learning to catch, kill, clean and cook a chicken seems to have been the highlight of the weekend.

"The weekend was designed to teach survival skills and teach you how to live on your own with nothing," Vieira said. "It is what MCW is all about."

The weekend was designed to replace the Frosted Gold winter exercise that hasn't happened in three years, according to Gorgol.

"We wanted the training and didn't want to wait and have it be cancelled again this year."

"MCW plans more weekends like this in the future," said Gorgol.

"A weekend of no food, shelter or food may not sound like something many people would want to do, but it's one of those sick things you have to like to be in MCW. We all loved it," Reagan said.

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