High School Hill

A POEM
BY
JARED SLEEPER

Heart heavy,
In a busy chest
Eyes searching,
For the cruel hill’s crest
Limbs dancing,
Desperate for rest
Mere meters to go,
In the final test

Cold air, loose packed snow
Burning muscles, head to toe
Moving fast,
But feeling slow

Four month’s long strain
for such pain?
Absent is gain,
lest the peak is slain

The time has come,
As bundled onlookers cheer,
Below is a drop, mightily sheer,
Never has sweet rest been so dear

If you’ve never done it,
Never experienced the thrill
And the pain,
You can not know,
And I can only try to explain,
How it feels to reach the top
Of High School Hill,
On Black Mountain, in Maine

Published in the December Newsletter of the Maine Winter Sports Center. Jared Sleeper is a Caribou High School student. This poem was inspired by Black Mountain’s infamous High School Hill.

High School Hill (see p. 4) is at Black Mountain and is famous among Maine high school nordic skiers. I didn't ski it today but instead did a lot of V2 up our own high school hill; that there should tell you that our high school hill is a lot flatter! We didn't ski Pineland this morning because James had a mixed report from yesterday's skiers. The trails behind the high school were actually tougher for me than Oak Hill yesterday. Oak Hill had been skied flat and fast. The high school trail was uneven and a little tracked up. James moves through this with beautiful balance. I move through it like I have severe semicircular canal disfunction. But that's how we get better. It was a good workout (a little over 10 miles), both balance and fitness and fun to see all the kids make it to the optional practice. Pineland tomorrow.