Quarrying Around by Rachel D. '16

In my last post, I mentioned that I had gone on my first caving adventure with the MIT Caving Club. I really enjoyed it, and I wanted to continue my adventures here at MIT by doing all the things. So when I got an e-mail from one of our alums, Mitch B. ’03, about an underground Ice Skating place at a Vermont quarry, I immediately responded that I wanted to go and signed up for the trip.

It was an annual trip that the Boston Grotto has to the Freedlyville Quarry. The quarry entrance was about a mile hike uphill in the snow, and it was absolutely beautiful. There was snow everywhere, and the quarry was filled with what seemed like a foot-thick sheet of ice. I didn’t bring ice skates, but Mitch let me borrow his and it was so much fun! I did take one pretty bad fall on my chin that left a pretty mean bruise, but it was worth it!

After we finished up with skating for a bit, a bunch of us gathered wood and started a fire by the mouth of the quarry. Some people heated up food and roasted hot dogs. I made the perfect marshmellow (It was perfectly golden brown all around!!) and I made a bunch of s’mores for people.

Overall, the trip was incredible. I got to meet some awesome people from the Boston area who have done so many awesome things. The Boston Grotto group was extremely interesting, and I really want to go on more trips with them in the future. I hope that I can go to the quarry again next year and make this an annual thing that I do here at MIT!