She’s been awake since 3 a.m. and it’s 25 degrees out. Just before starting the blind 250 foot rappel down the mountain face in Grand Tetons, the water in her bottle isn’t the only thing that’s frozen.
While the 40th birthday is known for “getting over the hill,” April Ezell chose to not only “get over the hill,” but get over the mountain.
Ezell’s hands are stiff and cold and her body is locked into place as she looks down and out at the snake river and downtown Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Despite the two-day-long climbing camp she “graduated” from in order to attempt this Grand Tetons adventure, she can’t will herself to move.
“I froze up there, I just froze,” Ezell says, “and we had this old-school guide who said, ‘We don’t have time for this, we don’t have time to be nervous, just get off the mountain.’
“He definitely displayed some tough love up there — but it worked”
After not only completing the 13,000 foot climb in the Grand Tetons, but being the only two successful members of the group to finish, Ezell and her husband repelled down the mountain adding yet another adventure story to the books.
After playing both tennis and basketball for the Bisons, Ezell graduated from Lipscomb in 1983. Now, after coaching for fifteen years, she is a professor in the Kinesiology Department who is known for her adventures and storytelling.
“I had April Ezell for Backpacking One and she was really encouraging and inspiring,” says Communications major, Kyrsten Turner, “I am not a very daring person and she taught me how to have fun going out of my comfort zone.”
“Some of my adventures were really difficult for me to do, but I think that in the long run, they have really served me well, Ezell says, “They’re fun, its been extreme at times, but it has given me credibility to say, ‘do something with your life.’ You should never let an obstacle get in the way of doing what you want to do in your life.
“Things don’t always come naturally to me and I think that if I stuck with things that were easy for me then I would not be pushing myself into a realm that makes me an all around better person,” she said.
“I really want to encourage my students to do the same thing, if I do not take risks and put myself out there I think it is a bit fraudulent to ask anybody to do the same thing.”