Last year it was a four-hour climb. From Mount Everest's Base Camp 4 to the summit takes only six. Then they climbed and fell, slipped and slid, grasped and groped. At first sight, they say, the monument appears much taller than it actually is, perhaps due to the lard slathered on by upperclassmen. Shoe throwing, hands, shirts and bodies remove the fatty white goo.
Bodies turn red with beads of sweat dripping down the tower of people.
Agony shows on the faces of those at the bottom of the pyramid as they support three or four tiers of bodies upon their shoulders. A person nears the hat on top. Then someone loses balance, falls and sends a dozen or so bodies toppling down like dominoes. One Annapolis tradition says that whoever reaches the top to switch the white hat to an upperclassman's hat will be the first to rise to the rank of admiral. The pyramid collapsed in exhaustion, the crowd went wild and a future admiral was hailed as the hero.