U.S. Naval Academy Herndon Monument Climb: from 2009, 10, and 11

A find website, The Herndon Monument Climb, has a collection of images of the Climb from 2009. The website describes the event like his:

The Herndon Monument Climb is the annual ceremony where the plebes (first year academy students) work together to climb the lard-covered monument and replace a "dixie-cup hat" on top with a midshipman hat. This is the official end of the plebe year in which they become "plebes no more!" 

I reported on images from the 2012 Clime, taken from a variety of posts, earlier.  The 2013 Climb will be in May and I'll report on it then. This and later posts contain images from earlier Climbs, are by way of a teaser.

All mages in this post are all from The Herndon Monument Climb, frequently cropped by me to show some portraits and some individual efforts.  2010 and 2011 Climbs are in following posts.

2009