Shirtless Navy Freshmen Celebrate Summer with Climb Up Greasy Monument

The temperature has just started to rise, and the Naval Academy's class of 2019 is already giving us summer body goals.

The freshmen, or "plebes," completed an annual rite of passage at the academy this week by banding together to climb the Herndon Monument. The class can't officially start summer until an upperclassman's hat is mounted on top of the 21-foot-tall obelisk.

The monument is greased with vegetable shortening and the classmates are sprayed with water as they try to make a human pyramid around the granite spike.

The class reached top after one hour, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds, with midshipman 4th class Chris Bianchi tossing the hat at the monument's peak.

Watch local news footage of the event below.