Seven Summits

“His minds eye saw a system of Chairlifts, Gondolas, and aerial trams beyond what anyone thought possible. He knew it would probably take another twenty years to see Snowbird the way he dreamed it, But that was okay: He was only fifty-one years old” from Seven Summits speaking of Dick Bass and his vision of Snowbird

This book may be about climbing mountains, it is also about success. There are several amazing stories being told and the success principles drip from the pages. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to further their lives.

I was tricked – Into Physical Therapy

My doctor sent me to a specialist that specializes in running orthotics to get fit for a device. When I arrived I found myself in a physical therapy office. When I spoke to the therapist she said that I wasn’t really here for an orthotic but the doctor cannot send me to her because she is out of his network. She is his Physical Therapist and used to work with him but has branched out and started her own practice. So, instead of going to his offices PT he sent me out of practice and is actually loosing money. :thumb: She does make good running orthotics but only as a last resort.

The PT spent about an hour working with me, measuring me, stretching, watching me move and told me that she believes I can not only run without orthotics, I may be able to avoid surgery all together. She believes that leaving the cartilage in my knee is important and taking it out is a last resort. Her specialty is running injuries and she found a weakness in my left Quad. This weakness stems back to an injury a few years ago where I tore the quad and this weakness has thrown everything off. It has cause my left hip to rotate forward and has thrown my gate completely off and may be the root of all my injuries, Knee and Shin.

I start running again this weekend and have two PT appointments next week. once Monday after my Sunday run Wednesday after my Tuesday run. I have many exercises to do in the mean time to build balance and strengthen my quads. We plan on continuing these sessions until I get this thing worked out.

Seems like good news all around and my team is coming together nicely

Oh, The Knee!

So a few weeks ago I went for a nice hike on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland. Not a big mountain, just a 1200 foot bump in an otherwise flat farm country. The next morning I went out and put in a nice five mile run and felt like a million bucks. Strong, good lungs, solid legs. Then I stood up and the knee went south. For two weeks it has been sore and the Bakers Cysts was larger than ever.

I scheduled a meeting with a new Doc that runs named Dan Pereles, MD or Doctor Dan. He was great, he reviewed my MRI and history and said that at some point I would need Surgery to repair a torn Meniscus. In the mean time to get me through the summer I was administered a healthy Cortisone shot with some numbing agent. The needle was 20 feet long. (The needle gets longer every time I tell the story).

Today, the knee feels better. Probably more the numbing agent than the Cortisone as I think that takes a few days to work. I can run this weekend so I am pretty stoked. I will post my first run results after I run!

It Couldn’t Be Done

 It Couldn’t Be Done
Edgar Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT

Over the past two months or so I have been doing Curls, Squats, Tri’s, Push ups etc. I have been working my upper body like crazy and my abs and chest very hard. In my arms I see a massive difference. Even shirts feel tighter in the arms and people have made comments about my arms.

BUT… I still have too much fat to look ripped at all and I want to be lighter. It is no longer something I want to do or should do but it is an insane burning MUST! The weight I am packing while I run and climb is killing my knees and feet. I literally workout with a 40 lb pack on every day and it is time to take it off. My leverage is my body, I need to keep my Legs, Knees, feet and Hips healthy and always packing this weight is hard on them. If I ruin the body parts, I loose the ability to do everything I want.

I am dedicating my training to Building muscle Mass and eliminating Fat. How? I am going to continue what i am doing and add HIIT 3 days a week. The hill by my house is about 1/5 of a mile long and about a 20-25% grade. Needless to say it is a brutal beast. Yesterday I ran 4 45 second sprints up the monster and it about killed me. Gee, I remember the day I could not make it up once, anyway, I will continue to abuse this hill until I can sprint it 8 times full out with 2 minute rests in between. Over eight weeks I should be able to pull that off and really trim up.

All day yesterday I felt like someone had kicked my ass and I was so tired. I laid around and watched a movie and realized that the routine of running the monster is just what I need. Fast, Furious, painful, pleasurable, Measurable, Tough and effective workout.
Plus, this will really get my climbing muscles in shape!

Mauna Kea

Here is a little update and some really cool photos from the top of Mauna Kea. After some hikes I started having fits with my knee so we drove partially up Mauna Kea and then I trekked the rest. I had a blast. Although it isn’t a technical or high climb to 13800 it is still a challenge. I had to keep reminding myself to breath deep and even or I would get light headed. All in all I was a mountain goat. Too bad the damn knee is giving me fits. I think that when I get home I will look into getting it fixed.
The temp on top was about 5 F after a 45 MPH wind. I way under dressed and froze my butt off. We were told to expect 25-30 F

Anyway, here are some really cool pictures.
Enjoy
Me at sunrise on the Summit

THe Shadow of the mountain at sunrise extending to the west

At the Summit, Mauna Loa in background about 200 feet lower.

Sunrise, True Summit to the right just before we made the final climb.

View from the top at Sunrise

Back on the Snow! 25 years too late

So last Friday I did something I have not done for (I am ashamed to say this) 25 Years. I went Skiing.

When I was 5 years old my father taught me how to ski and by the time I was 12 I was a pretty good skier. In my teens I was completely unstoppable and then there was the “M” word. I was confined to a life of servitude and skiing was not in the plans. The last time I put boards on my feet was maybe 1983.

Now I had went Snowboarding twice in 2003 and that was totally different. The first time was OK but nothing I really got excited about and the second time put me in the hospital with a collapsed lung for a total of 12 days. But Skiing, that was my childhood passion. Man did I love to ski.

So there I was after 25 years, Laying in bed visualizing the slope, the skiing, the curves, the turns, the smells, the feels, Everything and it was as if I was there and never came down from the hills. The next morning I stopped by my buddies who owns a rental shop and he hooked me up with the best gear. I was nervous but the memory was all there. I could feel the slope. As I drove up the canyon in SLC I was very aware and bleeding of nostalgia. I was headed to the resort, Solitude, where I first learned to ski over 40 years ago. The hill had changed but a lot had remained the same. The little shack that stood at the end of Inspiration Lift (Long gone) was still there. The smells were the same and the sounds were all crisp. As I walked from the jeep to the hill the crunching snow gave me chills. All those years skiing came rushing back like a freight train and there I stood, at the lift line ready to climb on the lift. 25 years of talking myself out of liking snow melted like a snow cone on a hot summer day. I sat back and I was off.

The plan was to take a very easy beginners hill and make a few turns. Got to get the feet under me I kept saying but what I meant is I got to get the fear under control. I talked a lot on that first ride up the mountain, nothing much to do but talk. It cools the nerves, It defocuses from he fear. Then the top came and reality set in, It was time to deliver and I skied off the lift and stood at the top of the run. I looked at my friend that was there for me and off we went. I made a few turns and suddenly as if I was injected with super human memory, every cell in my body remembered and I started carving up the hill. Before i knew it I was hammering moguls, cutting the slope and tucking for speed. I WAS BACK!

By the end of the day I was exhausted, every muscle was burning and we made an intense 14 runs. All were on Blue or harder slopes and several were Black Diamond. In the end I had to fight back a tear just as I am doing now because I look at 25 years I went before I took this wonderful gem back into my life. I realized that all the years of telling myself I hated the snow were a cover for the pain of something I had purposely given up and now that pain is gone and I have moved one step forward. Another step towards the top of the world…

Into the Wild

Yesterday on a plane I watched the movie Into the Wild. Then today I saw this quote from Chris McCandless AKA Alexander Supertramp “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” — Chris McCandless It really hit home as to why I do the things I do. It isn’t that I am another Chris McCandless groupie, hell, I just heard about the guy and as messed up as he was, his views on adventure and life seem very clear. He knew what he wanted and in the end realized what he was missing. More to come Here I am into my own Wild!

Life’s little challenges

It has been quite awhile since I posted here. A lot has happened. I am catching up on some due taxes and it is really stressing me out. Not that I can’t pay but that it seems like forces move against us to challenge us when we set a goal. This is just me whining like a baby and I will get over it.
I received my new set of Mountaineering boots, they are really badass.

Here is a picture of them on my feet.

Just looking at the gear has made my head swim a little. I know in the short run, some of the gear I can rent. Much of the gear I want to be my own. I did score me some nice base layers on sale the other day. I head out to SLC next week. There won’t be any climbing going on though. Maybe I can get in a little skiing and even kike up to some peaks above Brighton. It has been a long time since I climbed the shoots above Millicent Lift. I thought that my plans to hike Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea were off because my friend was going to cancel on me. He is back on so it’s all cool. I will have not only a running partner but a climbing partner. We might start off at the 10K foot level though instead of the 8K level for Mauna Loa. Its about 15 miles shorter and his time is tight. No big deal though. It all works out.

Action goes a long way.

This will be part of a post on my blog but I wanted to include it here

One thing I lack is Mountaineering skills. I hate to admit this but it’s true. I have never had any formal training and although I can use ropes, an axe and crampons. I have never really trained to so important maneuvers such as a self arrest if I were sliding down an icy glacier. Most of my skills are self taught and that could be a recipe for disaster.
Today I took a little action and contacted several of the larger and reputable mountaineering schools and came to the conclusion that to get a really good deal and have the experience I want I need to leave the country. Or at least the lower 48.

I have decided on two schools; One in Alaska and the other in Ecuador. Both offer some real advantage over most other schools. The school in Alaska sits at the foot of Mt McKinley or Denali and enjoys spectacular views and plenty of blue ice and glaciers to practice on. The Ecuadorian school uses several of the very large and active or dormant volcanoes in Ecuador to train on. The tallest of these is over 20,000 feet and have year round glaciers too. I am leaning towards Ecuador as the urge to explore three new volcanoes is way strong and I can hardly resist the pull. The Ecuador training is also $1000 cheaper than the Alaskan training and lasts a few days longer.

Another benefit in Ecuador is that I get to climb two 20K footers. Cotopaxi for training and glacier school then Chimborazo a mammoth volcano that from the tip of the volcano to the center of the earth is further than that of Everest. When standing ion top you are closer to the sun than any other point on earth. That is pretty cool. Also the ascent to the top of Chimborazo is done at night so that you summit by 6AM, watch the sunrise and get off the mountain before she wakes up. When the sun starts warming her rocks and ice start falling off her sides and being on top is a very bad idea.

I received an email from Ecuadorian Alpine Institute and they seemed to be very professional. I am going to do some due diligence on them but I feel my choice is pretty much made. Another benefit to Ecuador is the cost of airfare and transport. It’s not in the US so everything is lower cost. Gear included.

So here is the gear list. Seems I have some shopping to do!

Hardware:

• Plastic/Mountaineering Boots

• CramponsIce Axe with Leash

• Locking Carabineer

• Oval Carabineer

• Prussic Slings

• Rescue Sling

• Harness

• Helmet

Personal Equipment List:
3 Pair Outer Socks , 2 Pair Long Underwear, Fleece Jacket, Down Jacket, Gore-Tex Parka, Gore-Tex Pants or Bib, Gaiters, 2 Glove Liners, Wool Gloves/Mitts, Trekking BootsGore-Tex Overmitts, Cap/Hat, Balaclava, Headlamp, Glacier Glasses, BackpackSleeping Bag, 2 One-Liter Poly Bottles, Insulated Mug with snap lid, sun cream (40),Trekking/ Ski Poles, Personal Toilet/First Aid Kit, Camera and Film