Friday, June 29, 2007

Getting There


So, I think I have mentioned before that I work in Interactive and Call Center Marketing for Starwood Hotels. This week, I was at the Phoenician (Beautiful, and not saying that as a company man) and the shower was incredible! Thats not really on topic, but you have to like huge drenching showers in the middle of a 120 degree desert.

So, it was the usual bevy of blah blah, but the night time activities and the social pieces were great. But, you ask, being that this is a blog about my middle age crisis and dream of becoming the next Edmund Hilary, what does Phoenix have to do with anything????

Luckily, the Phoenician (with the great showers) abuts (now there's a word that should be used more often) CamelBack Mountain, a 2500 foot mountain in scottsdale az. So, being that I am in training for the September Baker adventure, I thought to myself "self, there is a mountain in walking distance just daring me to climb it". So I did. The first time was the warm up, the "get a feel for it" hike. But day 2, with a climbing interactive marketing partner, we summitted. Its an awesome hike. Trail for a while, but a lot of scrambling to get to the top. Very good feeling when you hit the top, until you hear the story about the 70 year old who does it 3 times every day!!!!

The best part, we didn't see one rattlesnake!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

So, now what do I do?

Since I finally have a climb set, I now have to start getting ready for it. What do I do? First things first, I need to obsess about looking at gear and ways that I can spend even more money. I found a gear exchange which is great, www.geartrade.com.

I bought a book on Amazon to tell me how to get into shape, and I have started hiking, running and trail running. I figure I have 3.5 solid months to get into shape, so I'd better make the best of it.

A Big Mis-Blogging!


First of all, for the 3 people that have ever read this blog, I apologize. We wanted to climb Rainier, but alas, International Mountain Guides would only let me climb with them if my wife signed the waiver. Here's how that conversation went:

" Honey, I really want to climb Rainier with them. Will you sign the waiver form too so I can go?"

"let me get this straight, if you go and die, and I sign, I can't sue? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA"

That was almost verbatim! So, I was SOL. I found a new company, American Alpine Institute, through which I signed up for a private 3 day climb of Mt Baker at the end of September with my partner Mark. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying to find a climb in September has been as exhausting as the climb will be!

Monday, June 4, 2007

The Tallies are In

The die is cast. After months of waffling, the decision has been made to scale Mt. Rainier at the beginning of the low season on September 27th. We are going with International Mountain Guides which is owned by famous climbers Eric Simonson (who emailed back and forth with me - how cool is that?) the Erschlers and others.

I am so excited about it. My shoulder is recovering, and I am starting to eat better and beginning to think seriously about exercising (thats the first step). I am thinking that exercising is a good thing to do before climbing a 14,410 foot mountain.

Of course, I have ordered a DVD of climbs on Rainier and a book by Eric Simonson.

One obstacle remains: MY WIFE!!!! She is supportive of my doing the climb, but she is required by IMG to cosign my waiver. Her reaction? "why do I want to sign something that says if YOU die I can't sue?" Tough to argue, but I will nonetheless.

Stay Tuned!

Climbing Mt. Baker

Slideshow of Mt Washington Climb

Recording about the Mt. Washington and New Hampshire Trip - 2/11/07

6 Minutes of Video of the Mt Washington Climb 2-11-07

This is long but will give you a feeling for the climb on Sunday.