Chasing the Sunset…

It’s not every day someone has the opportunity to do a double workout in the same day but on different coasts of the continental United States. I thought up this idea when I made the airline reservations a few weeks back, and I wanted to do a run workout first on the East Coast and then later in the day on the West Coast.

My 2:30pm flight from Dulles Airport in VA would put me in San Francisco, CA at about 5:30pm. So, at noon, just before heading to the airport, I ran my usual 4+ mile loop through my Rockville, MD neighborhood. It was a clear day but incredibly windy with gusts up to 50 miles an hour and temps in the mid 40’s. Twenty-eight’ish minutes later, I was in the shower and then jumped into my car heading toward the airport for my flight.

Dulles airport was empty! There were no lines at security and since I wasn’t checking bags for my 4 days in San Jose, I was more than an hour early at the gate.

My flight departed a few minutes late, around 2:45pm EST and I was headed west. Almost six hours and about 10 mini bags of pretzels later we were in San Francisco at 6:00pm PST. The second half of the flight I was literally chasing the sunset. From my bulkhead window seat I could see a brilliant saturation of red clouds below as the sun hit the bottom of the clouds we were flying over. Off in the distance was a red, yellow and orange glow. I was able to view a 3 plus hour sunset.

In San Francisco, I headed directly to the rental car department, picked up my Hertz Honda Civic and headed down route 101 south for about a 40 minute drive to the Cisco campus in San Jose. I arrived at 7:30pm PST at the Cisco gym in building 5. Outside it was pitch dark and slightly overcast. At close to 65 degrees, it was more than 20 degrees warmer than my earlier run on the east coast.

In San Jose, there is a vast system of storm water levies and dikes. They are miles long and crisscross the city. Included in this system are gravel paths which are great for running because they are quiet and off the beaten path, except for the occasional underpass at a road. They are also dark at night.

My route was a very flat 5 mile loop around a levy which ran just behind the gym. Finally hitting the path at 7:30pm, I was completely alone. About 3.5 miles in and of course on a very dark section, I could see a dark figure about 50 yards ahead. Keeping way to the edge of the trail, I passed a person who was probably homeless. I said hello, and he mumbled something. A little spooked, I picked up the pace for a few hundred yards and finally reached the end of the loop and headed back into the gym.

The day was complete, the blog written in my head as I ran. And, of course, it’s impossible to catch the sunset no matter how you chase it.

Pinless and Slingless closing another chapter…

Tuesday, November 20th at 8:15am was my lucky day. My surgeon removed the pin from my left shoulder. In the examination room, he pulls out a pair of everyday plyers like something in my toolbox and within seconds, yanks out the pin. Just an instant of pain and it was over!

It had been six weeks and one day since surgery to install the pin which stuck out of my shoulder for easy removal. I had been in the immobilizer throughout with no ability to move my arm. And although I cheated and occasionally removed that sling, when I had it on it was like a straightjacket. The pin that was keeping bones together allowing my tendons to reconnect could have been broken if I moved my arm, hence the need for that torturous sling.

Throughout the ordeal, I learned what exercise I could and couldn’t do. Riding a trainer (stationary bike) was boring and I sweated so much that it was probably the cause of the infection that sent me back to the emergency room for two days and that could only be eliminated with multiple days of intravenous antibiotics. Walking was my only active outlet. I would walk my normal four mile neighborhood running loop. It took more than an hour! Also, in the later stages, I was in the gym weight room doing leg workouts and sit-ups. People at the gym felt sorry for me and would help me adjust the machines.

That Tuesday afternoon, I had planned a bike and run with different workout buddies. However, I quickly learned that immobilizing your arm for six weeks did bad things to your muscles, including making my shoulder and arm very stiff, limiting my range of motion. I was not able to lift my arm past my shoulder and could barely rotate it.

However, I was hellbent on a run. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Thanksgiving) I ran 4 – 6 miles each day. Aside from the limited left arm swing, I felt strong. I took Friday off as a rest day. I ran in the Turkey Burnoff 5M/10M running club race Saturday. It was a cold morning and I ran the 5m option. My buddy, Steve, showed up and ran with me. He was great company. We held approximately 6:30 mile splits throughout, placing 11th overall out of a low key field of about 50-100 runners. It was a good day.

Sunday afternoon was my first bike ride on my new bike (replacement from Bernie, my buddy and old college roommate, for the one that was stolen). I adjusted the seat such that the arm reach to handlebar was minimal reducing the amount of stretching my left arm had to do since it was limiting. I did a 20 mile loop through Beach Drive and Rock Creek Park with Harriet.

The following day, less than a week since pinless and slingless, I woke at 5:30am and was finally back on the W&OD trail heading to Herndon for work. This is one of my favorite things to do… and I missed it the most. At six o’clock in the morning, it was pitch dark and sunrise wasn’t for another hour at least. I was powered by IPod with headlight on to see the trail. I cranked out 18 miles to work in 38 degree weather.

My ride back was just as exhilarating. I left the office around 4pm. It was starting to get dark, but since I was on the trail, I had no traffic to contend with which was good when it started to rain. I was prepared for the weather and it was a great return trip.

So, it looks like I am back to my usual mischief. I had been counting down the days and hours, and finally, I was free of the sling! The funny thing is, on that Tuesday when I became pinless and slingless, the surgeon actually gave me another sling to wear along with two simple stretching exercises and told me to come back in two weeks. As you can see, the sling was gone before even leaving the doctor’s building and I haven’t looked back!

Next stop, Boston Marathon, April 21th 2008…

Hero to zero, my three day journey…

My injury from the cycling accident with the car was called an AC-Separation. From Wikipedia, it is defined as a Type III AC-Separation which means multiple ligaments are torn that connects the clavicle (collar bone) to the top of the shoulder. A significant bump is formed by the lateral end of the clavicle being detached and pushing up against the shoulder muscles and skin. Without surgery this protrusion is permanent along with the potential for loss of motion in the shoulder however the ligaments do eventially reattach.

Here is an x-ray of my left shoulder showing the injury 45 minutes after the accident. Leading up to the surgery, which was 3 weeks after the accident, I actually recovered significantly. 2 weeks afterward, I was back to commuting to work and some running. My weekend before the surgery on Monday went like this:

Day 1 (hero): Saturday Oct 6th, 2007 – 35 mile bike ride with my early morning cycling group. Here is a video from my helmet cam of that ride.

Day 2 (hero): Sunday Oct 7th, 2007 – 16 mile run on the hills of Woodbine, MD with group from Montgomery County Road Runners including my good buddy Paz and Denis.

Both workouts where my last hurrah and I had planned this weekend knowing that for the next 6-8 weeks I would see almost zero workouts.

Day 3 (zero): Monday Oct 8th – Arrive at George Washington University hospital Outpatient Surgery Center with my mom at 6am in the morning for the 7:30am surgery. They escorted me into the pre-surgery area where I slipped into something more comfortable, a nice full length fashionable gown!

After 2 failed attempts, they got the third IV inserted correctly (BTW, have you seen my veins, got to be blind to miss). The doctors all gave me pieces of information and instructions for what would happen throughout the surgery. They would put me under using the IV and then they would insert a breathing tube into my mouth and down throat. Then they would perform the 1+ hour surgery. Remove the breathing tube and take me to the recovery room. The last thing I remember is being rolled in and transferred to the operating table and seeing multiple humongous spot lights over head before going to sleep.

While in the recovery room a few hours later, I became lucid. My arm was in an extremely tight sling and completely immobilize. I was told this sling should not be removed for 6 weeks. And no showers! I was also told that during surgery, they had to cut a 4 inch incision over my shoulder, shave down my collar bone to put it back into position, re-attach a muscle and lastly, they had to insert a pin through collar bone and shoulder to hold everything in place during healing. This pin which looked like a coat hanger was sticking out the side of my shoulder in clear site. (But covered with a bandage). The sling could not be removed because movement of my arm would risk breaking that pin. Plus, I noticed I was wearing a different color gown then before the surgery, hmmmmmmm! I hope it was good for them.

Shoulder after surgery. Obviously, they installed a convenient coat hook. By 4:30pm I was heading home. I was barely able to get out of the hospital without becoming nauseous. Half way home my mother had to pull the car over to the side of the road for 10 minutes and crank the air conditioning until the nausea subsided. But we finally made it home. What a fun day!

I slept for almost 2 days straight in a fog of Narcotic pain relief.

I lost my baby today!!! Oct 4th, 2007
Thank you Kryptonite Lock Company. As you can see from the photo, your high security flex cable was cut and I lost my baby. But more interestingly, it was cut and taken in broad daylight (middle of the day) on the busy sidewalks of Washington, DC. (Police report # 136-344)

AND

The $1.99 Made in China padlock was left untouched. That doesn't bode to well for the perceived quality of your high security flex cables, calling yourself ‘Industry leading provider of bicycle Locks.’

O’ and by the way, the bike was a 10+ year old beat up mountain bike. I guess the ease of cutting your cable attracted the thief.

It was a typical bicycle commuting day for me. The 30 mile round trip was almost the same route I used when I got hit by the car just a few weeks ago. I arrived at the DC Ballys gym around 10am. Locked the bike up and went in to shower and change for my customer meetings.

I returned to my gym at about 3:30pm, shocked to see the empty spot on the bike rack. The spot where a few hours earlier my bike was securely locked. Lying on the ground was the cut cable. It was a pitiful site and depressing moment for me.

My only hopes now are that the curse of that bike, due to my accident last week, will stay with the new owner and that I will never buy another Kryptonite Lock. And neither should anyone reading this who doesn’t want to return to a bike rack, to see it empty.

It was statistically inevitable, Goes with the risk and May happen again... Sept. 18th, 2007

One of the worst sounds that I can think of is the loud crushing impact, just as your car collides into another, as the metal of both entangle with each other. And then there is a nanosecond of silence followed but an atmosphere of hysteria. Those sounds and images reverberate in your mind for a long time after such an incident. For me, that image will be me on my bicycle colliding with a car that just made a left turn directly in front of me while I was moving at close to 25mph down 16th street in Washington, DC toward my Grandmothers for our weekly dinner together.

I had just left Bally’s Gym in DC and was headed down 16th street NW on my mountain bike for the short ride, when I was hit. It happen so amazingly fast, there was really no way to have avoided the car. It was travelling in the opposite direction up 16th street and decided to make a left turn directly in front of me. Obviously the driver had not seen me flying down the hill.

I pulled both front and back brakes, but there was no way to stop in time. I squarely hit the passenger side door with the front tire. Then my body followed head and left shoulder first. I remember the impact of my helmet on the windshield and my shoulder on the passenger window. Instantly, I came to a stop and slid to the pavement like a cartoon character that hits a brick wall, flattens out and flows to the ground.

I was conscious and immediately stood up, backpack with laptop and clothing still on my back. I gathered my bike and drag it to the curb. I took about 10 sec’s to collect myself. The lady driving the car rushed over to see if I was ok. She was panicked and called 911. Of course being the mommas boy that I am, I called my mother. I am sure she rushed to her car and headed my way. But of course the fire trucks, ambulance and police car beat her to the location. They carted me off in a stretcher sirens blairing toward GWU Hospital. My bike went to Fire Engine Co. #11 where it still sits.

My left shoulder was a mess. It had swollen the size of a small pumpkin. I was certain that I had dislocated it or broken my collar bone. The nurses at the hospital looked at me and said I didn’t look so good. Well, geez, I just t-boned a car at 25mph on my bicycle. Luckily the x-rays showed nothing broken, but extensive torn ligaments that connect my collar bone to my shoulder. They shot me up with demurral (spelling) and sent me home with a referral for an Orthopedic Surgeon.

My mother met me at the hospital, we went out to dinner and I went home to bed! The sound and image of my impact reverberates in my mind and will for a while. But I feel fine and was very lucky, it could have been much worse.

Sorry no pictures from this adventure.

My Birthday Weekend - September 16, 2007

Well as you can see from the below video clip (click the play button in bottom left corner of image), my Birthday weekend was a barrel of laughs. It began Saturday morning with a 50 mile bike ride with my riding group. We started at Rileys Lock in Potomac, MD and head north toward Dickerson and then rolled through Poolsville back to the start.

Sunday was the annual Montgomery County Road Runners, Parks Half Marathon. It was a cool morning with temps in the high 50's. We started the point to point race at the Rockville Metro station and ran down Viers Mill Road to the Beach Drive trail which took us to the finish in Bethesda. I ran it with my buds Steve and Scott. We all had great times and mine was a PR of 1:26:13 which placed me 7th in my age group and 51st overall.


The afternoon was spent at Little Seneca State Park at the Shaker Craft Festival. The video above, with me and the monkey was taken there.

And then of course was my annual birthday family dinner of Popeyes Fried Chicken. Yummalicious.

Ben Kweller Live in Concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC – September 8th 2007

It's rare to see a rock concert where the lead singer is dripping blood all over his instruments, but the last time I saw Ben Kweller was the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival in 2006. He appeared on stage 10 minutes late and explained to the roaring crowd of more than 30,000 that paramedics where working on him backstage to stop a nose bleed. Well, the paramedics where not successful, because within a few minute into his first song, his nose began to bleed again. He was not able to finish his set.

Anyway, the performance at the Kennedy Center was not nearly as dramatic. The main Concert Hall was packed with a mix of families, and Kweller groupies. Ben played a mix of ballads and his popular rock songs.

To my disappointment there was no mosh pit anywhere in the Concert Hall.

ANNUAL DULLES PLANE PULL - Saturday September 8th

Its not every day that you get to yank 157,000lbs of 727 across the Dulles Airport Tarmac. But for the 3rd straight year our 20 person teams will play this tug of war.

Well, this update is going to be anti-climatic. And I am sorry to say, this event didn't go quite as planned...

After arriving at Dulles airport with a co-worker at 10:30am in time for our teams pre-planned early morning plane pulling time, we where disappointed to learned that our team would not be pulling the plane for at least a few hours. We decided not to waste the day sitting around the Tarmac and sadly turned around and went home.

MONSTER MARATHON AND HALF MARATHON Virgil, NY (Central New York)
Labor Day Weekend, September 2, 2007

This is the toughest marathon course in the East with 5560 ft of total climb. No one will ever qualify for Boston here, but the beauty of this section of the North Country National Scenic Trail and the Finger Lakes Trail is worth the effort (and the fun!). The course consists of two identical out-and-backs of 13.1 miles each.

The day started with my drive from Ithaca, NY where my parents have a cottage on Cayuga Lake. It's 7:15am and the temp is about 44 deg's and kind of cold for September 2nd. 45 minutes of driving past farms and pastures on back roads, I am in the city of Virgil, well if you can call it a city. This was an incredibly small upstate NY town. I find the tiny bar/restaurant on the side of a country road with a dozen cars in the parking lot. This was the race start and a few people were milling about. There where no crowds that we typically see as city slickers in downtown Washington, DC. I found this race on the Internet, while looking for a group to run with while in Ithaca for the Labor Day weekend.

I went to the race registration desk, gave my $25 and find that at that point only 16 people had registered for the half marathon. But it was still early they told me. They wanted to sell me a race shirt with last years race date on it. That was strange?

This was a unique race in other ways, the biggest was they had handicapped start times. The half marathon started at 9am but since I was old (hehehe) I got to start early. A whole 3 minutes early. Many others started before me depending on age and sex. In fact some runners started more than 45 minutes earlier.

More racers begin to show and by my start time there where a whooping 40 registered racers. I was the only one in my heat and at 8:57am I was alone at the start line. The race director yelled 'GO' over the microphone, which he didn’t really need to do since I was right next to him and the only one at the start line. It was very silly, but I was off.

The first mile progressed toward the end of a dead end country road. I passed lift #5 of Greek Peak Ski area and knew I was in for some hills. Once on the trail, I was hit with 2 miles of a constant and steep uphill climbing of almost 2000 vertical feet. It was incredibly steep; I walked a few seconds here and there finally making it to the top and the water stop 3.2 miles into the race and 36 minutes later. Ouch thats about a 10 minute mile average. It’s gonna be a long day!

The next 3’ish miles to the turn around where rolling hills and numerous small stream crossings. I was warned of the ‘monsters’ in this Monster Marathon, and at about 50 minutes into the race, as I focused on the trail and placement of each step so as not to twist an ankle. I was running alone through a small field when a fully camouflaged ‘thing’ jumped out and growled at me! It scared the crap out of me and I may have even let out a little yelp. I had been warned at the start of monsters on the trail, but wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I laughed hysterically alone in the woods for the next 10 minutes as my heart rate returned to normal race levels from the scare! Hehehe, nothing like a small town race with monsters on the course.

Anyway, I finally get to the 6 mile turn around point, downed a GU with 2x caffeine, snag a cup of Gatorade and made the U-turn back toward the start. The enormous cheering section of 2-3 people at the turn around kept me going.

I picked up the pace for the return; I was feeling great and passed a few people here and there. No monsters on the return trip but I was still laughing about it. Got back to the dead and road and brought it in! Finish time of 2:03 which put me in 13 place overall. Not bad since we had the handicap start times.

AFter crossing the finish line, I got this really nice burlap necklace with a piece of cork attached to it that said Monster Marathon 2007.

It was a good workout and a great day. Now back to the lake for a swim.

Assault on Mt. Rainier August 18th - 24rd 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007

Online Photo Gallery: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=19n4fqyb.8z9p399z&x=0&y=99l67i

To my great relief, I stuck my head out of the tent in Cougar Rock Campground after three days of non-stop rain, resulting in sopping wet clothing and sleeping bags, to finally see a somewhat clear, blue sky.

Cougar Rock Campground is situated within the Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State. I am with two buddies waiting for the weather to finally break and allow us to take care of the business that had brought us here. Ice axes, crampons, and other climbing gear were sitting in the trunk of our rental car. We were there to summit the 14,410 foot peak of Mt. Rainier.

Our three-man team consisted of Steve and Phil Smith, twin brothers, and me. Collectively we are duathletes, adventure racers, triathletes, and marathoners. While all of us are beginner mountain climbers, the Smiths at least had some experience. Needless to say, we are all in great physical shape and were determined to beat this mountain, which sees almost 9,000 successful assents per year, but has a more than 60% failure rate.

We were taking the Disappointment Cleaver route, and the original plan was to climb to the Camp Muir base camp two days prior (Monday) and then summit Rainier that night (leaving at 3:00 am Tuesday morning). Given the typical Rainier weather, we were already two days behind schedule.

During our rain delay, we hiked roughly 4,000 vertical feet past Comet Falls and its amazing 400 foot waterfall with views of steep alpine meadows filled with wild flowers spanning 3.5 miles to Mildred Point.

The trail head started at the main road leading into the park, about 1.5 miles past Cougar Rock - just before the road crosses Van Trump Creek. This day hike was also a good opportunity to acclimate ourselves to the elevation and to stretch our legs. We got soaked from the rain in the process, but the views made it all worthwhile.

Finally, the weather was clearing!

We had been popping in on the ranger station at Paradise Visitors' Center for daily base camp and summit weather updates. Base camp was seeing low 40 degrees at night and the summit was in the high 20s with 20-30 mile an hour sustained winds. Things looked like they were falling into place. After a dry run with our ropes, harnesses, and crampons at Cougar Rock Campground, the games began!

Day 1 - Paradise Visitors' Center (Elev. 5,400ft) to Camp Muir base camp (Elev. 10,000ft)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Muir snowfield: don't be fooled by this approach! It's steep and challenging, especially with a full pack (40 lbs or more). We started at Paradise Visitors’ Center. There is a series of braided asphalt and gravel trails leading 2.2 miles to the Camp Muir trail head. We should have followed the Pebble Creek trail, however, and we got really lost. We ended up circling for more than an hour on the paved trails. The signs along the way were confusing, and we had no map. Finally we made it to the top of Pebble Creek, and the signs pointing up the mountain said 2.7 miles to Camp Muir. It was mostly sunny and temps where in the 50’s. We could tell it was going to be a hot day. All trails lead steeply up-hill, and I had a very tough time hiking. (Note to self: don't ever take antihistamines before an aggressive endurance activity! I found out the hard way that the Bendryl I had been taking for a runny nose was also great at dehydrating my body along with the nose.)
Two hours into the climb (about half way), I began sweating profusely (although it was only 65 degrees outside), became nauseous, and my body began to shut down. I laid spread eagle on the Muir snowfield for close to an hour wondering how I would make it to the summit if I could barely make it to the base camp. Steve backtracked down the snowfield and carried my pack the rest of the way. Eventually I struggled to the top, collapsing in front of the rangers' station. Probably not the best location to collapse since the rangers could potentially tell us not to make the summit attempt. However, I could not yet go the additional 30 yards to the John Muir public bunk house. It was a very bad start and not much of a confidence builder for the summit attempt, which, at this point, was now postponed yet another day to give me time to recover.

We were among flocks of people on the way to Camp Muir and were nervous about getting a spot in the bunk house. Steve and Phil raced ahead on the snowfield only to find the bunk house completely empty. We settled onto the plywood bunk beds, that looked to hold about 20 people, choosing the top row. Our next project was to re-supply our drinking water. We quickly learned that melting ice with a JetBoil camp stove was time consuming and used a ton of fuel. In fact, during the time spent at Camp Muir, we found that drinking water was possibly the most valuable commodity to have, and in many cases lack of it was the cause of many failed summit attempts. It is amazing to be surrounded by snow in +60 degree weather and be very limited on drinking water. We topped our Nalgene bottles off as best as possible and huddled up to assess our situation.

Our plan: take a rest day on Wednesday and prepare for the summit, which we would attempt Thursday morning at around 3am! This would be a challenge on our low food supplies. We had not packed enough food for an extra day at base camp, . Although we were lucky to have a little extra, we had to ration the food.

We were in bed by 8pm after a lavish dinner of Beef Stroganoff - freeze dried of course. While lying in the bunk, Phil decided to check his pulse and quickly determined it was 120 bps. That seemed high! So, we all took a 15 sec count to check ourselves. Steve 16 (64bps), Phil and I 18 (72bps). That was more realistic.

About an hour later a group of guys shuffled into the bunk house with headlights flickering on the walls and gear clattering. They had come from Paradise Visitors’ Center, and I overheard them say they would leave at 6am the next morning for the summit. I also overheard that they too were low on water. Things eventually settled down as they headed for sleep.

Now picture the scene: 10 guys in a tiny bunk house is a recipe for zero sleep! The snoring and farting persisted throughout the night. If I got 2 hours of sleep I was lucky.

Day 2- Preparing for the Summit
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

We snuck in a few hours of sleep once the 6am group left. That was the best sleep all night. We finally got up and made breakfast. Yummalicious freeze dried Chicken Jambalaya - breakfast of champions. Stepping out of the John Muir Bunk House we were greeted with a brilliant blue sky above us and a layer of clouds below us. We had a panoramic view of Mts. Adams, Hood, and St. Helens. Each of the mountain peaks poked through the cloud layer displaying their summits. We must have had 90 miles of visibility. The sun was warming us and the snow, and our breakfast view was postcard perfect.

We decided to rope up and make sure we had all of our gear in order for the following morning’s summit attempt. I seemed to have recovered from Tuesday’s debacle with dehydration. Our plan was to hike a 45 minute section of the Disappointment Clever route toward the summit. Suiting up with crampons, helmets, ice axes, and ropes, we got familiar with that section of trail so that when 3am rolled around the next morning, all our gear would be ready to go and darkness would not hold us back as we picked our way through the crevasses. We headed across the Cowlizt Glacier and up to Cathedral Gap and its rock outcrop. The panoramic view back to base camp was picturesque with snow splattered with a few colorful tents in the foreground, and stone base camp structures in the background.

We hiked back to camp, and our next priority was water. We conservatively calculated 4 quarts (1 gallon) of water per person for the summit attempt Thursday. That equals 3 gallons of water total, and there was just not enough fuel for the Jetboil or enough time to melt that much snow. Our only other option was a 15 minute hike back toward Paradise Visitors’ Center to a section of the snowfield where snow melt runoff was surfacing from a rock outcropping. Within 10 minutes we had all water bottles topped off, and our bodies re-hydrated as well. Of course the 15 minutes downhill hike was almost an hour-long hike back up to camp.

At approximately 4pm, as we were hiking back up to base camp, we ran into the group from the bunk house that had left for the summit at 6am that morning. Unfortunately, none of them was successful. Their challenge was lack of water. In addition, the steep sections of the route had became very slushy because they left so late in the morning, and they were having problems ascending those segments of the trail. They regretably had to turn around before summiting.

For the remainder of the evening we relaxed and divvied up the trail mix, GORP, power bars, GU, and beef jerky for the summit climb. We also ate our last freeze-dried meal and readied our gear. There were 2 other guys in the bunk house melting snow and cooking dinner. The 3 of us hit the hay early.

Well, surprise, surprise - at 1am we had visitors! It sounded like 6-8 people who woke us with their noise. We would return the favor when our alarm went off at 3am.

Day 3 – Conquering the Summit
Thursday, August 23, 2007
At 3am my watch alarm went off; then a minute later Steve’s alarm sounded. We were up and out of the bunk house quickly. Outside, it was pitch dark. The moon had already set, and the stars were bright and abundant. The temperature was probably in the mid-40s. With our headlamps on, we roped up and headed toward the summit. It was 3:45am.

With only about 30 feet of rope connecting the 3 of us, it was a silent and lonely start in the dark. My mind was wondering. Would we make it? Would I become nauseous and collapse again keeping us all from making it to the top? On the positive side, thanks to our meticulous planning the day before, I felt great and confident of success. We were prepared, rested, and each of us stocked with lots of water and body fuel for the attempt.

45 minutes into the climb, having retraced our steps from the day before, we were at the rock outcrop. We could see the sky slowly turning to a blood red as the sun came closer to rising. Little Tahoma Peak, at 11,138ft, was right in front of us with the colors of the early morning sky all around. The route then took us across Ingram Glacier and down around Disappointment Cleaver (DC). This section is the DC variation and would normally climb up and over DC. Due to the weather conditions, however, we had a variation that took us around DC, and this would be the only significant downhill section of the trail during the ascent. This variation adds about 1 - 1.5 hours to the roundtrip time, but it also avoids some hazardous rock fall zones and some pretty nasty crevasses, which were being spanned by teetering ladders.

Once we turned the corner around DC, it would be a long slow up-hill climb for many hours on the Emmons Glacier. We were about 3 hours into the climb and had not seen any signs of other groups. Next we had to navigate the only real technical section called the Hillary Step. It had fixed ropes, and we proceded one at a time. Clipping into the fixed webbing, Hillary Step was a 30 foot, essentially vertical, maneuver. Setting our ice axes and crampons into the ice/snow mixture, we climbed up without a problem.

Next we encountered a section of switchbacks and sketchy snow bridge crossings. We took many short breaks for photo ops, water, and snacks. The wind began to really pick up at around 13,000ft while hiking the switchbacks. The wind got our adrenaline pumping and made the ascent that much more of an adventure.

The quads were starting to burn, and we kept telling each other that we had to be close. The route was very steep with sharp drop offs at each switchback. We could almost see the top!
10am and we were at the crater rim (!), but not quite the official top. The wind was howling, and the temps were in the low 20s as we took cover behind a large boulder, the only object within view not covered by snow. We ditched our packs and headed across the flat cinder cone reaching Columbia Crest, the true summit at 14,411 ft., 20 minutes later. We were whooping and hollering the entire way, completely overwhelmed with excitement; AND we were completely alone! At that moment, we were the highest people in the entire lower 48 states.

Got some catching up to do...

I arrived in Las Vegas Thursday August 9th, 2007 for the 5th time in 2 years. Made a bee line too rental cars heading out of town as fast as possible toward Utah and Bryce Canyon national park. I am not a big city guy. I had a 4.5 hour drive through desert and over mountain ridges ahead of me. The temperature on the dash of my Subaru Forester ranged from 106 deg. at sea level to 68 deg at 5000 ft.

As luck would have it, while driving on the 75mpg roads, a rock strikes my windshield leaving a crack. I observe the crack grow longer and longer. Finally, over a 2 hour period the crack settling at 8 inches right across the windshield. Crap, should have gotten the rental car insurance, but who ever does? O well, lunch stop at Carl’s Junior, we don’t have them on the East coast, made up for it. Yummalicious junior double bacon cheeseburger.

Cedar Break NP – 1 night of front country camping on my way to Bryce. This is a very small park (www.nps.gov/cebr) at 10,000 foot elevation. The major attraction is the amazing amphitheater with hundreds of hoodoos that have slowly formed from wind, rain and freeze/thaw. This is just a warm up for Bryce and its amphitheater.

At +10,000 foot elevation my 6 mile trail run was interesting. I ran from the parks camp ground to and around the Alpine Pond Loop Trail. Obviously due to the elevation, the air was very thin. I was fine on the flats and downhill, but the second I hit any sort of uphill bump or greater, I was done and had to walk that section and felt like I was sucking air through a straw.

Onward to Bryce – 76 miles east of Cedar Break. I go straight to the North Campground, do the self check-in for camp site #107 on loop D. It’s for tent campers only. Quiet and far from the generators that run on the gas guzzling houses on wheels (Winnebagos). The camp site was pretty empty and reservations are probably never needed. I can’t imagine this place ever filled up unless you show up on a Friday or Saturday evening around 6pm. But I got there early and had many sites to choose from. BTW, I generally don’t camp in campgrounds and prefer backcountry. However, at Bryce, most of the amazing scenery is viewed from the rim trail and just below. All backcountry camping is pretty far from their with limited supplies of water.

After pitching my tiny 2 man backpacking tent overlooked a large empty field, I set out for exploration and adventure. The amphitheater and hoodoos are incredible. Views from the rim trail are breathtaking and you really can’t go wrong with selecting locations if you want a good photo shoot. Track down Thor’s Hammer and the Alligator! Just before during and after sunrise and sunset are the best time to get great pictures. The colors burst out.

By complete luck, my timing at Bryce coincided with the annual Perseids Meteor shower. Once a year earth travels through bunch of space junk and you can observer about 80 shooting stars per hour. Bryce is known to have optimal conditions for star gazing since there are now citys anywhere close to artificially brighten the sky. Photographing the shower is particularly challenging however and I woke each morning around 4am to give it a try. Hiking into the canyon from the rim trail was spooky in the pitch black, it was a new moon. I am pretty sure I was the only one crazy enough to do such a thing and had the amphitheater to my self. Setting up with my camera and tripod I took set up for long exposure shots. From 10 to 30 minutes on my Nikon D80. Needless to say, my battery would die within an hour of this. As long exposures really suck the juice.

My first entry - Why blog????

I have thought about creating a blog for a while and now am ready to commit. Why do i want to start a blog? Well, i can think of a few reasons.

1. I think i do some cool things and want to share my experiences with friends, family and others interested in the same adventures.

2. I have a terrible memory! Hopefully creating a blog of my adventures will help me remember details and when people ask, 'Whats happening' I will not provide the usually answer. 'Nothing much'.

I was born and have lived in Washington, DC for my entire life. I am a computer geek, working for Cisco Systems for more than 7 years. I am a terrible writer so this blogging thing my not go very far. And if it does, i am sure there will be tons of grammatical and spelling errors. I love to workout and train for local triathlons, hike and backpack through the US national parks taking photos on the way. Those are the experiences i want to share here in this blog.