“This is it! You’re doing it!” ~Win Whittaker

(WARNING! This IS long!)
ASHFORD All our sweat, tears, money, time, smiles, and training have come down to this last weekend! On Wednesday July 21st we headed down to Ashford, WA for the Climb for Clean Air’s climb #2. The previous week’s climbers were successful with 12 of 18 climbers summiting. Now its our turn to give it a shot. Wednesday morning, Gavin and I gathered all our gear and stuff up and tossed it the car and headed over to Silverdale to meet his dad. We decided to take the trailer out to Ashford so that we could save a little money and cook our own food. We arrived to Ashford in enough time to be able to quickly set up the trailer then head over to Basecamp at RMI. We rented the rest of our needed gear and met up with the rest of CFCA climbers. After quick introductions and meeting our guides we watched a slideshow of what the weekend was going to entail. Our two guide leaders were Win Whittaker and Mike Haugen. They split the group into two and Team Erickson was in Win’s group. The guides answer our many questions regarding our gear and how to get it all in the backpack. That night we all met up at the Copper Creek in for dinner and the best blackberry pie then off to bed it was for us. Amazingly enough we were in bed and asleep by 9:30pm I think that might be a record for me!
CLIMB SCHOOL Thursday morning we at Basecamp at 8:15am ready for climb school. We all crammed into the shuttle and headed up to Paradise. We hiked for about 30 minutes before finding a spot that had some great snow. First we practiced walking downhill without falling. I think Win was surprised at how well we were all doing. And that is how it stayed for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. Thanks to all the volunteers at the ALA we had already done so much of this stuff. We learned how to self arrest and get into the arrest stance.  If someone on your ropes says their falling its up to the rest of the group to help save them. So you throw yourself into the ground and dig your feet and ice axe in to get a good grip. Then we got to practice self arrest and what better way to do it than by actually “falling.” We climbed to the top of a slope and slide down in all sorts of different positions and  had to stop ourselves with self arrest. At one point Win took away our ice axes and we had to stop without them. That was a ton of fun! Lastly we had to learn the ropes. So the rest of the afternoon was spent hiking around the mountain finding different circumstances to practice. After climb school was over we headed “home” to our trailer to make some dinner then head back to Basecamp for a “fireside” chat without the fire. Lou Whittaker sat  down with us all and told some great climbing stories. Really only one that was a bit scary, otherwise, he was very inspirational. Then it was back to the trailer to pack for the actual climb and head to bed.
MUIR Friday morning we were up and ready to go at Basecamp at 8:15am. This is it, we’re doing it now! Gavin had gotten car sick on the way up to climb school so him and Richard drove the truck but I rode in the shuttle to hang out with Heather.  After some quick regrouping we put on the pack and were on our way. We took it slow to Camp Muir so we didn’t waste all our energy getting there. About every hour to hour and fifteen minutes we stopped and took a break. The day was gorgeous! With the snow melting the view was so much different than the last time we went to Muir. We saw waterfalls and beautiful wildflowers. With each break I was feeling pretty good. I have finally learned my layers and how to keep cool so despite the blazing sun I didn’t feel overheated. Upon arrival to Camp Muir we got straight to work of unpacking our stuff and picking a bunk to sleep in. The hut at Camp Muir is for RMI only and was airlifted into its place by Lou Whittaker in the 1970s. Its a bit wobbly looking but pretty nice for being at 10,000 feet. Richard picked the bottom bunk to stay cooler and Gavin and I picked the top level to stay warmer. It’s pretty tight in there once you pile in 18 people and all their gear. Backpacks and sharps (ice axes, trekking poles, and crampons) stayed outside. The goal at Camp Muir was to be as lazy as possible to save the energy that was going to be needed in just a few hours. Gavin had a bit of a headache from the elevation, I didn’t even notice that I was at 10,200 feet. After a bit of pep talk and making some dinner we were off to “sleep” by 6:30pm. Win warned us that some of us might not be able to sleep but all our bodies needed is to rest. So to do nothing but lay there till they came and woke us up, which could be anywhere from 11:30pm to 3:00am depending on weather. I believe I fell asleep for about 3 hours of that time and woke up last at 10:45pm. I went outside to use the facilities and boy was it beautiful and warm! The moon was about full and there weren’t any  clouds in the sky. I had a feeling they would be in at 11:30 to wake us up so I didn’t even try to fall back asleep I spent the rest of the time “resting.” Sure enough they came in right at 11:30pm and told us we had one hour to eat breakfast, pack our stuff up and get our gear on. Apparently Gavin hadn’t slept a all but I tried reminding him that he didn’t need sleep just rest. We ate our oatmeal, packed our packs and put on our gear. On in this order; upper body- baselayer, avalanche receiver, fleece layer: lower body- baselayer, climbing pants, harness: helmet with the head lamp and for the feet, liner sock, sock, plastic boot and then the crampons. In the pack we had our parkas, food, water, and rain gear. After finishing getting ready I was stoked! I felt great and was planning on heading to the top of Mt. Rainier, mentally I was in the game!
SUMMIT ATTEMPT Team Erickson (Gavin, Richard, and I) were with the guide Eric. He roped us up in the following order: Eric, Richard, me, then Gavin on the end and we were off. So we headed off into the snow field. It was amazing how many headlamps were ahead of us. You could see a whole string of people winding there way through the Cathedral Gap. I wish I could have gotten a picture to share how cool that site was. According to the NPS there were 147 climbers at Camp Muir that night. It was light enough from the moon that you could see the shape of the mountain and the glaciers. First we crossed the Cowlitz Glacier  toward the sandbox. The sandbox is the first rocky, dirt area we had to zigzag up. It’s a bit awkward walking in the dirt and rocks with your crampons on. Plus you can’t get a good grip so it seems as though you take one step forward then slide two steps back. After making our way through the sandbox by butt and thigh muscles were a bit tired and I started getting a little queasy so I tried doing more pressure breathes. There were so many people on the trail and in our way that Eric decided to have us “off trail” it for the last 200 feet to First Break. That little bit took a little out of me as well. But there were were finally at first break at 11,000 feet. With each break we are told to get the pack off, parkas on, grab food and water, and sit! You must eat with each break or you’ll just set yourself back. So with my queasy stomach I forced down some candy and water. I wasn’t feeling super great because of my stomach but Eric said that as long as I felt okay I could keep going, I was probably a little nauseous from the elevation. After the 15 minute break we were off again. This next section is crossing the Ingraham Glacier and working our way up Disappointment Cleaver. The first part was not too bad. We did have to step over a small crevasse, thankfully I couldn’t see, it was about about a foot wide, no big deal. Crossing the Ingraham Glacier was a bit interesting in parts, the trail is pretty narrow in which is seems you are walking heel to toe with the wall of snow pretty tight against your left shoulder with the ice axe and pretty open and steep on the right side. But again if you don’t think about it too much it wasn’t too bad. Then we arrived at the Cleaver. Eric stopped us at a safe spot and reroped us. When going up through rocks you want to be short roped to keep each other closer and so to not knock rocks down. With this configuration he had me next to him with Richard then Gavin behind me. I don’t even know how to begin to explain the Cleaver. We are zigzagging up this rock formation that is sticking out the side of Mt. Rainier. Remember that we have these awful  plastic boots and crampons on. We are walking on loose rocks and boulders in the dark. It feels as though it is straight down on one side. There isn’t really anything to put your ice axe into for an anchor and you can’t really grab on anything with your hands because you’re holding on to the ice axe. I was trying really hard to not think about how unsafe this felt until we got a flat slanted rock that I had to pass over that had ice on it. I couldn’t figure out where to put my foot so that I had a bit of a grip and wouldn’t slip and fall. At this point I got really nervous and my stomach ache I already had was getting worse do to the nerves. At one point I think Eric was a bit concerned I might loose my lunch. But I never did I just kept focusing on the next step in front of me. Because of the many  people on the mountain that day we kept getting stuck in traffic jams of other climbers that were going slower than us. At one point we were standing there waiting for some climbers to step off to the side so we could pass when we suddenly see and hear a huge boulder tumbling. Off to my right there goes the huge rock. All of the sudden everyone starts yelling “ROCK!!!” Then I hear one of our guides below us yell, “Mike, run this way!” Thankfully the rock didn’t hit anybody but it came within about a foot from Mike. Somehow that man didn’t even seem phased by the rock, it is his second time climbing Rainier. I, however, was completely freaked out. My stomach was hurting, my nerves were getting to the end of me and I just wanted off the mountain. We had to continue uphill and get to the next rest stop at the top of the cleaver. Thankfully I had the best guide ever who was completely confident in me and patient with us. Once we passed all the people in our way we continued on at 100% not slowing down because we were tired. Once we got to the top of the Cleaver though I decided that I was no longer was having any fun (which was my rule #2 second to safety). My stomach hurt, I was tired and just plain freaked out. Now however that meant I had to go back down the Cleaver in the dark because it was only 4am. So I followed the routine to the best of my ability: pack off, parka on, grab some food and water, and sit. I could not eat or drink for anything, my second indication that it was time for me to go down. I really wasn’t disappointment with my decision at the time I knew that was what needed to be done. I was no longer an asset on the rope and I wanted to have enough energy to make it down safely.
We ended up staying at this rest stop for a half an hour waiting for the rest of the groups to catch up. Gavin wasn’t sure if he had enough left in his tank to get him up that mountain and back down safely and Richard was in the same boat as me and Gavin so as a team we decided the three of us would go down. Another lady wanted to turn around as well so we hooked her up to our rope. Since we now had 5 people on our rope including the guide, Eric decided it would be safer to take a little different route back down. So we went down the spine of the Cleaver. It’s still loose rocks and boulders but if you slipped it wouldn’t be as straight down. They don’t take this route up because its longer. Since we weren’t on a time crunch we took our time going down and really enjoyed the scenery. Unfortunately our cameras didn’t like either the altitude or the temperature so we didn’t get very many pictures. However, we did get an awesome one of the  sunrise! Coming down the spine of the cleaver right at that time was worth everything we had been doing for the last 7 months! It was the most spectacular view that I think I have ever seen! Going down being short roped was interesting. You’re suppose to keep the rope at just the right tension, not too loose to get tangled up on the person in front of you and not too tight that you pull the person behind you. There was lots of tugging and tripping that happened. I both gave and received it. Its hard not to get frustrated with each other over the rope. But its hard when you’re afraid you’re going to get pulled over the boulder you’re trying to climb down or when the rope gets caught under your crampon. But overall I would say after a few quarrels we did pretty well as a team! Once we got off the spine of the cleaver and back to the main trail we had to do a lot of stopping and pulling over to let the uphill climbers go by which allowed for more picture taking. As we crossed the Ingraham Glacier on the way back down, Eric made us walk as quickly and precisely as possible. He said that is the one point in which he has no control as a guide. There are two areas in which an ice or rock fall could happen without any warning so just to pass under it as quickly as possible. We stopped for a quick break at “First Break” to grab a snack and water then were on our way. As we were passing by the tents at High Camp another climber came over and asked Eric if he would come check out his dad. The four of us sat there while Eric ran over to the tents. Apparently the man was suffering from mountain sickness and wasn’t doing well at all. Eric suggested that they pack up as quickly as possible and head down to the ranger hut at Camp Muir even if it took them 2 hours. Which just shows the mountain is in control.The last bit back to Camp Muir seemed to take forever as my knees were starting to get sore from all the downhill climbing. Because you can see Muir from when you pass through the Cathedral Gap it seems like you will never reach it!
After arriving to Muir we sat, relaxed and told our stories to the other two climbers that had turned around before we did. We packed up our stuff and hung around there till the summiters (12 of 18) arrived. After they packed up their stuff we headed back down to Paradise as a group. To save our knees we got to glissade down the Muir snowfield on garbage bags. That was a ton of fun and made the trip down quick! When we came upon Pebble Creek we ran into my mom and our friend Jim! They were waiting for us to arrive. They hike the last hour down the mountain with us. At Paradise a couple of the ALA volunteer guides greeted us with watermelon, Oreos, beer, and pop! What a treat! We checked into our rooms, cleaned up, and met the rest of the climbers for a celebration dinner followed by a award ceremony. We were in bed and snoozing by 8:30 pm!
THIS IS IT! WE DID IT!!
For more of our pictures:
http://gavinandnaisha.shutterfly.com/climbforcleanair
For all of the CFCA pictures: http://americanlungassociationofwashing.shutterfly.com/

One big thank you!

We had a great time this weekend at the wine tasting fundraiser! Thank you to everyone that came. We want to thank Winestyles for allowing us to use their facilities and hosting us! We had a nice time and some great wines. We want to thank Lululemon, Greenlake Bar and Grill, The Ram, Yogalife, Baubles, Sensaria, Sole Food, and Kitsap Golf and Country Club for their donations for our raffles! Unfortunately we didn’t think of taking pictures! We are nearing the end of our adventure. We are only $415 away from our fundraising goal and we head out to Ashford, WA on July 21st! We will be heading up the mountain on July 23rd and hoping to summit early on the 24th! We want to thank everyone for their support and donations! We really couldn’t do this without you!

Our next steps: We are hoping to do a garage sale after our climb if we still have a little fundraising left to do. Grouparch is hosting one more Happy Hour in August for us. You can still donate through August if you’re interested. Then we plan on enjoying the rest of the summer with some rest and relaxation. Keep checking our blog. We probably won’t be able to post any updates till after we get back home from Mt. Rainier due to lack of service. We hope you will continue to think about us and pray for us while we are up on the mountain. Thank you again!

Here are all of our amazing donors! One big thanks to you!

Abbie Richerzhagen Alberta Hinz Angela Haas Angela Williams Angie Gross Annie Bent Barbara Bush Barbara Lux Baubles-Lauran Erickson Betty Goodsite Billie Pesek Brad Ringer Brady Greene Brena McNulty Brenda Greene Brent and Mary Greene Breta LeVasseur Brian Lenz Brice and Kris Greene Carla Fike carmen Layne Carole Patterson Cathy Patterson Chris Plemmons Cindy Hanson Cindy Mellott Cole Davis Connie Olsen Cristofer Gears Cynthia Pesek Dave and Stacia Suchy David and Joy Perius Debbie and Bill Young Debra Davis Diane Lithander Dianne Yaw Dr. Michael Kennedy E. Sherbesman Elaine Greene Eric Oquist Ethel Johnson Gene and Stella Dunlap	Greenlake Bar and Grill Grouparchitect Jaisen Pester James Bramstedt James Howeth Janine Warner Jason Yada Jean Sherbesman Jean Wittmier Jeff Babienko Jen Reilly Jennifer Keith Jenny Harris Jeremy Kelley Jerry and Gerry Erickson Jim Cosgrove Jim LaBenz Jody Brunton John Greene Joyce Johnson Judith Stiemert Justin Suta K. Sagmoen Kara Kaminsky Kathleen Dwyer Katie Osterhaus Katie Younkin Kay Francis Ken Youch Kenneth Harris Kenneth Niemiec Kevin and Laura Dooley Kitsap Golf and Country Club La Vonne Timm Lane Dellwo Laura Lee Oetken Laurie Rahlf Leslie Gleichman Lettie Davidson Lululemon Margaret Marshal Margaret Weems	Marilyn Gulla Mark Bratonia Megan Paschke Mickie McNulty-Eide Mila Kouzova MyBallard Nancy Patterson Nathan Turner Patricia Curry Patricia Kelly Patricia Siebodnik Pete Bjordhal Peter Kirby Peter Schwanda Radine Takeuchin The Ram Rebecca and Patrick Schenck Robin Brumwell Robin Wilcox Robin Wiltse Sara Tien Scott Labenz Sensaria- Amanda Brown Sharon Thiesen Shawn Tso Shin Yoo Shirley Ayer Sole Food Stanetta O'Dell Summer Ives Susan Casey Susan Jones Susan Leong Susan Marx Tammy Johnson Thomas Palidar Wendy Norr Windy Tamplin Winestyles Bothell Yogalife- Greenlake

Winestyles wine tasting fundraiser July 11th 2-4pm

We are doing a fundraising event this Sunday! Winestyles in Bothell is helping us host the event!
Bring your family and friends for some great wine tasting at Winestyles. Winestyles gives you an experience of learning new types of wine and finding what suites your palate! Your $15 ticket includes 5 wine tastes and a chance to win a door prize! We will be doing a silent auction for a 4 person round of Golf at Kitsap Golf and Country Club! There will be raffles from Lululemon, Yogalife, Sole Food, Sensaria, and Baubles! It's going to be a great time! Purchase a ticket early! And of course you can get them at the door.


Raffles: $2/ticket or 3 for $5
Yoga starter bag from Lululemon- $140 value
5 classes from Yogalife- $65 value
Summer tote with Green tea body care from Sensaria $60 value
$100 gift certificate from Sole Food.
Jewelry set from Baubles
 
If you can't come but want to get in on the raffles, let me know ASAP!
See you there!

Winestyles- Bothell
22833 Bothell Everett Highway #104
Bothell, WA 98021 US

Final Group training hike.

This last weekend was bitter sweet. It’s great because this weekend was our last group training hike which means that we’re soooooo close to summit day. However, its the last time we’ll see a bunch of the people we have gotten to know over the past few months. Our Climb for Clean air group of 45 is split into 3 different climb groups. Gavin, Richard, and I along with 15 others will be on Climb 2; July 21-24. There will be 18 people on Climb 1 and nine people on Climb 3.

The weekend started off with a “night” training hike o n Saturday night. We all met at Paradise Inn by the fireplace to talk about gear and what to prepare for. Mark has been educating us on gear since the first monthly climb meeting. This night was his night to teach us ropes, harnesses, and ice axes. We all sat around the fireplace in the Inn with all our gear. It was quite entertaining to see tourist wander over and start listening. Mark is so knowledgeable it probably looked like one of the parks presentations. After a bit of an overview we walked a short way up from the Inn and set up a route to practice on. There were 6 of us to a rope and we zigzagged our way up the hillside practicing. There are special techniques for going around a corner and keeping the rope on the right side of the pole, not stepping on the rope, and keeping the right amount of slack. I found it to be quite fun. I wish we would have spent another hour out there! It’s a little nerve-racking to think that our lives will be dependant on those harnesses and ropes on the upper mountain!! After a good practice run up and down we all headed back to Paradise for a good nights rest.

The next morning we were up and ready to climb at 9am from the Paradise parking lot. This time it was sunny but not as warm as two weeks ago. Gavin and I have been struggling with figuring out what food is good to eat and fuels us properly. I think we finally succeeded this time. I bought a summer sausage and Dubliner cheese and cut then up into little chunks. We bought a pizza the night before and brought along some different types of gels and bars. The sausage was a winner for me, the pizza wasn’t my favorite. We found out that we really like BLOKS by cliffbar. The climb this weekend went so much better for me. I think I finally figured out how to fuel myself properly, got a good nights sleep and stayed better hydrated. When my breathing started to get heavy and I got into coughing fits I worked on keeping myself calm and did lots of pressure breathes. That really seemed to help! At the first break I will feeling great!   With each stop I continued feeling great. The last stop before Muir was the place in which I got turned around last time. It felt so amazing to get up after that break and keep heading up the mountain! I really felt like I conquered something when I reached Camp Muir.

Now Camp Muir is definitely nothing fancy but the view and change of scenery is amazing. From Muir the top of the mountain doesn’t look like the dome you see from the bottom. At Muir you’re so close that all you see is ice shelves and gorgeous rock formations. It’s amazing to feel how thin the air is at 10,080 feet and how cold and windy it was compared to even just 7,000 feet. I suppose that for the side of the largest mountain in the lower 48 Camp Muir is pretty luxurious but in life standards…well that’s a different story. We were privileged with outhouses, but man they were stinky! :) Here is a  picture, they are right on the edge of the side of the hill! After a very quick snack we had to head back down. I would have loved to spend more time up there exploring what it will be like when we stay the night there but I guess I’ll just have to find that out on the the 23rd!

The way back down was pretty rough on the knees again. The snow is still pretty deep and you do lots of sinking when off the main “packed” trail. The overall trip was around 8.5 hours. We used SPF 70+ sunblock and made it down the mountain without a sunburn! We were both a little sore the next morning but better than last week. That only means we are getting stronger with each run! This last time was really inspiring. We know will still need to continue to try to get some training in but it felt great to make it to Muir!

Camp Muir

This weekend Gavin and I joined the Climb for Clean Air group and climbed to camp Muir.  Katie and Ryan, we nice enough to let us stay with them at the Paradise Inn. It was much more leisurely this way! We headed out to Mt. Rainier on Saturday afternoon, stopped to rent our boots then joined Katie and Ryan at Paradise. It was absolutely gorgeous! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We enjoyed a picnic that Katie had packed, played some cribbage then headed to bed. The next morning we were up early enough to take our time getting our stuff together. Another gorgeous day! Gavin and I each had different experiences of our day so we will be each sharing our story. We’ll try not to make it too long. :)

Naisha’s story: The morning started out on a great note. I had all my gear together and ready to go without having to rush. Rushing gets me stressed out! They tell us that at the start of the hike you should be a bit chilly. I started out in just a tank top and was till warm! It was really sunny so I made sure the slather sunscreen everywhere! After a quick group huddle we were headed up the mountain. The group tends to start out at a fairly quick pace for me. I was doing my best to keep up but was having a hard time breathing. I got sick on Friday with a head cold and I think this was contributing to breathing issues I already seem to have. It was sooooo hot too! The sun was just blaring down! The first big break was at the bottom of Avalanche shoot (the steepest part of the mountain). It was amazing to see how steep it really was! Last time we went up it was a complete white out so I had no idea was I was getting into. We started up Avalanche shoot, they wanted us to work on our rest steps and pressure breathing again. I again couldn't keep up with the group. I just kept thinking how hard it was to breathe and how I was going to let everyone on my rope down when we attempt to summit. As I got more anxious the harder my breathing got. Before I knew it I was having a complete nervous breakdown as I was trying to make my way up Avalanche shoot. Finally I pulled over and just let myself cry…thank goodness I was toward the end of the group to start with! The leader of the group, Mike, came up to me and asked if everything was okay. I told him what was going on. He was nice enough to give me some encouragement and had me slow down. He said pressure breathing was really important and to do it as often as possible. Even the famous mountaineers like Ed Viesters have bad days and need to pressure breathe and slow down. Another guide, Stew, was nice enough to walk in front of me and regulate our pace. After calming down and refocusing, up we headed again. I caught back up with the group at the next rest stop. Mike came up to me and told me I did great and wished he could instill his confidence in me into my own mind. After another beautiful break and picture taking the group spilt into two. This is where Gavin and I’s stories split. I stayed in the “slow” group while Gavin and Richard continued on in the “fast” group. The pace was much more tolerable for me. My breathing was well under control. After a while we caught up to Bronka, a woman who joined our group for the day. She wasn’t feeling well so decided to join us. Bronka Sundstrom is the oldest woman to summit Mt. Rainier in 2002 at 77 years old. And she did it in only 19 hours!!!  That means not staying the night at Camp Muir. The rest of our way up the mountain was spent with her. She is an amazing woman and fun to talk to. We kept being told that our cut off time was 2:30 pm so that we wouldn’t be on the mountain too late. I kept thinking that we were going to make it to Muir, it was never in my mind that I wouldn’t. At 2:15 pm, Stew stopped our little group of 5 and said this is it, we rest here then turn around. According to him we were only 30 minutes away from Muir. I have never in my life experienced such disappointment. I could see it right there but wasn’t able to keep going. The view from our stopping point was wonderful but I wasn’t able to enjoy it because Gavin was at Camp Muir without me! After another crying session (hidden from the others) we refueled then headed back down. The biggest bummer was that Gavin had my PB&J with him so I had to eat just a cliff bar. My partner in crime, Heather, and I were both a little upset with not getting to go to Muir so we cruised down the mountain fast! Her quicker than me. The snow was awful to go down in. Like walking in mashed potatoes with a 35 pound pack. You would walk along and then next thing you know one of your legs in sunk knee deep in the snow. It was a long and depressing haul down till we got to the shoots! Over the last few months of climbers going up and down a slide was created in the snow on the steep parts. All you had to do was sit down and GO!! it was incredible! I felt like a kid again. The shoots twisted and turned and you cruised down, pack and all! That was probably the most fun I had all day! I think we got to go down four of them! But Avalanche shoot was by far the best.  We finished our day in just over 8 hours! At the bottom was I so sore and sun burnt! Then just had to wait for Gavin and Richard to join me.

Gavin’s Story
Did you know that you can sunburn your tongue? Turns out that if you’re panting like a dog on Rainier you’d better find sunscreen for your tongue, but I’ll come back to that. Perhaps one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever seen on the mountain was today, blue skies with few clouds in sight. We started shortly after 9am and were a little over an hour in the climb ascending the avalanche chute when Naisha had a small break down. Unfortunately that made it a hard day for her, and by the second stop she was struggling with the pace. I don’t think that it was a physical challenge, since she had made it past this particular elevation the last time, it seemed more metal. Since she was not the only one struggling the group split into two for our final push toward Muir. Here is where Naisha and I split up. I pushed on with the faster group trying to make sure that I made it to Muir. It seems this was a bad decision on two counts. One, pushing with the faster group was fairly intense. About forty five minutes from Muir I was panting hard, and yes I think I somehow managed to burn my tongue. Second, I would be constantly wondering were Naisha was at.

It was a struggle but I did make it Muir and it was a beautiful sight. I watched as my father struggled up the hill, but he too made it. I tried to help my him recoup from the last push because it hit him hard. While we both made it up there the  excitement was shortly lived. I began to wonder if group two would make it. I couldn’t see them and I knew that Naisha was down there. The clouds were beginning to roll in and shortly engulfed the the lower half of the mountain. We left Muir and began to descend through the cloud bank but just before entering the clouds a huge portion of the ice wall on the upper part of the mountain broke loose. We watched a large avalanche slide down the mountain…(release you from suspense)…miles away from us. As we descended the cloud bank I had to say a silent thank you to whomever in the park service that places the trail flags since visibility in the clouds was about 150 feet and they alone allowed us to descend safely. I think I set the pace for this decent. I was so eager to make sure that Naisha was alright I probably moved faster than my technical skills should have allowed. Short story, I moved pretty quick but I looked liked a flailing chicken going down the mountain. While I'm not sure how this makes sense…but we never caught the slower group. They had been turned around early and were glissading down the mountain, which turns out to be much quicker than trying to run down steep snowy slopes, as we were told to do. Although everything turns out well when I find a grumpy Naisha in the parking lot. Grumpy that she didn’t get to Muir, and apparently oblivious to the fact that she hasn’t seen me in several hours. This seemed like a dramatic role reversal than the normal. Oh well everyone was safe, that's all that matters!!

I see the light

I can see the proverbial light. You know the one at the end of the tunnel. Wait... guess that's not a proverb but the saying remains; I(we) can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Thats right we crossed the 75% mark, and it actually feels like we're on the home stretch. With a little over a month of fundraising time remaining we have less than $1,700 to raise. As always, a big THANK YOU goes out to all the donors to date!

The fitness aspect has shifted a little bit for the both of us. We're now spending more time spinning or wheels on the bike rather than slogging on the stairs. Naisha and I have been riding to work, while I admit she has been more diligent then me. However, in my defense I don't have the incentive of a digital camera from my employer for bike to work month! A holiday weekend approaches and hopefully the weather cooperates for us. We wish all of you the best for the extended weekend, get outside and take advantage of all that great Washington "clean air". =)

Half way up the mountain- 7200 feet!

Today we hiked up Pebble Creek trail. This hike is on Mt. Rainier! This is the first time Gavin and I have set foot on the mountain since we decided to embark on this adventure. Last night after I got off of work, we packed up our stuff and headed toward Ashford, WA. Richard, Gavin and I stayed at Whittaker’s  Bunkhouse; we thought it might be easier to do the 2 hour drive to Ashford the night before so that we didn’t have to leave the house at 5 am. The Bunkhouse is owned by Lou Whittaker, its a cute little lodge. This morning, we woke up with what we thought was enough time, ran down and grabbed some breakfast then headed over to Whittaker Mountaineering. For this hike we needed actual plastic mountaineering boots so we rented them. We went over there and it took me 4 different boots and 20 minutes later to find the right ones and even then I wasn’t sure if they were fitting right. Apparently they are suppose to fit a bit big and feel loose around the ankle. To me they felt like clown shoes and I was really worried that I wouldn’t make it up the mountain in them. Finally we got on the rode and about 6 miles into the park we hit snow! The higher we got the deeper the snow and thicker the clouds! At Paradise we couldn’t even see the top of the mountain we were standing on. We threw extra clothes on and joined the group. The beginning of the hike started out kind of awkward with those darn boots on. Shortly into the hike we took a quick clothing break. I definitely needed to remove some layers. It may be snowing and the wind really blowing but I’m still hauling a 31 pound pack up a mountain. At this point Richard was realizing that his pack was a bit too heavy so he poured out a gallon of water we was carrying. Once everyone was situated and ready to go we started to trek our way up to Pebble Creek. The trail was pretty much nonexistent, I have no idea how the guys knew where we were going it was a complete white out. Half way into the hike we stopped to take a quick snack/water break. Richard was still feeling like his pack was too heavy for him so Gavin (being the great son that he his) took one of the gallons of water from him. At the end of our break they did a quick mountaineering lesson. They taught us how to rest step and pressure breathe. Two tools that will help us use less energy when we’ll be close to the top when the air is thin. They wanted us to practice these things up the next leg of the trip. The next part was straight up hill, they claim its the steepest part of the whole mountain. At first my “rest steps” weren’t restful but painful. Come to find out I was doing them totally wrong, once I got it figured out it really does help. Going up the steep hill made the mountaineering boots feel great! They really help with kicking in those steps! At one point we’re going up “avalanche shoot” and we got stopped because the people at the front of the line were slipping and sliding. I was so busy watching them that I hadn’t looked at my surroundings. I turned around and it looked as though its pretty straight down, I would definitely slide for a long ways before I could stop. I couldn’t see more than a couple hundred feet so who knows really how far down it was….its okay it didn’t scare me. I just kept my eye on the next step ahead of me and I made it up avalanche shoot like a pro! Once we reached our destination, you couldn’t really tell where we were. Definitely no creek around, it was buried under about 6 feet of snow. Still couldn’t see the top of Mt. Rainier and apparently she would have been right in front of our faces. We layered back up because the wind and snow were blowing and ate some lunch. Then we headed back down. This was the fun part, however, a bit crazy. We didn’t have to follow the trail, we just when down! I did lots of slipping and fell a minimum of 4 times! :) It was fun, It would have been great to be able to take my snowboard down it! I felt like a turtle though! They told us, “nose over toes,” you’re suppose to lean way over so that you don’t have too much weight on your back side and slip and fall. I works but the snow is loose from all the fresh stuff they got over the last week. We all made it down with no injuries! The sun tried to come out but never made it. I could totally have kept going it felt great to be getting real mountaineer training! I loved being out on the mountain. After the hike a group of us all met at the Copper Creek Inn for some lunch and blackberry pie. It was delicious. Then it was back to Whittaker Mountaineering to return the boots and a 3 hour drive home. Once home we weight Gavin’s pack to see how much it weighed after taking the gallon water jug from his dad…it weighed 40 pounds! Go Gavin! :) The biggest lesson learned to today was to wear sunscreen on the mountain even if its not sunny….Gavin has a lobster face to prove it!

 

May is bike to work month!

For my birthday this year Gavin got me a new road bike! I was super excited about it. Because he didn't know what size I would need we ordered it on my birthday and it didn't come until May 11th! BOO! When I knew that I was getting a bike I signed up for the bike to work compitiion. My floor has a team this year, "One well trained Giraffe." All I have to do is ride 4 days in the month of May. Growing up in Montana I rode my mountain bike all around as a kid. I had never been on a road bike. So on May 11th, the day we got back from Montana, we got my bike out and started practicing around our neighborhood. I did fine on the side streets and got a bit anxious going down the busier street with a bike lane. I'm not use to there being cars when I'm on a bike, Montana doesn't have many! ;) So after about a hour or so of practicing we headed back home. I had to work the 12-14th and I wanted to ride my bike at least one of those days. Gavin didn't want me riding to work just yet, he thought that I needed some more practice. So we had the intention of me practicing after work on the 12th and 13th but sadly that didn't happen but I was going to ride anyway! So on Friday, May 14th I made my first trek into work.....with Gavin by my side! :) He's such a sweet husband, he took me to work on my bike to make sure I would make it okay then he had to turn around and head back home. But, thats okay, for those of you that don't know yet, Gavin is planning on riding the Livestrong Challenge (100 miles) on June 20th. The ride to work was pretty uneventful. It was about 5.5 miles (the short cut but less safe route) and took about 35 minutes.I made it to work on time!  So for the ride home after work, Gavin was going to meet me half way. This time I took the longer route which follows the Burke Gilman Trail all the way to 8th Ave then I have to ride up 8th Ave hill home; 7.5 miles but much safer! I was doing pretty good going by myself, I had just gone through the three UW stoplights and was at the last crosswalk which didn't have a light when the car didn't stop. Now don't worry I didn't try to go but I was really upset that they didn't stop and must have gotten a little sidetracked and forgot that I needed to be paying attention to my balance. For the next thing I know I was falling over toward the side of my bike that still had my foot in the straps and WABAM I'm on the ground! OUCH! The guy next to me flew off his bike to help me. I told him I was okay just REALLY REALLY embarrassed. After recieving a bruised knee and ego I got back on the bike to meet up with Gavin. 

 We made it home, I even made it up the 8th ave hill (long but not steep) without stopping there was some whinning involved but no stopping! So in total on my first day riding to work I rode 13 miles, it took me a total of 1 hour and 35 minutes. Thats a good workout I suppose. Lou Whittaker one day told us that any type of excerise is good: walking, stair climbing, biking, or hiking. YAY!

On Saturday, Gavin and I met up with our friend Jim and tootled around a bit on the bikes, it was gorgeous outside. I think for this day our total of riding miles might have been around 16. I'm not going to go into details because there really weren't any. I plan on riding to work tomorrow, hopefully it goes well!

Montana Adventures!

  This weekend my little sister graduated from college! Congratulations Kayla! We are proud of you. She graduated from Montana State University, where Gavin and I graduated from. Her graduation was a great excuse to head out to Bozeman and my home town of Gardiner. Unfortunately that also meant that we had to miss the first training hike on Mt. Rainier. Richard was able to join them up to Pebble Creek. We’ll have to hear about how it went when we get home. To make up for not being able to join Pebble Creek, we brought our packs and hiking gear along with us. We went out for a hike today up Eagle Creek in the Gallatin National Forest right outside Gardiner. Its only about 3 miles up the Jardine road. Our goal for this hike was to get out and hike at a high elevation. Gardiner is around 5400 feet and the beginning of the hike was around 6200. The road heading up Eagle Creek is still closed from the winter so we started at the gate and walked the road. My sister decided that she didn’t want to hike so she took her mountain bike. There is a trail that cuts across all the switch backs that we took. The trail was a gradual uphill climb but not too steep. It was weird hiking out in the wide open; we are so use to the dense trees. My sister made it about a mile up the hill and decided that she couldn’t make it any farther so my dad took over on the bike. To prove the he could make it back up to where the road connected he pushed through! 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the trail we restarted back on the road to continue up another half mile to Casey Lake our destination goal. A couple of feet up the road we ran into some bear tracks! They appeared pretty fresh too! We are guessing that the bears were a grizzly and maybe two black bears that went through there. We think they where there last night during the rain storm. After seeing the tracks we were a little nervous that the bears were still around. Megan and I continued up the road ahead of the rest and I saw something move in the bushes ahead of us. I leaned over to Megan and whispered, “Megan don’t move!” She jumped thinking that it was a bear but I was pretty sure it was just a skunk. :) haha Sure enough it was a skunk, it started running down the road, I tried to catch a picture but I was too slow. Once at Casey Lake, we snapped a few photos. The elevation was around 7200 feet. So we made about a 1,000 foot elevation change but we had our packs at 30 pounds (Gavin carried a 5 lb can of paint) and hiked for 3.5 hours we think about 6 miles. We walked down a different way; down the road and off roading it by cutting through the switch backs. My dad cheated and road the bike the WHOLE way down! I mean all the way home! He almost hit a deer riding the bike too! It was quite entertaining. The worse part of the day was that I found two ticks on me! EWWWWW!

Tiger Mountain Trail=16 miles!

Sorry for the late post! On Sunday, Gavin and I, along with 19 others hiked the Tiger Mountain Trail. It started at Tiger Summit #3 (TM3) along I90 and traversed its way back to highway 18. You have to remember the last time we went up TM3 was when I had my nervous breakdown! This time was so much better! Gavin and I packed all our stuff up the night before, making sure everything that we almost forgot in the past was by the door. When we woke up all we had to do is get dressed and finish putting the final things in our bags. We continued our usually hiking routine of stopping at Starbucks first. No stressing, we made it to the meeting spot early! Everyone met at the highway 18 trailhead then we all piled into half the cars and headed over to TM3 trail head. To the top of TM3 its 3 miles straight up. Our packs for this hike were 30 pounds, the heaviest we've carried them! Going to the summit of TM3 was not too exciting because we had just done it a couple of week before. However this time there was no ice and snow at the top. We didn't spend much time at the summit of TM3 since we still had 13 miles ahead of us. Plus, it was incredibly windy with not much of a view due to the clouds. So we started down the other side. I never noticed the trail last time we were up there, didn't know you could go down that way. The trail heading toward highway 18 was much narrower than the big trail going up TM3; we are in the backcountry now! It was really exciting to be on unmarked territory, it was beautiful back there. It felt like we were miles away from anything!

This week I tried putting Nuun in my Camelpack. I really like my water this way and was trying to keep nice and hydrated since this was a long hike. About 3-4 hours into the hike my bladder was so full that I thought I was going to explode! I kept on going thinking that our lunch break had to be soon, and then I heard the leader say it was one hour till lunch. I turned around and told Gavin, "I don't think I can make it an hour...I don't know if I can make it 15 minutes!" So we asked the caboose leader if we could make a quick stop. Another guy, John, took my pack for me and continued down with the rest of the group. I found this huge old stump and climbed up to it. Once I finished my business I started going back down to the trail, heading a different way than I went up. I was walking around that huge stump and the roots must have been over grown because then next thing I knew my foot was sinking between two roots and I was tumbling face first. I tried to catch myself but the ground broke beneath my hands as well. I did a complete summersault and stopped just in time before I hit a tree. Gavin was laughing his butt off! He said it was like watching a movie in slow motion. At first I thought I hurt my legs but I shook it off and ran down the trail to go get my pack from John. Once I caught up with the group, they had stopped to let us all catch up. Once we were all together again the leader stated that lunch would be in 10 minutes. UGH! I could have waited that long! So we get to lunch and low and behold there is an outhouse! So I had a wilderness bathroom experience for no reason! Oh well….many lessons learned!

So for lunch, everyone was suppose to bring food to share with others, have a huge potluck then hopefully have less weight to carry the rest of the way. The smorgasbord was amazing! There was fruit, cheese and crackers, wine, Starbucks coffee, cookies, casseroles, and the best hot dog I’ve ever eaten! After stuffing our faces and enjoying each other’s company we had to pack up and get going. We still had another 4 hours or so to go. The rest of the hike was pretty soggy. I did fall again…this time just a quick slip down in a really muddy spot. There were others that slipped as well. I was feeling pretty good by the end till 1.9 miles left, where we hit a gravel road the rest of the way down. That is when my feet started feeling the pain of the day. We all made it down safely, threw everyone in the cars drove back over to the other trailhead to get people back to their cars and off to home. When I got home, I went straight to a hot shower then horizontal on the bed till the next morning for work. My feet were throbbing, I was afraid I was going to have to call in sick because I couldn’t walk! :o) But in the morning I felt pretty good, had to hit up the Ibuprofen for the sore knees but overall felt great! It was the longest hike we’d been on in a long, long time with the most weight ever and we conquered it like true hikers!