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!