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Viewing 1 - 9 out of 22 Fitness Journals.
It's been nearly 2 weeks waiting to see if my knee would get better. It has slowly felt better so yesterday I got on the stationary bike and rode for 100 minutes. It fely Ok during the ride, but the pain flared up again after. It still is worst going downhill, or down stairs. I've talked to the PT guys and will try a few other exercises, but I think I may have a slight tear.
I'm back from Mexico. We were partially sussessful. We summited La Malinche (14,600+ ft) as planned. Everything went perfectly from the logistics side. I've got some great photos. However, Pico de Orizaba was another matter. Something went wrong all along the climb. First, we missed the bus that was taking us to Thlatchlika. We took a later bus but it got us into the town too late to get our pre-arranged 4 w/drive to the trailhead. So we spent an interesting night in the town. The Mexicans were very friendly and accomodating though, and we were put up in a little compound that had chickens, cows, etc. They made all their own milk, cheese, etc and the food was outstanding! It cost between 40-60 Pesos for a full meal ( about $3.75- 5.75) Eventually we got the 4 W/drive to the trailhead and climbed to 14,000 ft and set up the base camp. We were short a day to acclimitize. Then we found out that the the planned 4W/drive and bus combo we would need after summiting leaves too early for us to wait another day. So we did not get to rest another day , or we would miss our flights out. So we had to summit the evening of the same day that we got to the base camp. Not good. Not enough rest and not nearly enough time to acclimitize to the altitude. At this point the female on our team checked out and climbed back down. As we were hanging at base camp we found a woman from Austria who was alone because her partner had come down with AMS (accute mountain sickness) and had to climb down. So we added her to our team. We tried to get some sleep, but another climber came down with HAPE (high altitude pulminary edema) at about 11:30PM. The camp was abuzz as we tried to figure out what to do. He was coughing uncontrollably and spitting up frothy blood. This is a very dangerous, life threatening, condition. Unless he got down to a lower evelvation he could die. Another climbing party had an EMT who administered some type of shot that contained Adreneline and something else. That stabilized him. His partners then gathered his gear and started helping him climb down. The temps had dropped and the wind had picked up to about 30 MPH, making conditions sketchy. We later found out that he got down to 11,000 ft and used an emergency beacon that allerted the 4W/drive people and they managed to drive up in the dark and rescue him. This was a very selfless act on the part of the Mexican driver. That road is very dangerous in the dark. He saved that kid from a very miserable recovery. Back to us... After having about 2 hours sleep in 16 hours, 7 of the 20 climbers huddled at the base camp, decided we would give it a shot. Only Matt and myself, from the original team, would try. None of us had an option because we had to summit now or lose our logistics back. So Matt, Micheala (from Austria) and myself left base camp at 3AM. We were followed by another party of 4 who were in the same boat. The winds were now at 30-40 MPH, right in our faces. It was like having someone pulling you backward on every step. Adding to the misery, the sand from the mountain was blasting us in the face also. We all made it to 16,300 ft to an area called "the labarinthe". It's a rock, ice face about 100 ft under the glacier that needs to be climbed to get to the upper glacier. We had to wait about 45 minutes, in the cold wind, for the sun to come up. It was here that I twisted my left knee when some scree came loose and jammed my boot and I fell sideways. I couldn't go further, so started back down alone. The other six went over the Labarinthe at sun up. The wind, however, never let up and no one got over 17,000 ft that day. The other 3 from our original team stayed another day to try and make a successful summit bid. Unfortunately at 17,300 David got acute AMS and the rest of them had to turn back to get him down to safety. So not one person on our team ever made it to the top. The good news--- I lost 5 pounds. So mountain climbing is a good way to lose weight.
I guess I have to go back and try this one again.
Tags: Climbing
The climber's code:
If you're not cold, you brought too many clothes If your not hungry, you have too much food If you're not thirsty, you are carrying too much water If your reached the summit, the climb was probably not that hard to begin with 
Tags: Climbing
I've started tapering my workouts. Only 9 days left before I leave for Mexico to climb two of it's best- La Malinche (14,000+ ft) and the prize, Pico De Orizaba. It means "mountain of the stars". At 19,000 ft it's one of the highest in the western hemisphere. I've assembled a good team, but none of us has been over 15,000 ft so we don't know how well we'll all do with the altitude. It stands to reason that at least one person will not make it. That will mean that another person, and maybe two, will have to turn back also. As the leader, it would be encumbent on me to escort that person down. There's one person on the team with whom I've climbed before. Plus, this will be the first time that I have a woman with us. The logistics and itinerary are all taken care of. The excitement is building.
Tags: Climbing
I did a 30 mile bike ride and wanted to follow it up with an easy 3 mile run. About a mile into the run I turned from a cross street and saw a young kid about a quarter mile ahead. I was setting a faster pace so I thought it would be fun to catch, and pass, him. When I was about 15 feet behind he noticed I was there and he picked up the pace. I picked it up too. I was on his a-- within a few minutes. He picked up the pace again. I followed suit. I felt that I could pass if I gave a spurt, but as I got next to him he increased his speed again. I matched him for about a half mile and still felt like I had a little left, but as I glanced at my heart rate monitor I was running at 162 BPM. This is my max. I knew that even if I did pass him, he would probably be able to get ahead of me again because I could not keep that pace for long. So I stayed with him until he turned onto another street. Thank god he turned off because I could not stay at that pace for much longer. I kept running my route, but really enjoyed the unoficial "race". What a great day. To be 59 and stay with a
In addtion to my new running shoes, my new crampons came today. Grivel Air Tech's. Sweet. They have a much easier binding system than my old crampons. They also have an extra set of points that help bite while traversing glacial ice. I'm getting psyched about Pico De Orizaba (18,000 footer in Mexico) for January.
I've been having a sore right heel most times after I run. So I broke down and bought a new pair of running shoes. I was way over due. Got a pair of Mizuno Wave rider 11's. I felt great on my run today!
Tags: Running
Since coming back from the MT Rainer I've had no motivation to workout. I have gained 2 lbs in the last 6 weeks! I am 15% slower on my bike rides and have lost some upper body strength as well. I have to get back at it.
I did a 35 mile bike ride Thursday. It's my last workout before departing for Mt Rainier. I'm all packed and ready to go. Everyone on the team has been concerned about the terrible spring weather that just claimed a climber on Tuesday. His other two partners were suffering from frost bite and hypothermia and they were waiting for the weather to clear to get a helicopter up to get them to a hospital.There have been few successful summit attempts due to the wind, snow, white-out and wind conditions. We have chosen a "plan B" mountain further inland, but it appears that the mountain god's are finally looking favorably at us. A high pressure system is supposed to move in Saturday through Tuesday and bring clearing. Thaat's exactly the window we needed for a succesful climb! The temperatures have moderated also. looks like we could be above 0 at the summit (without the wind chill). Psyched!
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17 or 18 year old for two miles, after what I had already done, really made my day.