After struggling to reach Pebble Creek, I decided that it would be best to take a run at Camp Muir before going up with the CFCA group on Sunday. My brother, Justin, and the King of Ireland, Donal, joined me. I packed up all of the gear that I would be taking to the summit to get a good sense of my pack weight. It ended up at about 35 pounds. We started the climb from Paradise, leaving at about 9:30 AM. The weather could not have been better. Blue skies forever, with every local mountain within view.
The first milestone to hit was Pebble Creek. Last time I struggled through the last 1/4 mile. This time, I didn't even break a sweat. Piece of cake. It felt really good to see such an improvement from last time. I guess all my trips up Cardiac Hill are paying off.
The next target was Moon Rock at 8,500 feet. The climb from Pebble Creek to Moon Rock is fairly monotonous. It is basically a hike in a fairly straight line, up a steady incline. It is the first place where you can become a victim of looking too far ahead. Everything looks close. It isn't. Those tiny black specks are people. It is important to just look down and focus on each step. I was still feeling great at this point. I got within 50 feet of Moon Rock and stopped to rest for about 30 seconds as my legs began to cramp a little.
The final goal was the trek to Muir. It should have been about an hour from this point. I took ten steps and both of my quads cramped. Every step I took they cramped more. Just gave me some beef jerky to get some salt in my system, and I downed a bunch of water. After a couple of minutes I felt better. The first 1/2 mile wasn't too bad. The altitude was certainly becoming noticeable. I tried to use the pressure breathing technique every 4 or 5 steps, and it seemed to work pretty good. The problem was that after awhile my back started to cramp from the exertion of the breathing. At about 1/2 mile from Muir I hit a wall. Altitude sickness began to set in. I was light headed and kept cramping up. I very easily could have turned back, but not when Muir was so close. I let Justin go ahead, and I pushed forward. I took it one pole (guide poles to mark the route) at a time. Then I would break for 10-15 seconds, and move towards the next one. I kept telling myself, "Don't look at Muir". 10 steps at a time I finally reached the top. I was too damn tired to even feel the sense of accomplishment. 20 minutes and a sandwich later, and I got to soak it all in. It felt good.
Now that we were done....oh wait. 4.1 miles downhill left to go. I had used every bit of energy to get to the top, and logic would tell you that going down would be easy, but it is no cup of tea. Every step you sink down 12 inches and then have to lift 5 pounds of snow to take your next step. It was a slow go with plenty of short breaks. About 1/2 way down Donal and I threw on the rain pants and took advantage of the snow chutes we could slide down.
In the end, I am happy that I made it, and feel confident that Sunday will be easier. I didn't get too sunburned, except my forearm where I missed the sunscreen. The whole trip took about 9.5 hours, about an hour and a half longer than our target. Most of the delay was due to the extra 45 minutes it took me to get the last 1/2 mile. Justin said that he struggled at the same spot last time, and this time was much easier. Hopefully that will be the case on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment