The Climb

A HUGE THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN SO GENEROUS IN SUPPORTING THE CLIMB TO FIGHT BREAST CANCER.

For those of you who have not had the chance:
IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO DONATE!!

GO TO: http://getinvolved.fhcrc.org/goto/seans.climb

DON'T DELAY-BREAST CANCER DOESN'T

YOUR SUPPORT WILL HELP RESEARCHERS ANSWER MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT BREAST CANCER.

THANK YOU!!

I cannot believe that 7 months of this year have passed so quickly. It seems like I just started fundraising and training for Mt. Rainier. 7 months training for four days of fun. Shouldn't it be the other way around??? Enough about the speed with which time moves which is constant but with age seems to speed up.

This has been an amazing journey for me. I have had the chance to reconnect with many folks that I have not talked with for some time during my fundraising. I have met new folks in the climbing community who have been affected by breast cancer. And finally, I was blessed with incredible weather on a mountain noted for being able to deal out very harsh weather.

The four day climb starts at the White river campground, goes through the flooded trail (from the 2006 flood), past Glacier meadows to the Inter Glacier. From that point you are on the mountain, roped up and watching for crevasses. One night at 7500, the next at 9300, a jog to 14421 and back to rest at 9300, and then back to the 4400 ft parking lot.

Below I have put my photo's up with some notes. Enjoy and feel free to contact me with any questions. You can still support my climb through September. Any amount is appreciated and will help answer many questions that still linger in breast cancer.

What a great climb with good people. This is a first for me as I have not met my climbing partners the day of a climb. The team was strong and very easy to get along with. Thank you Cathy, Sandy, Stu, and Sean for making this climb such a meaningful experience. I would rope up with any and all of you any time.

The sorting of gear in the White river campground parking lot. 4400 ft

The trail to Glacier meadows
The Inter Glacier

Camp One on the Inter Glacier

Below we finally get to see some blue sky

A crevase

Camp 2 at 9300 feet

The Kitchen

The view up the mountain. Visions of the weather to come.

Ranger Hut

Heading out on Summit day

Spectacular Sunrise going thru 11,000 ft.

Thanks Stu for sharing this great shot.

The sun is up and everyone is warming up at a rest stop.

Little Tahoma peak in the morning sun

This shot give some perspective on the grade of this route. The next photo shows how big the ledge is that the folks in this photo are walking on.

Great shot of Sandy enjoying the view.

A final Rest stop

Up on the saddle having a snack

The last few feet to the summit

Our summit photo

The view from the summit back down into Mt. Rainier's Volcano crater.

Thanks to sanofi-aventis for matching all the donations.








Enjoying a little chow after a long day

The last shot of the mountain the day we began our descent.

Pretty good view from the poop shed.

Now you may ask yourself why is he wearing such an ugly hat?? I do have other chapeau's. The easy answer is this funky hat has been with me on every mountain that I have climbed. The goofy ear flaps on it flutter in the wind and I would have been remiss to not wear this during this important climb.

Our rapid descent off the mountain included a qlissade of 1000 ft. or so.


Just beyond the trail behind Sandy is the start of the glissade.

Heading back to Glacier meadows and the 3 miles back to the parking lot.

The Inter Glacier in the sunshine. Makes a bid difference doesn't it.

The large piece of ice to the right is the Liberty Ice cap

I hope that you enjoyed the photos as much as I did in taking them. Thanks again to you all for your support of this climb.

The day on Mount Si

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Well the training is in full swing. Mountaineering boots, heavy pack filled with water, and a steep hill to navigate. Mount Si is a popular training ground for mountaineers as it is around 4200 feet of vertical gain over a 4 mile distance.

I took the Vasque boots I picked up a couple of years ago to see how they would treat the heals. Well no shock to me but the right heal began to blister at about the one mile mark so off came the boots and on came the trail running shoes. The heal still bothered me a bit but I was able to make the summit.

At the top of this hike is a nice little 5.3 scramble to the summit. The well traveled nature of this trail makes this little scramble a little sporty as the climbing ability of most folks is limited. There was a family that was trying to get the lap dog to scramble up this climb as well. Due to the amount of loose rock throughout and the high risk of knocking some scree onto some, I assertively recommended that the dog stay at the base for everyone's safey.

So the ascent took 2hrs 15 minutes and the descent 1 hr and 3o. Only took one goo pack and 6 liters of water. I left 5 liters on the top to save the knees on the desent. Today the recovery has been going quite well. My legs are little tight and the knees sore but a quick spin in the road bike this afternoon should loosen it all up.

Below are several photos of the training hike. The view from up there is crazy as you get to see Mt. Baker to the North, Mount Rainier to the south and the entire valley out to Seattle. There was a layer of haze that is hard to compenstate for with a hand held camera but rest assured the view was worth the walk.

I hope to get Hunter up there one day soon. He turns 4 in a couple of weeks and is getting better about walking for a mile or two. He is my favorite training load to carry.

End of May

Twin Falls Hike

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My training Load

May's training has been going well. I have been able to use a variety of training to continue to prepare for Rainier. During the week, I am running 10-15 miles and biking 25-60 miles. On the weekends, I have been taking the training team hiking.







Here are some of the locations:

Tiger Mountain-one with the family and one Pack Run

Twin Falls

Mount Si-planned for this weekend.



Here are some photo's from the Twin Falls hike last weekend.