Thursday, November 29, 2007

12 hours to flight

Well, the bronchitis hasn't let up but my hopes are high. We aren't going to 15000 ft until Sunday, so I should be fine by then. I am totally worried that it is going to hamper me going up the mountains, we'll see. And, if I don't think the bud lights I had tonight aren't going to hurt, why would I think bronchitis would???

Yeah, so, excited and apprehensive pretty much describe how I'm feeling. The bags are packed and I'm ready.

So that you know, the two main volcanoes we will be going up are Cotopaxi and Cayambe. Here are a couple of links to go check out a little information on each one:
Cotopaxi
Cayambe

C you in Ecuador.
GW

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

2 Days

So, I think I am ready for the trip.

We leave on Friday around 8:00am and get into Quito around 11:00pm. Saturday is going to be a lazy day just seeing the city and Sunday we are to go on an acclimatization hike to 15,000ft. That's right higher than anywhere in the lower 48 only 40 hours after arriving.

On a negative note, I came down with a wicked case of bronchitis on Monday. My nose is completely blocked and I have a wicked cough that hurts way down there. My doc gave me every medication known to man and said it should be good my game time. (I think we go to 18,500ft on Wednesday or Thursday) I was so medicated at work today I just had to leave. My mind was all over the place...

Standby for reports.

GW

Sunday, November 18, 2007

I have been away

I have been away from publishing anything here for a long time so I started over.
To get started, as Ray's blog states, we have only another 11 days and 7 hours until we leave for Ecuador.
Am I excited? Hell yes.
Am I ready? Hell, who knows.
I do know this, I hope I am ready.

My last hike was up by Boulder where I went up Green Mountain and then Bear Peak.
These aren't big mountains by any standard, but they are good for training. I left the trailhead (5900ft) around 11:30am on Friday with about 38# in my pack. I felt strong, but with only 38#, it is hard not to. I figure when I am in Ecuador though, I won't have more than about 20# in my pack.

I don't really pay much attention to my HR while going, I just go at a pace that feels comfortable and one that I know I can maintain; that happens to be around 155bpm. Carrying 38#, this worked out to me going up at a rate of about 1400ft/hr. This put me towards the top of Green Mtn around 1:15. First 2000ft done.
I then had to come down for about 800ft before I could start going up Bear Peak. At this point, it was all new trail to me so I wasn't really sure how far it was. I estimated it to be a total day of 10mi from the trail maps, but they're hard to read and I wasn't really concerned; it didn't look that far. Famous last words.

To the top of Bear Peak was another 1200ft. This was much steeper in sections and much rockier than I had been on. If I would have been in my plastics, I probably would have turned around. Towards the summit, it got pretty rough with some pretty big, steep, and loose rocks - good times. The final summit block really shouldn't have been attempted with my backpack on. At one point, I started to fall, clawed at a boulder, caught and edge, then my breath, and moved on. I could have easily bought the farm...
Well, I arrived at the summit and this is pretty much the first time I looked at the time. It was about 3:15 and the sun is down around here at 4:45-5:00. I'm like, hey, I have something like 4-5 miles to get back, I better get going. So off the summit I go.

I am heading down at a pretty good pace and still feel pretty strong and about 15 minutes into the descent I see a trail sign. You can guess what I said, "SHIT, I am on the wrong trail."
That's right. I had planned on a shorter route for the return. This trail was going to be an extra 3 miles and I didn't have the time. Had there been another couple hours of daylight, I would have just continued, but I had to turnaround. That was about a 400ft mistake and cost me about 30 minutes. I was pissed. I decided to go around the summit off trail to cut some time off, bad idea. That's all I have to say about that. Let me say it again though, bad idea.
So, I made it back to the summit (just below the 20ft summit block scramble) and found the right trail. I was hauling the mail at this point. About 15 minutes later, I took my first real break in 2 hours and decided I needed to dump some weight so that I could pick up speed. I emptied 4L of water, ate a mothers milk bar, and headed out.

The final 4-5 miles took me about 1:45 minutes which included about 1800 ft of descending and another 4-500 ft of ascending. Luckily, I only needed the headlamp for about 20 minutes. It was pretty dark but I could see where my truck was parked because other hikers were leaving and it was about half a mile away. Problem is, the trail I was on wasn't going there and I didn't see the trail that did, so that was all bushwacking for the final half mile. What an effin trip...

All in all though, a good training hike, felt good and my legs weren't tight the next day. So, I might be ready - as long as I don't have to lead the way.

My Heart rate log: