One Week Count Down to Climb Mt. Rainier

In one week Jeff and I will start our ascent of Mt. Rainier.   This past week started out rough for me.  Last weekend was the peak of my training and left my body a little beat up.  I developed a chest cold on Monday which progressed to a head cold by Wednesday.  Ahhh, not what I need at this time.  The cold even made me so lousy I cancelled my afternoon patients at the clinic on Tuesday.  This certainly put a damper on my training schedule.  I was shut down from any exercise until Friday.  I guess I should look at it positively by saying my body needed rest!  I have been training for the last 6 months without much rest. 

My toes were also roughed up from last weekend's climbing.  My new Lowa Renagade GTX boots haven't been so agreeable with my feet.  They are one of the top rated boots in Backpacker Magazine's 2013 gear guide.  A very expensive investment that I hope will work out after breaking them in more.

The right toe a week after thrashing it:

So, with my training schedule altered, I finally felt well enough on Friday to play in my first hockey game for the summer season.  I was a little slow and coughed alot, but managed to not miss a shift.  Saturday, I weight lifted at the gym for a hour, then set out for an afternoon hike- my last training hike/climb before Rainier. 
Since it was later in the afternoon to start a hike (2:40 pm), choosing something close by was wise to avoid threatening afternoon thunder storms.  So back to Bear Peak in Boulder I went.  Bear, in my opinion, is the best training ground in the foothills for steeper hiking and getting some vertical (3,000 ft).  I had been on Bear with Jeff a month earlier.  Jeff was up with his wife in Breckenridge spending some quality time so I was accompanied by an old friend I had not seen in a while, Renee Peter, and her two friends Mary and Elias Pfeifer.  Renee and Mary are backpacking in Mt Rainier National Park the first week of July for four days and joined in the training with me.  This hike was a "wind down" hike for me.  I only carried a 10 lbs packpack; wow did that make me light on my feet!  Our pace was mellow which felt good to me.  We summited in 2 hours.  A storm cloud had just past before we arrived on top.  A gal that was coming down said her hair stood on end from static electricity which forced them off quickly.  We waited a bit for the isolated cloud to distance itself from us before we arrived on top.  The sun came out and we had the peak to ourselves.  Out of all the times I have been on Bear this was the latest in the afternoon.  We left the summit at 5pm. 

On the North saddle of Bear:

Summit of Bear:

We headed down the West Ridge of Bear to Bear Canyon which tacked on some mileage.  This took us through the forest fire area- kinda eerie.

It was cool to see wild flowers growing there.  Our hike was 4 hour 25 minutes, 7 miles and around 3,000 vertical.  We headed to downtown Boulder for food.  Check out Reuben's on Walnut Street and Broadway.  Great gourmet burgers served on pretzel rolls!  I had The Eddy Merckx.  They have an EXTENSIVE beer list- what else would you expect...this is Boulder, CO!

Today I will spend a hour in the gym doing light cardio exercise and core/weight training.  Tomorrow and Wednesday will be days of rest (no exercise); Tuesday and Thursday I will be in the gym again for interval cardio and weight/core training.  I may put the loaded pack on for a stroll or two around the neighborhood (2-4 miles).  Friday I have a double header hockey game.  Needless to say this week will be a busy one.  I still have to work at the clinic of course! 

I do have logistic prep work to do- a final at home gear check, get the food and last minute items I'll need, practice knot tying and harnessing up, and of course pack it all up.  WHEW!

Alpine Ascents International (the guide group we are using) has had a great summit success rate this past week.  They seem to be running a well organized outfit.  The weather has been great the past week for climbing.  This week's weather is different, snow is predicted until Friday.  The long range forecast looks like sunny skies Saturday to Tuesday.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed Mother Nature cooperates with us.

My blog posts from here until I finish my climb will be shorter and more frequent to update my status.  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

P.S.  Feel free to send me comments!