I’m just starting to doze off when suddenly the lights come on and Dave cheerful tells us it’s time to get up and get ready for the summit! He even gave us an extra 15 minutes to sleep, it’s 11:15pm! We have one hour to get ready, hot water is being brought in for coffee…
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Much to my relief, our third day of the climb dawns cloudier and cooler than yesterday. After my ordeal last night, I couldn’t be any more grateful. I wake up still feeling weak, and I’m wondering if I’ll even be able to make it to Camp Muir, let alone anywhere on the upper mountain. But…
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Before I get into mountaineer school today, I should probably tell you a bit more about this climb. The program Lori and I signed up for is the four day summit climb through Rainier Mountaineering Inc. RMI is the original guiding service on Mt Rainier, and they have an excellent reputation. There are two other…
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Before I get in to the details of my climb of Mt Rainier, I won’t keep you in suspense of how I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the summit. Words can’t even describe my disappointment at not succeeding a second time, however I did get to 12,300ft, the top of the Disappointment Cleaver…
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Holy smokes it’s time. We’ve reached the climax of our training. The crux of our hikes. The hardest one of them all. At least until we get to Rainier. Mailbox Peak is practically legend in these parts. Hikers mention it with awe and fear. People speak of it in hushed tones. Ok, maybe not that extreme. But…
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As I mentioned last week, I climbed Mt Rainier this past weekend. And I’ll have photos to share with you soon, but I have a two more training hikes to tell you about first. Our second to last hike is Granite Mountain. I did this hike for the first time I tried to climb Rainier…
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Last year during my training for Kilimanjaro, I climbed McClellan Butte a couple times. If you read that post, you’ll know I didn’t make it all the way to the top due to the heat and a rather bothersome pain in my hip. The time before that, the view was blocked at the top and…
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Those of you who know me, probably know I did a summit attempt of Mt Rainier back in 2009. For many reasons, including not knowing that I had (and still have) exercise induced asthma, I made it to 11,200 ft, the Ingraham Flats, before I had to turn around. I have since gone on to…
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Remember how I told you I love food? And remember how I also told you that one of the first reasons I ever wanted to go to Thailand was because of the food? So when the opportunity to learn to cook these amazing dishes myself came up, do you think I said no? Heck no!…
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It’s time for the main purpose of our afternoon tour from Bangkok – the Amphawa Floating Market! Having seen amazing, National Geographic-worthy photos of the floating markets in Thailand, I knew I wanted to visit one for myself. As I briefly mentioned in my last post, Adrienne and I discussed at some length which of…
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Originally during our Thailand planning, Adrienne and I knew we wanted to visit one of the floating markets near Bangkok. After much discussion, we settled on the Amphawa markets as it’s supposed to be a little less touristy than the closer Damnoen. I had read we could get there on our own by taking a…
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Wat Arun was built sometime in the early 1600’s, during the Ayutthaya Kingdom, predating both the Grand Palace and Wat Pho on the other side of the river. Before arriving in Bangkok, I had heard the name, but hadn’t really given it much thought as a place to visit. However, we signed up for an…
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