Snowshoeing and other stuff

This winter has provided plenty of snow for the Northwest (just ask my parents in North Idaho).   Yesterday I took advantage of the snow by heading out toward Skykomish on Highway 2 to do some snowshoeing with some geocaching friends.  I figure every little bit of training will help for Rainier.  When you're sinking down to your knees on snowshoes you get a really great leg workout!  I had pretty bad insomnia the night before, so I wasn't 100% on my game for this trek.  That got me thinking about Rainier.  The way I'm planning to do the climb would be to camp at Camp Muir and then get up at 12am to head toward the top.  Being that it's not really natural for me to go to sleep around 4 or 5pm I have a feeling that I'll be pretty tired when I start the major part of the trek.  Makes me think that I better not use being tired as an excuse not to exercise over the next few months so I'm fully prepared.

I ordered the Mount Rainier training guide today so I'm excited to read that when it arrives.  I also got a good tip on a Rainier prep course at REI later this month from a fellow geocacher.  I'll try to make it to that, as well as start to look into mountaineering training classes in the area.   

I've recently found a few other people who are interested in going with my group.  My goal is to have at least one person who's summited Rainier with us.  Luckily a coworker of mine knows someone who is interested in going who just summited last year.  It'll make me feel more comfortable to have people along who have experienced the mountain.