Making Progress

After spending several hundred dollars I'm starting to feel like I'm making some progress on collecting gear. Earlier last week I went to REI with Mihae determined to find a Gregory backpack to buy, because I figured that was the best pack for me after trying them on. I got fitted for a Gregory pack that I thought I'd be interested in getting and it just didn't feel right. With some good upselling from the REI lady, I tried on the nicer Arcteryx backpack and fell in love. It was more than I wanted to spend, but I figure that boots and a backpack are two of the most important pieces of gear comfort wise. So a few days later I came back to REI and had the backpack fitted for me with at least 30 pounds of weight. That 30 pounds felt like nothing, thanks to the backpack's comfort so I decided I needed to buy it. Luckily I was able to use my Dad's 20% off discount at REI so the cost was a little more reasonable.



I put the backpack to its first test immediately after buying it. Rachel, Rich and I headed over to North Bend to hike up Little Si. This is not a long trail - my hiking guidebook says 5 miles roundtrip with a 1200 foot elevation gain. This made for a good first test for both me and Rachel with our new backpacks. I also tried out the new boots, which are very stiff. Other than the last 15 minutes down the mountain, the boots were great. The backpack was awesome the entire trip, where I was carrying around 40 pounds. We made our goal of reaching the top in less than an hour, right around 58 minutes.

I took the last week off most exercise in order to let my knee get a little better and I think the time off helped do the trick. I decided not to run for an entire week, which was very aggravating to me since running has become a huge part of my life. I did run in the St. Paddy's Day Dash yesterday and felt pretty good overall. I'm ready to get back into my regular routine of working out this week, which will definitely be helpful in my training for Rainier.

The more I talk about Rainier with people, the more excited I'm getting about it. We're just over three months away now from the climb. There should be a lot of really great training hikes between now and then.

Gear and Running

Yesterday was a really productive day for me. Even with my bum knee (from the Rattlesnake hike the week before), I completed my first half marathon. I always said I wasn't interested in running half marathons because I didn't think I could run for that long. I decided around New Years that this year I would challenge myself to do things I either never considered doing or never thought I could do. I'm feeling pretty great today knowing that I accomplished my first goal of this year. Rachel and I ran somewhere around a 10 minute mile for the 13 miles of the Mercer Island half marathon (we're still waiting on our official time). It was a beautiful run and I'm definitely interested in trying a half marathon again!

The endurance aspect of doing the longer runs will likely come in very handy for my overall conditioning for Mt. Rainier. After the race, Rachel and I were already moving on to plans for our upcoming races - the St. Paddy's Day Dash in Seattle next weekend and Bloomsday over in Spokane in May.

After the run, we decided to head to REI to look into boots for climbing Rainier. REI has their 20% off one item promotion with your membership going on for the month of March so I thought it was a good opportunity to purchase one of my more expensive items for the trip. There aren't many choices (at least for women) in mountaineering boots, but I found some that I think I'll be happy with. The La Sportivas I picked up came highly recommended. I wanted to get them soon so that I could decide if they were the right boots for me and so I could start breaking them in long before the actual climb.



After getting the boots we headed on to OR (Outdoor Research) to check out their current sale. I'm glad we decided to go there as I was able to find some good mountaineering gloves at a really nice discount and pair of base layer pants. I'll be doing some more research and/or shopping this week. I'd like to find a backpack and some other clothing layers fairly soon.

I felt like it was a pretty successful day all around. :)

Yesterday was a nice day for a hike, so a few people from my Rainier group and I decided to go hiking. Due to conditions on Mt. Si and Granite Mountain, we decided on doing an easier hike up Rattlesnake Mountain. Rattlesnake ledge is one of my favorite quick hikes close to Seattle (just south of North Bend). It's easy and the view is rewarding when you get to the ledge. The trail actually goes on for several miles, but I've never gone much farther than the ledge. I have a fear of the woods, especially when hiking alone, so in the past I've always stuck to heavily populated trails. A majority of people stop at the ledge so I've never ventured too much farther up the trail. After seeing the view up higher yesterday I'm kicking myself for not going farther up in the past. I guess that's the really nice thing about all the training I'll do for Rainier - I'll have hiking buddies!

Before leaving Seattle, Bram made sure that those of us training for Rainier had plenty of weight in our packs. We stopped at a gas station to buy gallon jugs of water. We'll be adding more gallon jugs for future hikes. The more weight we carry now, the better we'll be in the long run for the actual climb.

The hike was pretty easy until we hit some deeper snow. We did our fair share of postholing, which made me regret not packing along my snowshoes. All together we hiked about 8 miles and had an elevation gain of about 2400 feet.

After the hike, Bram showed us all the gear that we'll need to have for the trek up Rainier. It reminded me that I still have a lot of shopping to do! I think my next major purchases will be a backpack to help get used to carrying a lot of weight and boots so that I can get them broken in.

Ever so slowly...

Not too much new to report.  I haven't been working out as much over the past week since I've been sick with the cold that seems to be going around.  I guess the going, going, going all the time does tend to catch up with a person.  Luckily it happened now and not two weeks from now when I have the half marathon.  Unfortunately, this means I've fallen behind in my training for that.  

I have been keeping my eyes out for gear lately though.  Trying to find the best deals on good equipment.  I do feel lucky for finding some crampons for half off online.  Since I'm not really familiar with this stuff, I'm having to rely on reviews.  Someone mentioned that they found these worked well on Mt. Rainier so hopefully that will be the case for me as well.

I'll likely look into doing some sort of hike this weekend.  Probably another one close to Seattle, so not likely anything major.  I would like to get over to Mt. Si soon since it's continually one that people recommend to train on.  

Running, Climbing walls, and other things

Over the next few months I'll be looking for any kind of strength training possible.  Currently Rachel and I are training for the Mercer Island half marathon which takes place on March 9th.  I'd like to get a couple 10 mile runs in between now and then, along with the regular 6 mile run I've been doing weekly.  The half marathon will be the longest distance I've ever run.  I've been feeling really good with my running the last couple months so I'm looking forward to the challenge.  Just because I like the organized races, the next week I'll be running in the St. Patrick's day 5k run - it should be a piece of cake!

My friend Mihae, who will be coming on the Rainier trek, is a member of a climbing gym out in Ballard and invited me to come with her.  Rachel and my friend Dan (who is pictured in the hike from last weekend) and I all went.  Two other guys who will be coming on the Rainier trek (Bram and Thien Nan) were also there.  Even though climbing Rainier won't involve rock or ice climbing, it's still a great way to build upper body strength that just may be necessary for the trip.  I hadn't been on a climbing wall since I lived in New Zealand a few years ago.  I really enjoyed it back then, so I've actually been wanting to try it out again.  The personal challenge involved with it is amazing.  Luckily, due to my boxing fitness class, the only soreness I experienced was in my fingers.  I'll likely visit the climbing gym a few more times before the big climb.  

Gear:  The Patagonia store downtown is currently having a big sale.  I took advantage of this the other day to get my capilene base layer top.  Sometime when I have more time, I'd like to check out the sale again.  I already tried the capilene out on a long run and it definitely serves its purpose with "wicking" the sweat away.  My list of gear to buy is still really long!

Getting Started

Thursday of last week Rachel, Mihae (my coworker who's interested in coming up Rainier with us) and I met up with Mihae's friend Bram.  He and his friends have climbed Rainier before and have a lot of experience with climbing mountains in general.  We got a lot of good ideas from him on training we should do between now and then.  Also, having another personal account of the climb itself made me feel more confident that I will be able to successfully climb the mountain.  

A few of us decided to get together on Sunday to do a shorter hike to get started.  We did the West Tiger Mountain #3 trail just off I-90.  Other than slipping around a little on the snow and ice, we did a pretty good job of tackling the easier hike.  As the weather starts to improve and the snow melts off the Cascades, we'll have more options for good training hikes.  We've agreed that one of the best things about all the training will be all the neat areas we will get to discover between now and the end of June.  

As for gear, I'd like to save I've acquired more stuff I'll need for the climb than I actually have already.  I did order some gaitors from the REI outlet, but I'd like to find a good backpack, boots and a nice gore-tex shell jacket for the training I'll be doing over the next few months.  

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.