Guys Trip on Mt. Rainier

Two years in the waiting, this year's guys trip was perhaps the most anticipated yet. Mount Rainier is the most prominent and most glaciated peak in the continental U.S. At 14,411 feet it is the 5th tallest and certainly one of the most dangerous mountains in the country. Needless to say we were all pretty stoked to give it a go. Bram put it into perspective when he stated in an email "I am as excited to climb Rainier as I was for my honeymoon."

This years group included the regulars, myself, Rocky, Roman, Bram, Rhett and then we also picked up some locals Nick and Derrick and then of course the person we are all indebted to for making the trip possible our guide Darrell.

In an attempt to ward off blister as long as possible, Rocky and I wanted to start the hike in running shoes, then when the terrain turned bad we would put on our boots. We asked Darrell how soon we would be encountering snow on the trail. "As soon as you leave the parking lot." We thought he was exaggerating a bit and so we wore our running shoes to the trailhead.

When we got to the parking lot and saw the trucks parked next to 35 foot high snow banks we quietly changed our shoes.

As we started the hike there was thick cloud cover and no sign of the summit. Within a couple of hours we started to clear the clouds and almost instantly we went from gray skies to blue and spectacular views of Rainier and the clouds covering the valley.

Emerging from the cloud cover.

Roman with the summit in view. The summit didn't look that far away and distance wise it wasn't. It was just that darn elevation.

Blister break.

The climb requires a staggering 9000 ft of elevation in 9 miles. That is 3000 more than Mt. Whitney requires in 11 miles. Basically that means it is steep and for the Smart brothers that means blisters. Try as they did to spare their feet, Roman's and Rocky's both got hammered. My were spared thanks to a generous gift from Bram. He got me the Air Jordan's of hiking boots and my feet never faired better.

Darrell leading the charge. He was impressive to say the least. Despite being 18 years my senior and exactly twice Roman's age, he kept right up with everyone. After the weekend was over I didn't know whether to be more impressed with his pharmaceutical hook-ups, his patented water basketball "flying hook shot" or his mountaineering skills. OK, I guess it was his mountaineering skills.

Darrell gave Rocky a chance to lead the charge for a while. Slowly the clouds were getting further away.

Finally at Camp Muir 10,000ft, I found a bored and lonely Rhett. He had already staked us a sweet spot and set up a tent. He's also not a bad photographer and he's available.

We spent the evening melting snow for the next days climb and eating a smorgasbord of Mt. House dinners.

Roman enjoys a Mt. house. I had two other pictures of Roman in this exact pose looking much less photogenic. It was hard for me to refrain from posting them, but I did.

Pictured right here is the Walrus. It doesn't look like a 4 man tent does it? But Darrell claimed it was as long as you are all short and not scared of touching the person next to you. I usually fit that description no problem but Darrell and his pharmaceuticals were making me a little nervous.

We turned in at about 9:00 to get three hours of sleep before the Midnight wake-up-call. The best conditions for climbing Rainier is when the weather is the coldest so you start at 1:00 in the morning so you can summit and get down before the snow starts to get soft.

At midnight I put on my crampons for the second time ever, got roped up and we started climbing in our two teams under a full moon bright enough that a head lamp was optional.

The 3 hours of sleep wasn't quite enough for Roman,

or Rocky.

This was the first time most of us had done any technical climbing on a big mountain and it was in the dark.

Despite the darkness I still noticed enough live threatening hazards to get my attention on the way up. I will admit it I was a little nervous more than once.

Everything was going without a hitch until we got to about 12000 ft. We had just made it through the most technical section. That is when most of us started to feel the effects of the elevation. But have no fear our wise leader had his pharmaceutical hook-ups on hand. They had been the butt of every joke the night before in the walrus. A prescription drug that starts with a V and is meant to rekindle the love life in relationships. Yes that's right, Viagra. Darrell's secret weapon against altitude sickness was a bottle of Viagra that he rushed out to the pharmacy for the night before the trip. He claimed some Himalayan study had been done to prove that Viagra allowed you to do more work at higher elevations. Basically those desperate enough or adventurous enough partook. I was not one of them, but Nick was and about 1 minute later he hurled.

It was a barf with a pretty sweet view.

This is where some doubts started to creep in. Nick had just spewed and Derrick was not feeling good either.

We climbed another 500 feet and Nick barfed again. (I had the courtesy not to take a picture of it this time.) I thought to myself "Two-thousand feet to go and he has already barfed twice. He is not going to make it."

Derrick and Nick.

As you can see Derrick was not looking much better.

Rhett was constantly wanting to push the pace. If the Viagra had any adverse effects on him you couldn't tell.

We went to 13,000ft and stopped again. This picture isn't big enough to tell but the look on Darrell's face is screaming, "I wish I hadn't taken that Viagra."

We choked down enough Cliff Bars we should have all been sick.

I had never been on any mountain that felt that high. We were so high it felt like we were going skydiving. Throw in the cold wind and the it felt like we were climbing Everest.

Finally team Viagra had to relinquish Bram as he had not partook and put him on our rope. Our new 5 man team struggled up to the crater and from there unroped and climbed to the summit.

Bram and Rocky just about to take the summit.

Me on top of the state of Washington.

After our hike back across the crater, this is how we found Team Viagra. Fast asleep on the summit. They had gutted up and made it. The effort by each of them was inspiring, but Nick's effort was superhuman. To throw-up twice and still have 2000 feet of tough climbing to go and suffer through it. That was pretty tough.

We let Team V have a nap while we relaxed on the summit.

Rocky re-taped his blisters.

Eventually we all got a picture on the summit together.

The trip back down wasn't as physically demanding but probably more dangerous.

Most accidents happen on the descent as the snow has turned soft.

This is where you don't want to end up. We crossed 4 or 5 crevasses. They were all small ones that we were able to just jump across.

Rhett led us up but I got to lead our team down. The unobstructed view was sometimes a little nerve racking.

If Roman falls here there is a giant crevasse below him and if we can't stop him then we will all end up there together.

The good thing about climbing in the dark is I didn't notice a lot of the most dangerous parts as we were going up, but you couldn't miss them as you were descending.

Team Viagra plus Bram posed with a crevasse big enough to swallow a house.

When we finally got back to Camp Muir we couldn't believe we still had 5000 feet to descend, but we were able to glacade a good chunk of it and that got the spirits up.

Roman going into a tail-spin.

Finally back to the parking lot. Rocky pledged to never put on his boots again. He made a memorial to them and left them in the parking lot.

The trip didn't officially culminate until we got spoiled a few more times by Sheila's cooking and then our two climbing teams had to face off in a vicious game of pool basketball that actually resembled UFC more closely than basketball and that is no exaggeration. Bram led all scorers and Darrell got voted most inspirational. Darrell is awesome to be around because he somehow shows no signs of getting old. His game of water basketball is still as violent and lacking in finesse as ever. You think "Dang if Darrell is still this big of stud I don't have any excuse to let myself get old." I hope I can still play a sport who's only rules are no eye poking or fish hooking when I turn 54. That sounds like a pretty good life goal to me.

All in all Mt. Rainier was as epic as it gets and well worth the wait.

Washington Trailer!

I know these trailers are a little lame but the kids love them and they are so easy that I can't resist.

I have 2 posts in the pipeline, one from our recent trip showcased above and one from our annual guys trip.

They were both... you guessed it... epic.

Blue Collar Beat Down!

One of the positives of being a teacher is having the time to do your own home improvements. One of the negatives of being a teacher is the limited funds that require you to do your own home improvements. I have dedicated this week to putting in a new wood floor. It has been a punisher and unfortunately I am going to have to dedicate at least another week to it.

Demo-ing the tile was the worst. I ran the jack hammer for most of 14 hours that day.

That is a real man's work. Rocky and I once had a job where we ran jack-hammers for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. We would do it from 6am to 6pm for two weeks and then switch from 6pm to 6am. It doesn't get much more miserable. Guys would quit that job after only a few hours. I was proud that we lasted half the summer. Anytime I think my job stinks I remember back to that job and I am instantly grateful for a classroom of even the most rambunctious teenagers. That's enough of my uphill in the snow both ways story.

Midway through the week I took a break to go mountain biking. There are two really fast sections of the trail that I ride on a regular basis. When I ride them I often think "Man, I hope I never wreck here!" I never had until this week. It was ugly.

My head took most of the impact. I put 10 cracks like these through my helmet. Helmets are a pretty incredible thing. My riding buddy, Jon, saw it and thought I was knocked out. I wasn't. I just didn't feel like getting up yet. My neck was sore and my bell was rung but I still have my 36 year streak of never having been knocked unconscious.

When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was blood. That is always unsettling. Fortunately they were just minor scrapes positioned in the right spot. (I asked Sara if my nose was swollen, she said "No it's always that big.")

My knee was missing a decent chunk of skin, but my ribs hurt more than anything. I didn't realize I landed in poison oak until the welts started showing up on me a few days later. The roll through the poison oak was just insult to injury.

I felt pretty good to walk away from it with only scrapes and bruises. None of the injuries were bad enough to get me out of doing the floor just bad enough to make doing the floor more miserable.

I put in 5 solid work days, all 12 hours plus. By the 6th day I was starting to become a lot less productive and didn't last more than about 5 hours. Between the bike wreck, my aching back and hitting my hand with the hammer enough times to rewrite the book on Mormon curse words I was beat down to say the least. The phrase overworked and underpaid comes to mind. At least I have something to show for my hard work. Here are a few before and after photos.

Front room before.

Front room after. Notice the pony wall I took out.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after.

Family room before.

Family room during.

For my next week of work I am going to talk to my boss about getting some better hours.

P.S. Thanks to my good friend Aaron for his generous time helping.

Sara skydives!!!

How would you approach your wife if you wanted her to go skydiving with you?

I knew my wife well enough to know it wasn't going to be an easy sell. As a mother of 4 she worries more than she used to, and usually favors spending extra money on home improvement over entertainment. I had found a good deal on skydiving and needed someone to do it with me. Sara is always my first choice when it comes to sharing an activity, but sometimes my choice of activities are out of Sara's comfort zone.

Most the activities I have talked her into turned out good but there have been a few mixed results.

Backpacking = great

Whitewater rafting = great

Downhill Mt. Biking = good

Rock Climbing = not as good

Private surf charter = bad

I think I have toned it down since the private surf charter in Costa Rica. Those were likely the best waves of my life. Eight to ten foot sets that peeled perfectly for 300 yards. I get a smile just typing the last sentence. Unfortunately when Sara reads this she will not be smiling. The waves were way out of her league. Not daring to paddle through the large waves to the beach she was stuck on the boat with the spanish speaking skipper. The large swells I was riding were putting quite a rock on the boat. Pretty soon Sara was seasick. While I was enjoying surfing nirvana she was blowing chunks into the emerald 85 degree water. Around mid day she could take no more and finally got the guts to paddle through the large waves to the shore for some respite from the constant motion. There she sat on the rocky beach for the next 5 hours without a lick of shade from the 100 degree Costa Rican sun and not so much as a volleyball named Wilson to keep her company. I thought it was great that she moved to the beach. I was getting the rides of my life and now I had a witness. I would wave to her after every wave, I even paddled in to spend a good 5 minutes or so with her. She had an awesome view of all my awesome waves but that view came with an expensive price tag and I'm not talking about what it cost to charter the boat. She got scorched, blisters the whole works. If you ask me I will say that was some of the best money I ever spent. I'm sure Sara doesn't remember it as fondly. That was two kids ago and maybe it was time to get her out of her comfort zone.

Enter Skydiving.

Without scaring her out of it, I needed to drop some subtle hints to feel out what my chances of her actually jumping were. I racked my brain over the perfect 'feeler comment.'

"Skydiving, now there is an extreme sport that guys and girls can enjoy together!"

or maybe,

"I listened to a podcast on skydiving the other day. Man, that must be exhilarating!"

or how about,

"Would you have guessed that scuba diving is two times more dangerous than skydiving? Pretty crazy huh?"

Everything I came up with reeked of Ralphie trying to score a Red Rider BB gun. I was in serious danger of overplaying my hand.

Since purchasing Lola last summer, I don't so much as put an extra box of cereal in the cart at Costco without first asking Sara's opinion. After much contemplation however, I felt a surprise attack was my best chance of getting Sara to jump out of a plane. I decided to just buy the tickets, kidnap her for the weekend and drive her to the airport without her having any knowledge of what she was in for. It may have been a little brash. It was definitely a bit of a risk but that's what makes it exciting.

When it was time to finally kidnap Sara on Friday morning before Mother's Day, she was shocked.

"We can't leave because of __obligation 1__."

"Canceled that a week ago."

"We have ___obligation 2__ tomorrow."

"Took care of that."

"What about ___obligation 3___."

"Jenni is filling in for you."

I was at hero status, at least for the moment. Skydiving wasn't until Saturday so I had planned all of Friday to be fun surprises for Sara. I wanted to make sure she at least had some good memories of the weekend in case skydiving backfired.

Sara's first surprise was the Carlsbad flower fields.

They were a hit.

Other surprises included a bike ride at the beach,

A trip to the San Diego temple,

And what girl doesn't appreciate a quick stop at Nordstrom's.

Finally it was time to stroll the beautiful La Jolla coast for sunset.

She'll forever be Queen of the corny photos. One of the many reasons I love her.

It is amazing how much you can fit into a day when you don't have the kids tagging along.

Am I romantic or what?

My hero status had swelled as the day progressed.

We ate at PF Chang's where Sara did Cheesecake shots.

That night I slept uneasy. Partially because I was jumping out of a plane in the morning but mostly because I was worried how Sara was going to react when she found out she was jumping out of a plane in the morning. We had so much fun the day before I didn't want skydiving to ruin the weekend.

I wasn't going to tell her what she was going to do until she figured it out. That happened faster than I expected. As soon as we turned onto Airport drive she said,

"I am not jumping out of a plane."

"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I already paid for it."

The conversation that followed will remain private. Let's just say I lost my hero status and there were some tears and for a while I was regretting my decision.

Opening her mind up took some convincing from me and a phone call to her sister who had already been skydiving. Then seeing a couple people go before us gave her some confidence as well.

I think the scariest part of the whole thing is signing the paperwork. You read about 40 different things that can go wrong to result in your death and then you have to sign that you have a proper will and have financial provisions for any dependents. If Sara could make it through that, she could certainly jump out of an airplane.

You get a lesson in skydiving that lasts five minutes or less from your instructor.

You knew Sara's instructor was legit. He wore a No Fear sweatshirt and had a long flowing ponytail. If that doesn't scream qualified, I don't know what does.

Always looking for a little extra adrenaline Sara requested to sit in the open doorway of the plane for the flight up.

Finally the moment you have all been waiting for. The video.

Sara's instructor told us we would be wired for at least 5 hours after. He wasn't exaggerating. Sara was stoked like I had never seen her. For the rest of that night she couldn't calm down. She just kept saying things like, "I can't believe I jumped out of a plane." and "That was the coolest thing I have ever done." and "That was the best Mother's Day gift anyone could have ever gotten me." In the end it turned out to be maybe the best 200 bucks I have ever spent. Maybe even better than the surf charter and for now I am back to my previous hero status.

Movie Trailer

This is to wet the appetites of my 3 readers for my next blog post.