Teh Chad

There are a few things to keep in mind when heading up into the high country. Getting into the amazing places inside the Rocky Mountains is not difficult. It can get miserable pretty quick though! Nausea, and I’ll be blatant here, vomiting, light-headedness, dizziness and other symptoms can bring a really awesome day to a screeching halt.

Hiking after a rain storm will give you a much different picture of the trail. Often times, there will be hundreds of little streams running across the trail. Hiking on a muddy trail can get old after a while, but it does present the right idea – lots of water. So drink up!

Every time I see one of those little trickles crossing my path, I’m reminded of that fundamental concept in mountaineering.

You see, your blood needs water to push the cells through your arteries. So, more water will make it easier on your heart.

Second, take your time as you get higher. If you can run a mile at 1,000 feet and think you can do it at 10,000, call me! I’d love to see you try! Hah! If you’d like to really do it, take your time. After a few days, I bet you could. But it takes, I’ve read, 11 and change days to acclimate per kilometer in altitude.

A couple of things happen during this time. The main thing being that your body is adjusting the number of red blood cells so that it can transport more oxygen around your body.

There are really only a couple of things that you can do to encourage this process. The best thing you can do is drink lots of water. The next best thing you can do is spent time at altitude. Keep these in mind the next time you decide to chase up into the hills.

“You’ve got to fail hard to win hard.”

Yesterday, I had a pretty tough fail. You see, I love trekking into the amazing piles of rock called the Rocky Mountains.

To enable some of these treks, I spend a good portion of the spring into the summer training. I’ve been pushing my training hike harder and harder. The past couple of weeks have brought the hope of a new personal record or PR.

Last night, I failed again. I came within three minutes. But this is more an attempt to reach back a few years to when I was in much better shape. (I guess I’ve spent too much time drinking beer, aka “working on my girlish figure.”)

In the spring of 2006, I decided that I wanted to climb Long’s Peak. (14er.com link here) So, I grabbed a couple of hiking partners and began training. Every weekend my friends and I would run* Gray Rock. (* not actually running) Every weekend for three months, we were up there.

As a result of all of the planning and training, my first attempt on a bigger mountain was successful. We’ll call this winning.

Five years later, my goals have obviously grown. One of the newer goals, really a sub-goal as this is still training, is to run Gray Rock in less than 1 hour. A stepping stone to this is a new PR. And then probably another. You get the idea. All of these PRs are still failing. Drop a minute here, two or three minutes there, and you come closer. We’ll call this failing.

My two attempts in 2011 have been 1:16 and 1:12. The current PR is 1:10. Last night hurt. It’s been a while since I’ve actually pushed myself hard enough to want to lose my lunch or become light-headed. Failing is hard.

Man, that sub one hour is going to taste SO GOOD! “You’ve got to fail hard to win hard.”

Recently, I trekked into Rocky Mountain National Park. I was reminded of how much I love hiking in the wilderness. With day to day life being crazy, it was downright therapeutic to be in the wild.

The plan was to trek all the way across the park, which is a long endeavor. It would be an adventure with danger. It would take a lot of guts and, more than likely, would entail a lot of physical pain.

After 18 miles, I decided that it would not be wise to continue on past my meeting point at about half way through the trip. Even so, it was still getting out into the wilderness. It was not the safe and secure places in town with locked doors and air conditioning. There were little storms rolling by. There was wildlife.

On the vast summit of Flattop mountain, there was very little going on. A couple of snow fields were draining into small mountain streams. A pika passed me, dashing across the trail. And that was it. There was no protection from the elements. Only small tundra brush grew, and only a few inches at that.

It was beautiful. Here are the photos that didn’t even scratch the trip: Flattop Mountain. Enjoy!