Mt Hood Climb

Well, the day is finally here. This is the day of our originally scheduled climb. Tomorrow it will be the 30th anniversary of Mt. St. Helen's eruption. It will also be the 30th anniversary of my dad's last mountain summit.

Last week the weather was beautiful and we decided to jump the gun and head up and attempt it early. Of course the cloud cap on top of the mountain and the overly nice weather worked against us. I'm sure lack of preparedness played its part as well. We really did just wing it. Today I am attempting to summit again with a better idea of what to expect and how to pack my gear. I am going up there without any fairy tales in my head about how easy its going to be. I have taken some benedryl to help me sleep today. Climbing with zero sleep is not recommended. So here are the changes made based on last weeks lessons:

1. Get some sleep. Take meds to help if you need to, but get some sleep!
2. Get an earlier start. We started too late because of our lack of preparedness and unrealistic expectations. We hit the mountain by 1 am last week. Tonight we plan to be on the mountain by 11:30 PM.
3. Take wrappers off food. Its a pain unwrapping bars and then figuring out where to stuff the wrappers when I was done. My snacks are in one big zip lock bag unwrapped.
4. Don't eat a lot before the climb. You do not want to know what it is like to poop at high altitudes. Not fun.
5. Don't take your heavy billfold/wallet. You wont need it. It's extra weight. No thank you.
6. Gatorade is your friend.
7. Texting with gloves on is not easy.
8. Iphones are not waterproof.
9. I am a nerd and bought a fanny pack. I wanted something that would keep my sunscreen, snacks, camera, ect. easily accessible without having to take off my back pack. We will see if that plan works or not.
10. Pack a small shovel. Refer to lesson 4.

So in 8 hours I will head up to Huckleberry Inn. I will skip the pancakes, maybe have a small bowl of oatmeal and a milk or something. I will take some No-Doz rather than lots of coffee. Then hopefully those changes will improve my chances to reaching the summit.

This is not a hike. This is hard work. After all my 'training' I could only walk 60 steps at a time and then have to take a break. The slopes are a lot steeper than they appear on the photos. I actually got scared of the heights even though my feet were firmly planted.

If you pray, please pray for us, for our sleep, for our drive up, for our climb, for wisdom with the weather, for walking sessions longer than 60 steps at a time and pray we recover quickly tomorrow regardless of the outcome.

Thanks!