80%

So I'm still on the mend. My mind is willing my body foreward to do stuff I probably shouldent. But its summer damn it and its time to snap out of it. Have to weigh the benefits of mental health after a while of not getting out.

So I was pretty worn out after Eagle, but then went on a big slog this past weekend up the Burns Glacier near portage to try to climb baird peak. Intresting group dynamics, slushy snow and

Portage weather made for a long day. Tired, a coughing me again...










So what else is going on... I finally finished my pants. Gore-tex XCR, water proof zippers, seam taped and all. I figure they ran me about $70 in materials to make and they came out totally sweet. Here is my model shot...





and another .. oh yeah pure fabric goodness... eat your heart out arc-teryx





In two weeks from now Brook and I are heading to do Liberty ridge on My Rainier after Eric & Tracy's wedding http://www.tracy-eric.com/ Looking foreward to it!


So here is Liberty Ridge, its a classic Alpine climb of the Cascades. I'm Psyched for it but nervous about my health. Its odd when that is the thing to be worried about when planning a climb like this but its true, The actual climbing should be straight foreward, I can deal with weather, whiteouts and cravasses better than lung clogging phlem balls and sore knees.






Enough for now. if anyone has a vacciene for monster phlem balls let me know.

The Comeback is here

Its a good tired. A tired I havent felt in a long time. The tired you get when you have to draw on some reserves.

Yesterday two friends and I headed out south Fork to climb Eagle peak. The weather was horriable, light misting snow and fog. Snow conditions to ski were also awful.. Undetered we made it out past eagle lake and camped up high in the first step below the flute glacier.

The fog was so thick we couldent really see what was what, spent the day going up the wrong gullies and sking on the flute glacier... jump ahead, alarm off at 5:00am, the morning is crisp and cold, the snow frozen with a good crust, it's going to be a good day.

We head up the east gully on Eagle peak. I feel quite good having not done any vertical orientated exersise in about 2 months. nice way to ease back into it... ha ha

I feel great and we are re-warded to the clouds clearing at the summit for literally only the 30 mintues we spent.

The photos should say it all.

Feels great to be back, Tired from the day, but re-enrgized by a weekend with friends in the big mountains. The knee felt ok, and I had a good amount of energy.

Stupid Human Tricks

So just in case I needed a bit more things to recover from I added another to the list last night.
Playing living room olympics I managed to the the couch, foot rest, chair dive but missed the chair a bit and slammed my knee right into the arm rest. ouch. its exactally exactally where I didnt need to hit it, right smack dab to the left of my right knee cap, right where I have all my knee problems. So whats a bit more blunt trauma to the ole' knee right? Ice and bandaids. I really wanted to bike to work today too.
Sometimes I have to remember I'm not 15 anymore..
stupid.

Echo'ed

Got an echo cardiogram today,
it was by far the coolest medical related thing I have ever experienced! Watching your heart beating on a screen in realtime, seeing the valves flap and flap away. Listening to it, getting all different views just from the friendly technician move a transducer around on your chest. Wow, now I know what pregnant women feel like after getting theur first ultrasound...

I got it as a pre-caution and just to have more information rather than guessing if i should be concerned or not. We'll see, overall the tech said to not be anxious over it, so thats good.
Its almost time to go climbing again.

the grey

Mellow days,
Saw the Dr. again toda,y not much really to tell about. Another round of blood work to see if the protiens that indicate that all is not well in heartland are still elevated. I asked and I'm getting an echocardiogram tomorrow. Should be intresting and answer some questions as what the hell is really going on.
The cough that I had over a month ago is back so I'm thinking I never got the original bug out of my system to begin with.

On a happy note I've been blowing money and just got set up with a time lapse camera setup, its an old Nikon I got off of ebay that accecpts a controler, combined with a homebrew AA rechargable battery pack I should be able to make some pretty cool new time lapse movies.

I'm in competion with a friend over the adn 50" plazma tv setup. Not that I actually want such a thing but seeing the junk that was being entered made me go edit some stuff new and old and see what happens:
http://www.adn.com/includes/vmix/vid_contest.html

Southcentral in motion and Chugach baby...

pericarditis & sewing projects

What was that stabbing chest pain I had two weeks ago?? well if I thought I needed help trying to get an excuse to rest my knee, you better watch what you ask for... Pericardidis is defined as an inflamation usually with fluid of the sac that surrounds the heart, it can be very painfull and cause difficuilty breathing. I'm on the total R&R plan now, and am supprisingly content, I think I've gotten into Long haul mode with it where I'm not totally going crazy that I cant be climbing peaks every day. Slowly starting to feel better, but I'm still not planning anything bit.
I canceled my spring mountaineering trip to what was going to be Mt. Redoubt, but (and a big but) I feel better super quick I can join some friends going to Marcus Baker, I'm not crossing my fingers. The big carrot is heading down to climb the liberty ridge on Mt.Rainier at the end of May. If I'm not better by then, then lock me up cause its not going to be pretty...

Aside from that I've spent a lot of this past winter honing some more mellow skills of videography and film editing and sewing outdoor gear. Here are some pic's of stuff. The Backpack took me forever, the two frame bags not so much, a day each, I'm starting to get those dialed in pretty good. THe camera case was a pain in the ass... I find sewing is the more homey creative side to my engineering mind. Its way more rewarding than work and more fun, teaches you patience... If I knew I could make a good living doing it, I'd probably jump ship.
ha haa
The other big thing lately has been the slide show for my south america trip. It went off big at teh BP energy center on the 5th. We raised almost $700 for singletrack advocates - right on!!
Giving it again in Palmer tomorrow night, should be more low-key and less stress than the first time through.

Inactivity

So the short story is that I havent been doing much of anything lately.
I got into a cycle this winter where I'd go backcountry snowboarding on my splitboard then have knee pain for the rest of the week just in time to do it all over again. On top of that my 25 min each way bike commute just kept feeling worse and worse. I wasnt doing my knee any good by trying to push it. Started seeking help again and getting the cycle of PT's and Dr.s going. Basically I decided on my own to simply take a month off of everything that would aggrivate it and give the cartlidge a fighting chance to heal.

I havent been on my splitboards in like 6 weeks now and I've cut biking cold turkey by DRIVING to work. Yes Driving to work, I've been biking to work since college and its killing me.

So the days flip by and I try to stay sane with a long haul mentality, swimming, lifting weights, the usual recovery stuff...

Then out of the blue last week I get massive chest pains, cant breathe, cant sleep... Turns out that a virus from a case of bronchitis I had made its way to my heart and has caused Pericarditis.. More of do nothing time, this time really do nothing...

2 trips canceled so far, I'm hoping for a comeback in May.

An update?

Thought I would get this blog going again... It was originally created by my sister Laura while I was traveling and I dont think I have a single actual post of my own on here! There will be some big changes to come to make it more my own.
Cheers

Home safe in Anchorage

Hello there!

Just thought I'd give a brief Denali story. We got back from the mountain on Tuesday after pulling an all-nighter crossing the Kahiltna coming down from 14,200' camp. It was a great trip! Had pretty much great weather for most of the time and met some really fun people. Things changed when we moved up to 17 however, we were sadly reduced to 3 when Steve decided to go down. We arrived at high camp on what we thought was a week of high pressure, so we were in no rush to make a summit bid. Then things got windy, reallll windy. We spent a few days in battlemode, then made a summit attempt on Friday (?) making it to the Football field at 19,300 or so before havingto turn around. I was worked after spending so much time at high camp and the difficulties that comewith it, then it turned to a nasty white out and that was that. The following day was the windiest by far and we built massive walls for the tent while getting tossed like rag dolls in the 80-100mph gusts. Made for a genuine Denali experience! Nice to come back to summer! Hope to see you all soon.
Eric

News from Eric

Just got word, my Mom got a phone call from Eric!
He was back at the 14,000' camp after being stuck at the high camp waiting for the weather to clear for a week. Apparently, the winds were really high and storms were constant, keeping them hunkered down in their tents at the high camp. They did make it to within a few hundred feet of the summit. They felt themselves getting weaker from the altitude and finally had to go back to a lower elevation. Looks like they are on their way out now. Stay tuned! :-) Laura