I Live in Iowa: Week 15

I've got to give some credit to Nicki Minaj for some awesome lyrics in her song Moment for Life "...No I'm not lucky, I'm blessed, yes!" I think she hits the nail on the head with that one. I am blessed.

I worked 41 hours this week. It would have been more but I left work at 2:30 on Friday to drive up to Fairmont, MN to see my family and run a race Saturday morning. Work has picked up in our group and I've been busy working on several different projects. When I was in school, waking up at 7 was about all I could muster, and some days even that didn't happen. When I was unemployed, after the first month waking up at 8 or 9 was about all that ever happened. (The first month I still thought I was awesome.) Now, I'm waking up before 6 a few times a week to go running and I'm getting to work a few times per week before 7. The way I see it, I must be excited to go to work if I'm waking up that early to go. I feel the fact that I am waking up and going to work that early as of the biggest factors of my job satisfaction. In other words, work is going well.

I ran only 66 miles this week, but I had a race where I set a personal record in the 5 mile (27:39) and I had a 5x1000 meter workout that was easily the best 5x1000 meter workout I have ever had (total time for the 5000m was 16:04 with 400m jog rests at 1:45-50 in 90F heat). I'm not where I want to be this fall, but this is an extremely good introduction stage for my training. Thus far this year I have set person records at 4 miles, 5 miles, the half marathon, and marathon. I'm aiming for a 5k PR with my training right now, and later in the fall I will target the half and in the early winter I will target another marathon. I'm still plenty far away from my career running goals, but I'm progressing, and that is far better than regressing.

It is looking more likely that I will get an assistant coaching job and I am excited. I enjoy the team aspect of running and I have learned so much about running the past ten years that I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with younger runners so that they might not make the mistakes that I have made. I figure that because of the way that I have trained, or rather more appropriately neglected to train, the last ten years I am probably 3-4 years behind in my development as a runner. Which would be a problem if I was focused on the shorter distances and only my own personal running career, but seeing as how marathoners regularly peak in their mid 30s and I am interested in coaching, I think that my self-imposed and unintentional setbacks will serve me to help a greater number of young athletes and to do more appropriate training both for myself and for athletes I work with.

What else happened this week? I played cards and had a fire at a friend's house and I regaled them with tales of Pakistan and unemployment. One of the nice things about getting older is that I have a greater repertoire of stories to tell. On the negative side, another person died on Broad Peak. Two people I know were on the expedition with him. It is a struggle. I love the mountains and climbing, but people dying? It scares me because I am fairly sure that at some point I will be in a situation that is extremely personal regarding death on a mountain.

The other thing that I did this week, slightly out of the ordinary, was listen to a huge amount of NPR (because they have a free iPhone app). I am not a political person. I have trouble spelling politics half the time. I guess that as I get older and listen to authority figures and talk with them, I keep coming to the conclusion that we are all so equal. That is to say, there is no person who is so brilliant that will fix all of our problems, specifically the US budget problems. In science and engineering we often break problems down into sizes that one person, or perhaps two, can solve. The budget and deficit deal in Washington is so massive, that to really solve it long term will take hundreds, and more likely thousands of people. Even with all of that brain power at work, they are still not going to make it better. It is never more fun to pay off your debt than to run up your debt.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

It is interesting to note that our Federal Debt as a percentage of GDP rises and falls irrespective of party lines. I feel that is significant because it means that neither party is free from blame when it comes to our Federal Debt. Interesting to note, I thought that the 1980s enjoyed a great economy, why then did we raise the amount of debt so much instead of paying it off? Please educate me by commenting.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 20

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is: Adventure Consultants.

What they do right: The world of high altitude mountaineering is a small one. There are only several thousand people around the world that do it on a regular basis. Also, 30-60% of those people are your average people that only ever hit up the standard routes on the standard mountains. That is to say that Everest is the most popular 8000 meter peak. A friend of mine that was at Everest North side base camp a few years ago said that there were around 1500 people total there. Compared to Broad Peak or K2 last year when there was probably 100 people at each base camp. To make things even smaller, there are only a handful of guiding companies or commercial expedition providers. These are companies that specialize in setting up expeditions for climbers that are inexperienced enough to get invited on private expeditions or set up their own. This is a great way for a few hundred people around the world to make a living. Most climbing guides do not guide high altitude mountains like Everest but it is a major aspect of the guiding industry. How small is this guiding world? I have only been on one expedition but the connections I made through that trip are enough that I could probably get the personal phone number of Russell Brice (from the Everest: Beyond the Limit Discovery Channel series), Ed Vestiurs, or Steve House with one phone call to people I know. Not that I have anything to ask any of those people that hasn't already been published.

The small industry forces every company to scrape out their own niche. Due to bad weather, difficult mountains, and terrorists Pakistan has only a few companies that guide there on a regular basis. It is similar with other nonstandard mountains like Mt. Logan (second highest in North America).

I still haven't answered what they do right. I'm not quite done explaining the situation yet, bear with me. Now mountain guiding started in the 1800s in Europe. In fact several first ascents of mountains were done by guides and clients during the 1800s. The history of guiding thus dates as far back as the history of modern alpine climbing. What separates Adventure Consultants is that they took guiding to a new level. In 1992 they led their first Everest expedition. It was not the first commercial expedition to Everest, but they organized it and advertised it in a way that no one else did at that time. They brought a level of support to Everest that no other company had brought for their clients at that time.

People want to climb Mt. Everest because it is the tallest. Adventure Consultants started at the right time and offered the right services to carve out a niche as the premier guiding company on Everest. Of all the niches, within the niche of high altitude mountaineering, to "own" I estimate that it is the most stable and probably most lucrative.

They have been copied by many companies now but they still remain the standard for an Everest guiding company. They were one of the companies dramatically involved in the 1996 Everest disaster. However, high altitude climbers are a somewhat risky group of people and the resulting publicity only fueled the "go climb Everest" band wagon.

What they could improve: Adventure Consultants has garnered a reputation as a sort of pay-your-ticket-and-get-pulled-to-the-top sort of company. They have a reputation for wearing matching bright down suits and attracting mid life crisis climbers. This is definitely an exaggeration of the reality, but like most rumors it has roots in the truth. In general, the more you pay on an expedition the more support you can expect. At the highest level, the high altitude porters (Sherpas, generally in Nepal) carry your sleeping bag to every camp and hand you soup at the high camp at 7900 meters. My experience in Pakistan was somewhat different. I carried cooking equipment, fuel, all of my personal gear, and helped chop tent platforms. At high camp at 7000 meters I also manned the stove to make my own water and cook my own food. That was the experience I wanted, to do some of the work.

For many people the entire goal is the top of the mountain. That is fine, that's a worthy goal. My goal is more about the experience. The challenge of seeing how much I can do. I think the premier challenge of high altitude mountaineering would be to climb a new route, solo (or at least with a small 2-3 person team), in winter, alpine style, on the west face of Gasherbrum IV. The problem is, that would be very hard. Nobody has even attempted that.

So what they could improve in my eyes would make the climb more challenging. However, the niche they fill requests as much support as possible. That is to say I do not see myself going on an Adventure Consultants trip anytime soon. However, for many people Adventure Consultants is the best option.

Forget Layering!

The wisdom of the ages says, "wear a whole bunch of different layers in the winter to keep you warm. If it gets too hot take one off, if it is cold put another one on." Well, I'm here to tell you forget that because it is inefficient. Oh it does work, sort of. I'll explain...

Layering as it is practiced by all of the people I know who use it consists of 1-3 layers of light long sleeve silk or polypropylene or capilene. Think Under Armor type of shirts, except a little bit more loose in general. Then these people wear 1-2 layers of heavy insulation like wool or fleece. They cover that up with 1-2 layers of wind/water resistant jackets or pull overs. That's a great combination if you plan on standing around all day. However, if you plan on doing something physical and generating heat you are going to sweat, even if the windchill is below zero.

How can I blast a time tested system? How can I say that it is not the best cold weather clothing system? Experience. Nearly every time I go on a winter hike or cold weather outing with less experienced people we have to stop in the first twenty minutes and they take off clothing.

I do not know the name of the person who coined the name "action suit" but I discovered it on my own in New Hampshire's mountains and with a little help from friendly corporate softshell advertising. It works like this: wear one combination of clothing that consists of relatively few layers and commit to wearing them all day long even if it gets hot. Those layers hopefully have venting zippers and hoods so that you can cool off while working hard. Then have one (just one) layer that you put on when you stop to rest or cook or belay. This is generally a belay parka and puff pants.

My preferred system which I have now used in three states, two countries, and three time zones, hiking, ice climbing, skiing, bicycling in the winter, and up to 23,000 feet is this:

• A full body softshell bib made by Ragged Mountain that I bought used that they don't make any more. Mine has two chest pockets, leg zippers to chinch it or loose it near your ankles, a half moon zipper for using "the loo", and a two way zipper in the front so I can zip the bottom part open if I have to go or zip the top part open if I am too hot. Here is a similar suit that is twice the price of what I paid.
• The Patagonia R1 Hoody! I think I average blogging about this once every two months. Anyway it is an extremely breathable yet insulated hoody with a half zipper and partial face mask. It also has hand extensions with thumb holes. The nice thing is that if it really warms up I can unzip the chest and take the hood off and vent a lot of heat. As some of my videos in Pakistan in the tents at camp two and three show. I even have a spare that still has the tags in case they quit making it. This and the bibs make up the core of my system.
• A pair of gloves. Always a pair of gloves they are light and do wonders to keep your hands a little warm and out of the wind. The actual gloves vary based on the temperature, wind and activity. I have four different pairs that I rotate through depending on the activity. Although I am not an expert on gloves and I can't wait to have $160 to drop on a pair of nice insulated leather ones...
• Depending on the temperature I will either wear running shorts, half tights, or thick full length 2008 Patagonia nordic skiing tights that they don't make any more under the bibs.
• If it is cold I will wear a long sleeve under the R1 Hoody. I have two Nike long sleeve shirts that are really light and fit very nicely. I also have some compression tops similar to Under Armor but I usually feel my motion is restricted when I wear those.
• Occasionally I wear my Mountain Hardware Alchemy jacket over the bibs when it is cold and windy. More often than not though it is too warm. This is a tried and true jacket that has been around for ten years and will probably be here another ten.
• When the temperature is too warm for my parka I carry a three ounce 2007 Marmot Ion jacket. It's mostly wind proof and water proof. I will start sweating when I wear it most of the time but it really keeps the wind off and is absolutely worth the three ounces of weight. I carry this in the summer rock climbing and cycling too. Basically it's the one thing that is guaranteed to be in my pack on any trip in any season.
• For a belay/rest/cooking parka I have a Mountain Hardware Sub Zero Hooded Jacket. It is not the warmest parka out on the market but has always been plenty warm up to 7000 meters. I like it because the waist cut is a little higher than many jackets so I can get to my harness. It also has a ton of pockets including an inside pocket big enough for a one liter Nalgene or thermos. It also has an insulated hood which is a must.
• I have a pair of Mountain Hardware Compressor pants which are synthetic and again not the warmest insulating pants on the market. They have full side zips so I can put them on while standing and wearing crampons without lifting my feet off the ground. One note on why I have so much Mountain Hardware stuff is that the stuff just fits me really well. The sleeves are the right length for me.
• A pair of thick mittens. I don't always carry these for skiing or short hikes but anything more than a few hours or in serious weather will see a pair of either Outdoor Research Alti Mitts or Valandre Oural (down) mittens in my pack because I like my fingers.
• When it is really cold I wear the Outdoor Research Gorilla balaclava. It is very warm and windproof and can be worn with my goggles or with my sun glasses.

I will skip the discussion on footwear because that could take up a whole post. So that is my action suit. You can see that in general there are not many layers, just several functional layers with hoods and chest zippers so that I can air condition myself or turn up the heat. Is there room for improvement? Yeah, any clothing system will vary based on the weather and more importantly in my case the budget. This system and these articles of clothing have served me very well so far so I do not expect any big changes to my system in the next few years.

One last comment I have is about hoods. When it comes to winter clothing hoods are a must. You can put it on or take it off in several seconds and you do not have to worry about putting it in a pocket or your backpack. You lose a lot of heat through your head. Protecting your neck and head from the wind and cold can keep in a lot of heat. This is again why the R1 Hoody is so amazing. When fully zipped up only my nose and eyes are exposed. When unzipped my chest, head and neck are all exposed and I cool off rather quickly.

Dealing with Altitude

I have gone to moderate and high altitude a number of times. When I say altitude I mean like 8,000 feet or more or 2500 meters for the rest of the world. I handle altitude very well, I think. I have gotten altitude sickness a number of times like going from 6,000 to 11,000 feet in one day or trying to sleep above 20,000. However, I have never been so sick that I threw up or couldn't do things for myself unlike the experiences of many of my friends. In fact I have dealt with altitude so well that it's hard to describe how great I felt at 23,000 feet this summer. I was hungry. I ate everything in the tent that looked appetizing. That is not supposed to happen. People are supposed to lose their appetite at high altitudes. I also made the hike from camp two to camp three fairly fast. Still twice as slow as the fastest time from camp two to three that I have heard of, but faster than many.

All of that being said trying to run at altitude is hard. I did my first workout on a track Thursday at altitude, specifically 7200 feet. I ran 200s because one third of the track was iced over and I couldn't safely run farther. Anyway I was able to run the 200s within a second or two of what I would be running at sea level. That was not the problem though. when I jogged back to the starting line I would jog far slower than at sea level and never really get my breathing under control. In another example I was running a hard aerobic effort Tuesday in Denver on a treadmill. The pace I was running is one that is not terribly hard for me, except for running it at 5300 feet. As I ran the treadmill stopped at one point and asked to take my heart rate. I was thumping at 185. That is somewhat harder than what my heart should be beating at that pace. Yet both times my legs have not really gotten tired, I just can hardly breathe.

I know from limited reading that it takes three weeks for human bodies to start making more red blood cells, which in turn carry more oxygen, which in turn makes it possible to perform better at altitude. So two weeks into my new home at 7500 feet I still have not adjusted and am running nearly a minute per mile slower than normal for many of my runs. However, I remain hopeful that this physical stress will contribute to faster race times down the road.

Is it a pain threshold?

Pakistan changed me. I've said it before. It is like I have a mental glaze that comes sometimes and allows me to easily do things I would have considered hard only six months ago. For example I mapped out and ran a 3:02:55 marathon yesterday with over 1900 feet of up and down and it was not hard. I just unofficially qualified for the boston marathon on a moderately hilly course by 8 minutes without really trying.

How can I better describe this feeling? It is pleasure. It is kind of like being numb, not just my legs but in my head as well. My legs were a little tight the last six miles but I could still feel that they were hurting a little. It's like my brain said to my body, "Nobody cares if you are tired. This isn't hard."

Here is my theory: In Pakistan every mountain climber that died this summer was more experienced than I am. Now because I only made it to 7000 meters and felt pretty good I feel that up at 8000 meters it must be exponentially harder because people die so frequently. Let me connect that a little better. If I felt good at 7000 meter I would guess more experienced people would feel better at 7000 meter and if they died at 8000 meters than it must just be crazy hard to get that high and come back. So I guess my definition of hard is something like a 19 hour day from 7000 to 8000 and back. A three hour run pales in comparison. Additionally, making these eight or six hour hikes between camps while you are never moving terribly fast you are continually breathing hard and somewhat tired. So again what is a three hour run in shorts and singlet compared to a six hour hike when you can hardly breathe and your fingers are freezing at 22,000 feet?

So I think it is a mental change that I have gone through. I might have physically been capable of this for the last two years but my mind is now sugar coating the pain and it doesn't feel too bad. In fact it is that kind of good honest working tired pain.

What is next for me? Probably a six hour race in RI in two weeks where I want to win and break into the top 30 in the world for this year. I also want to PR in the half marathon in practice sometime soon as well. Oh and I'm leading an ice climbing trip in December.

Pakistan Video Sample: 10 of 10

Here is the last little bit of free video preview. I am still not done editing the full length film but I have a deadline of having something for the first WPI Outing Club meeting in B term in about two weeks. If you are in the area I'll announce when the meeting is and I suggest you come. It will be a food meeting with a movie probably around two hours long with so many things that I left out of this short series.

This video covers the day coming down from camp three, a visit to K2 base camp, and the trek out. I also put more effort into this short clip than any of the other clips. I tried to focus on the human aspect a little more. Ultimately it is about the humans and not the mountains.

Pakistan Video Sample: 9 of 10

Here it is, the one everyone has been waiting for, camp three at over 23,000 feet and 7000 meters! Keep in mind that This is all a sample. I have more footage that I will piece together to make my movie. In fact the movie has things which I prefer not to put on the internet as well as much higher quality. Additionally I have begun posting these videos on YouTube. One of my tent mates at camp three also posted his camp three video a few days ago. Watch it!

The Changes of Pakistan Two Months Later

When I first returned from Pakistan I was pumped up to go out and do life. I wanted to do everything immediately. Unfortunately that attitude has been changing, but not completely. Now I'll tell a few short stories to illustrate how my development is going.

When I discovered that I was going to be staying in school until December I realized I have to pace myself and I became in somewhat less of a rush to finish my thesis. Although I am still the first one in the office every morning and often the last to leave.

The week I got back from Pakistan my family went out to Colorado and I went running or climbing every day. I was turning in times on these routes which are very respectable. Think 4-5 mph. I felt that I had to run because time was short.

I have known for years that this fall was going to be when I started training for the olympic marathon trials in earnest. Well, I'm trying to go for 110 miles this week after only two weeks in my life over 100. Let me tell you it is not easy. The last six miles of my 15 mile run yesterday I imagined I was 4th in the olympic marathon trials with a pack of six close behind me. But I fell apart in the last mile and most of them beat me. This run reenergized me because if I am actually going to qualify for 2012 I have a long way to go.

When I got back to school I started working on my business plan but after many hours of work I soon worked on my thesis more and kind of left it hanging. I started working on it this week again, but some time is already lost.

Finally, when I returned I was happy to spend money because life is short and I like mochas. Now I am once again in debt and surviving on the free coffee in the copy room.

The moral of these stories is that I have calmed down and will not be yelling at my friends anytime soon. However, I still realize more than ever that life is short and I have to use every hour.

Pakistan Video Sample: 8 of 10

This movie snippet is titled Cabin Fever. After about five days of not climbing most people get restless. We were waiting around for our summit push on Broad Peak and actually avalanche watching. Imagine one step up from watching the grass grow and paint dry and one step down from watching a piece of paper get blown across the street. Then I put a little clip at the end with hair burgers because they were one of our favorite meals.

Sometimes it doesn't all make sense.

Pakistan Video Sample: 7 of 10

This is a sample of what a typical supper was like. Complete with jokes, mystery food, and discussing how to spell daal (or is it dahl or daahl?). Also, I have to say that there is a quote on there where my friend said, "Greatest Video of All Time", albeit sarcastically. Enjoy!

Pakistan Video Sample: 6 of 10

Ok this video was taken at 6600 meters about halfway between camp two and three. We had been heading from C2 to C3 on this acclimatization trip but it was not the best weather so we headed down soon after this was taken. I laughed about it at the time because I felt very safe then but watching it now makes me nervous. Once again this is a very authentic three minutes. There is a little swearing at the end beware.

Pakistan Video Sample: 5 of 10

This is part of a radio communication between some of the climbers that were descending from camp three on Broad Peak to us at basecamp. When I actually put the movie together it will have subtitles at certain parts so you know what people are saying.

Additionally, for those that missed it yesterday I posted a nine minute trailer for my upcoming movie. I was going to show it at a meeting last night but we couldn't get the sound to work. I deleted it this morning because several parts I do not feel comfortable leaving posted for the whole world to see.

Also, today is the eighth anniversary of 9/11. Out of curiosity I wondered where the hijackers were from. It turns out that according to Wikipedia none of them were from Afghanistan or Pakistan. Just some food for thought.

Pakistan Video Sample: 4 of 10

Here is another video that is not good enough to make the full length feature film. This is authentic camp two. That's what it's really like up there. People don't move fast. This was the first time I made it to camp two at 6200 meters or 20,300 feet. Watch, enjoy, and remember that September 10th at WPI I will be showing a 5-10 minute trailer during the WPI Outing Club meeting. So come watch and join the Outing Club!

Pakistan Video Sample: 3 of 10

Here is the third video in the series. This is in the tent the morning after I spent the night at camp one (5650 meters or 18,500 feet). Some of the other members of our expedition were headed from base camp to camp two and were taking a break at camp one with us. (A note on resolution: I'm going to use 240x320 and 15 fps for all of the clips on my blog but the actual video I have is 480x640 and 30 fps so it's at least four times as good.)

Pakistan Changed me

Simply put, people died. People with more experience. People with husbands and wives and children.

How did that change me? Well, I am not going to sit around and wait for life to happen to me I'm chasing after it. Life is short. This weekend I did two unusual things for me. I asked a girl out and I yelled at one of my friends. I only ever ask a hand full of girls out but that's actually the second one in a week. Then it is very rare that I yell at someone. I think it's honestly been several years. It wasn't a screamfest but he's been complaining about the same issue for over two years and it's ridiculous.

78 people have died on K2. The next time you walk into a room that has 78 people imagine them all dying. Yes it has taken 55 years but there are some bad double digit accidents in that mountain's history. I have climbed on a number of mountains and routes where people have died.

I haven't figured out what "it" (pakistan, mountaineering, life, death, fear) all means yet. I'll let you know if I do.

Pakistan Video Sample: 2 of 10

Here is an 18 second video from the last piece of dirt before the Baltoro Glacier. (By the way, the glacier has been there for thousands of years and nothing could live in that stream.) The video quality is better this time too.

Pakistan Video Sample 1 of 10

I'm going to show a new video clip here every week for the next ten weeks. Hopefully near the end of that time I will finish my edited movie and I will find a way for people to watch it. Here is a video clip that I will most likely not put in my movie but it is fairly interesting. The view is out the window of our bus as we drive into Skardu at the beginning of the expedition. I have eight hours of video and I'm aiming to make an hour film. Since I only have limited space on the Google server this video will only be available a limited time. I know the video quality is not that great, that's why you need to see my movie when it's finished.

Fear and Relaxing in Pakistan

Pakistan is a scary place. At least it was for me and I am pretty sure that after this experience traveling in any third world country will be less stressful.

It started in Islamabad. I was terrified that everyone was a terrorist because so many people wear shalwar chamises and having never seen someone in person wear one before it took a few days to get used to it. Finally I realized that a shalwar chamise is the only thing everyone wears and most people were very friendly. Then there was the the two day bus ride to Skardu. Twice I saw anti-American and Israeli graffiti and we saw a tank and passed close to the Swat valley. Additionally, the whole time we're above the Indus river which is utterly terrifying and we're flying around these corners without guard rails 500 feet above the river. There was no way I could sleep. My face was glued to the window the whole time my side of the bus was closest to the river. Then in Skardu I had a 15 minute walk back to the hotel once alone. It was broad daylight but still I just felt like ma car would drive up and I would get pushed into the back seat and wake up chained in the corner of a dark room. That's ridiculous because Skardu is quite safe but it was what I was thinking.

Then when you're on the glacier there is always a fear that you will fall into a crevasse or slip on the ice and just scrape yourself up. Crossing little streams jumping from one piece of ice to another is not fun. The past few days when I was in Rocky Mountain National Park crossing streams on dirt and rocks and wood was a piece of cake compared to crossing a glacier. That fear also pales to the fear on the mountain. There is always something to fear on the hill. On the fixed lines there is the fear that the four people jugging up a 200 meter section will pull the one piton holding it in out of the rock or that the braided Korean rope rubbing over another rock will just break. While soloing I couldn't help but think that a fall of any sort would result in a quick return to base camp. It was easy soloing but it was still scary because the result of a fall would be bad. At camp after having a headache I was always scared that I didn't drink enough and would get HACE in the middle of the night or something. Then there was the danger of avalanches because we headed up several slopes that had some recent snow and once between camp one and two I was sure that there was going to be an avalanche so I pulled the fixed ropes out of the snow for 200 meters by myself. Then there was always the constant threat of bad weather. Good weather consisted of 30 mph winds and clouds above 7500 meters. Our team had several windy nights on the mountain where the fear of flying off the ridge was real. We never had a tent buckle or fly away but when the tent is flapping like crazy in even 30 mph winds you just don't know what's going to happen. At base camp we sat around and listened to the avalanches every few minutes while we played cards ignoring all but the loudest cracks and booms after the first week. Even there at base camp there was a fear that something bad would happen. Base camps have been wiped out and dozens killed by avalanches. There was the fear that something would happen on the mountain and we wouldn't be able to climb any more and our gear we had left up there would all be lost.

When I went down the mountain for the last time and got to base camp I finally relaxed. I no longer had to worry about falling, avalanches, rock fall, wind, snow, crevasses, ice, stream crossings, and the altitude. On the trek out I relaxed more and more as our elevation dropped and we started walking on solid ground for the first time in five weeks. On the jeep ride out I almost slept. Had it been dark I probably would have. We were still bouncing along dirt roads close to the edge of a road above a river with no guard rail but compared to everything that had happened to me in the preceding six weeks it was safe enough I could sleep. It was the same on the way out in Skardu and Islamabad I slept about 11 hours each night. If you really want to relax don't vacation on a mountain above a glacier, unless you like to relaxed after being scared sick for an extended period of time.



(The picture was taken on the hike out half way between Concordia and Ali camp. The rock is the size of a bus it was four feet off the ground on right and in the middle it was maybe 20 feet off the ground. We walked right beside it hoping the ice wouldn't melt in the 20 seconds it took to get around it.)

My Pakistan Trip Report is Up!

It's posted on Summitpost. Read my tale here. Now there is a lot missing, and there aren't many pictures so I apologize in advance. If anyone has any questions just post a comment, preferably on my blog. 

Well, I'm off to Colorado for a few days to run up some 13 and 14,000 foot mountains then I will head back to Massachusetts and school. I imagine I'll be back in Worcester by the 14th. Maybe earlier. 

Back in the USA

I'm back home safe and sound in my home in Wisconsin. So far I've been mildly productive working on the laundry and watching 4 hours of film so far. A lot of the video is at terrible angles or very shaky so it isn't the greatest but here and there there are sections that are  quite good. I think I have around seven hours total along with 150 pictures or so. Between all of the days in Skardu, Islamabad and then Dubai adjusting to the US hasn't been very hard at all. It's quite nice to be back. There are things that stand out. When people comment about the terrible roads here in Wisconsin, I'm in a little bit of disbelief because it is as smooth as glass compared to Pakistan. There are a few other things as well: never doubting if the food will make you sick, always having a seatbelt, have safe to drink running water, steak, and ice are a few that come to mind.

Here is a preview of things to come on this blog: (Masherbrum from Goro 2 on the trek into Broad Peak basecamp)