Advice from Everybody!

If there is something people like to give, it's advice. I am guilty too. One of the strange things I have encountered in my recent public quest to summit Everest is that many people have advice for me.  In part I am seeking it out. For example, I talked to the premier high altitude no bottled oxygen mountaineer about Everest, and he recommended not going in the first wave, because everyone goes then. I talked to others about how to train, and they recommended stairs and hills, which no one had specifically mentioned before.

People have been giving me advice about how I run too much for years.

In the engineering world, everyone has an opinion. I actually have a pending opportunity where I need to make a decision at work, at some point, and I have been doing other things, maybe subconsciously delaying making the decision. Regardless of the decision, someone will be unhappy. I'm not the best at disappointing people. I consider it a character flaw actually.

So often it seems the advice we want we can't get and the advice we get we don't want.

For the record don't lead your advice with "I don't care, but…"

There is no real summary to this idea that we get advice from everyone. I mean, when you have valid advice, by all means don't hold back, let people know. People obviously give advice based on something, even if that is a book they read eight years ago or a five minute segment they saw on the news three years ago. It can just be overwhelming sometimes. Making a decision based on a number of opinions or not clear facts, is hard. Yet that is what white collar work is, making decisions. We don't always make the best decisions, and it seems we make quite a few of them.

What do you think?

Short Term Sacrifices, Long Term Rewards

As I make the rounds and people ask, "are you really going to climb Mt. Everest?" I have to answer that I am, and after they ask I tell them it is expensive. A fair percentage of people are saying, "that makes sense why you drive that van." Yes it does.

We all make sacrifices. We sacrifice one thing to have another. We sacrifice time with this group to have time with that group. Time with this person to spend more time with that person. Money on this thing instead of money on that thing. You can't have everything. You can have more than you can use, but you can't have it all. Honestly, if you live a long life you have maybe 2.5 billion seconds on the earth. That is not enough time to tell everyone in the world help in their own language one at a time. We are all giving up time with those people we have never met to spend more intimate time with those we have.

The idea of today is that short term sacrifice often come with long term rewards. Skipping one night of watching reruns to watch a friend's kid for an hour is a small sacrifice if it might mean I can positively influence a young person. Driving around in the second worst vehicle in the parking lot for a few years may be humbling when my coworkers are getting into much newer and nicer vehicles, but if it means I get to spend nine weeks at Mt. Everest trying to climb to over 29,000 feet, it's a good deal.

The world is full of things like this. I don't always want to go out and run, but running day after day has consistently allowed me to run races faster as friends retire their racing shoes. Saving a little money every paycheck in the case I get layed-off is a huge benefit. Going to the dentist to get fillings is not pleasant, but compared to having a root canal or a tooth fall out (neither have I experienced) is a small sacrifice.

Success, at relationships, running, engineering, speed skating, and just about anything is based on frequent small sacrifices of other things that in the moment might be more interesting, but in the long run do no compare at all to the success of a larger goal. That's what I want to encourage, going after the greater goal even, and especially, when it means you have to give up a whole bunch of little satisfactions. Hang in there! Go running on the day you don't feel like it! Tell your significant other "I'm sorry" the next time you neglect her, and then take her out for dinner. Don't go buy a new car the month you get your old car paid off. I find, that delayed gratification often makes the experience more memorable. In other words, I appreciate my job more than many, maybe even most, engineers because I know that it took over 400 applications and 57 weeks to get here. I also enjoy my running so much because it has taken me so long to see the level of success I see.

Make short term sacrifices and receive long term rewards.

Day Three Without Coffee

Once again I am taking a week off of coffee. I am still drinking tea, but that has somewhat less caffeine than the standard coffee. Day three is usually the crux. The day when my body thinks, 'but coffee tastes good too, and you know it will make you feel better!' However, I fear the dependent feeling on any substance. So two or three times a year I go a week without coffee. It keeps my caffeine tolerance low, saves me a little money, and give coffee that much more of a kick when I do drink it again.

I Live in Iowa: Week 139

Another week of only spending about 16 hours actually in Iowa. Despite the time away from home overall, I had a really had a great week.

While there is much to tell I'm going to tell it in reverse order because that's how I am thinking of it now. Saturday night when I was back in Dubuque after all of the traveling and everything that happened I watched Elysium and had a good cry at the end of the movie. The movie is a metaphor on several levels for different circumstances in life. Then I slept for 15 hours. I did have an ibuprofen which certainly kept me down. The point is my last two weeks were long and physically tiring. So tiring that I have a case of runners knee because I have not been doing the squats I need to eliminate this injury. Go hard enough and something has to break.

That's a long way of saying my brain needed to flush the pain, not just mine but other's, of this life though a 15 hour sleep. 

Friday and Saturday I drove back from Colorado, spending the night sleeping in my van in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I think the 2700 miles I drove in the last two weeks are responsible for the runners knee in my right leg. I think when I push on the accelerator my leg rotates counter clockwise and my knee moves toward my midline. Both motions accelerating the overuse and strengthening of the wrong muscles in my leg, thus an injury. Otherwise despite the consistent 20-30 mph crosswinds the trip was uneventful. 

Thursday night I had dinner with a good friend and her boyfriend. I was there to help her during a vulnerable period in her life in 2010 and somehow or other I helped her. Very few people can I definitely admit to having a positive effect on, but she is one of them and I am grateful that I have had that chance in life. 

Thursday was the day I went out there for, a long day on steep ground. It was pure mountaineering. Mostly time spent on snow and ice with an hour maybe on rock. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the best parts. I crossed a snow field at nearly 13,000 feet that was surely 50 degrees of waist deep snow that I groveled through. Add to that there was a steeper section just below me and a fall or miniavalache would have surely ended me. Then I tackled a rock section that was supposed to be class three but I quickly ended up in the wrong place and did a class four move to a location that only had harder climbing above. At that point I had enough and decided to head down. When soloing you have to be totally within your abilities and crampons scraping around on rocks with a long fall and no protection to speak of gets in my head. So I headed down, which actually meant more steep down climbing than my planned route, which is actually better for my training than a hard climb and easy descent. This one day gives me a lot of confidence that I can tackle very steep sections on Everest. 

The day before, New Year's Day I spent sleeping, going out for breakfast, running and otherwise laying around my friend's house. Thank you T! My friend who offered up his couch was really nice about it all those nights I slept at his place. He is a defense layer in Denver and we had a number of good chats about difficulties in life we have encountered since joining the professional world. In short, student loans = not fun and intimate relationship with a woman = complicated.

New Year's Eve day I tried to climb Mt. Meeker but before getting through treeline the winds were gusting to 50+ mph and visibility was low as well so I called it a day without even putting my crampons on. 

Monday I tried to climb Dragon Tail Couloir on Flattop Mountain, but same story with the winds although I ultimately turned around because I didn't like the feel of the snow conditions in regards to an avalanche. Climbing, mountaineering, you put yourself out there and take on a certain level of risk, different for everyone but an acceptable level. You can fail time and again at the objective if the risk climbs too high. That is the nature of the sport. Between winds and avalanche conditions it is surprising that mountains like Annapurna or those in Patagonia are ever climbed. I also went hot tubing Monday night, pretty awesome!

Sunday I went to church at Bethlehem Lutheran in Denver. I have to say the head pastor there is above average in terms of sermon relevancy. Some pastors give sermons and I don't know what to make of them, other say things and I think, 'wow that is me he is talking about, I can do better.' After church I worked my way up through Denver and Boulder buying some gloves and tights. Expedition shopping is strange. Money loses much of its meaning. What is $120 for a pair of gloves if it means I keep every one of my fingers? Climbing an 8000 meter peak is in some ways just like any other mountain, cold and windy. Yet it is also hard to breathe up there so it is harder to stay warm. That does not mean it is impossible to stay warm, and there is the challenge, how much do you need to stay warm without carrying 40 lbs. of clothing or sweating profusely?

I hope you had a good week too.

Mountaineering Solo

Mountaineering alone is hard. First of all, there is no one else to break trail. Every single knee deep step in the snow has to be done alone. Secondly, if anything goes wrong there is absolutely no one within hearing distance. Yesterday I was probably one to two miles away from the nearest human the entire day over very rugged terrain. There is a mental challenge to being out there that is both rewarding for every step that I take, and also scary because I know I have to do things perfect. No one would have even attempted to find me until today had anything gone wrong.

The South Face of Mt. Quandry's West Ridge January 2nd, 2014

I have some interesting videos I took and I'll get around to editing and releasing them this weekend probably. The point is, it's hard climbing alone. Both from the mental difficulty and physical safety point of view as well as the physical work point of view. I turned my GPS watch on when I left my car yesterday, the battery died after four hours, but in that time my heart rate averaged 137, including the stops I took to put on more clothing and my crampons. I like to imagine I kept close to that intensity the whole eight hour day because I was post holing up to my waist on the descent just like on parts of the climb. That's a pretty sustained hard effort.

Mt. Quandry's West Ridge

I really enjoy a solo adventure every now and then. I like the feeling that it is just me responsible for the climb. I have been thinking about Mt. Everest all week, and I thought about it a lot yesterday too. I had to break trail, climb without ropes, route find, and carry all of my own equipment. Mt. Everest will be totally different. I doubt I will ever, in the whole nine weeks, be more than 100 meters away from multiple people, have to break trail, climb without a fixed line, or carry much more than my clothing and sleeping bags.

In climbing and mountaineering the ability to do something is largely based on the confidence to just try it. Confidence is typically increased by having other people around, by having ropes, by a beaten trail, and not having to carry all of the equipment. As I compare this past week of training to the likely experience of Mt. Everest, in some respects, yesterday was harder. There was no fixed line for me like I anticipate on Everest, a fall might have been 1000 feet down. I had to do all the trail breaking. On Broad Peak one day I did about 200 meters of breaking trail up the fixed lines that had been buried by a snow storm a few days before. It was terribly exhausting! You try breaking trail at 19,000 feet! On Everest there will be so many climbers that I do not anticipate ever being the one out in front breaking trail. I would enjoy it if I was, but the reality is I doubt I will be. At the point yesterday when I pulled a class four move over some blocks and knew I was in the wrong place, there was fear about which way to go. On Everest I really really doubt I will ever get off route. In fact, I have heard that in places they even have two up (ascending climbers) fixed lines and one down (descending climbers) fixed line to accommodate all the people. The Hillary Step has an up and a down line. Try getting lost with three ropes all going the same direction. Finally, for every hard section I anticipate crossing there will be someone else around me to discuss with, probably to watch that person tackle the difficult portion, or at least to help me if I screw up and get hurt. That is so different from being at 13,000 feet more than a mile over rugged terrain from the nearest person.

Mountaineering solo is hard, but in the hardest endeavors we often find the most satisfaction. Don't only do what is easy, do what is hard. 

Three Climbs and Zero Summits

Well, my climbing is done for the vacation. I tried three different days to scramble up some moderately difficult routes and never got to the top of any. However! They were great training. I'll talk more in the next few days, for now enjoy my next car!

A Pinzgauer

Happy 2014!

2014. Ten years since I graduated high school. It is strange to think of it. I mean, through life there is always another goal, another thing to do. Many of the things I thought about when I was younger are now done. I have my two college degrees, I have an interesting well paying job. I have done some traveling. It just seems like I could wake up tomorrow and it would be 2024 and I would have less change, less growth, to show in my life than the last 10 years. 

The truth is, we don't know what the next ten years will bring. Growth and change are also not mandatory. Yet the process of development is so much fun that I fear no longer developing. 

Despite my desire to develop, I am afraid to publicly mention my goals (New Year's resolutions) for 2014. Anytime goals are mentioned to some extent they seem conceited. Like if I said I wanted to pay off my student loans in 2014 one could argue it must be nice to have so few loans. To be honest, it is nice to have a fraction of the loans others have. Yet the $400 per month I pay is annoying and I would like to pay them off. I could also say I want to arrive at June with no frostbite or brain damage from Everest and one could say I am an idiot for even putting myself in the position to get hurt like that. I suppose that the haters are right, but without opening yourself to vulnerability of getting hurt it is hard to have really fulfilling experiences, wether that is climbing a mountain or in a relationship or leading something. 

2014 seems to be starting off on a quiet note, but I think it will be a memorable one for life changing events.