Race reports, adventures, travel, fun, misc...

Mt Everest at 29,000 ft above sea level is the holy grail of mountain climbing.  Undertaking an Everest expedition is a very expensive, complicated and time consuming endeavor so I decided to try one of the closer 7 peaks first.  To get ready I summited Mt Rainier (14,400 ft) in Washington in June 2012 (story here)  to see what mountaineering is all about.  I had a great experience and a McKinley 20,322 ft summit made the bucket list.   To get onto an expedition team I needed to complete a 4 day expeditions skills seminar first.  I completed that also on Rainier this past February and cemented my spot on the May 6th Denali expedition team.  The experience is really hard to put into words but I’ll do my best.  The team first met one another in Anchorage Alaska on Tuesday May 6th.  We loaded up a van with our personal gear and food and drove about 3 hours to a town called Telkeetna.   6 climbers and 3 guides made up the team. In no specific order it was myself 44, John 44 -  an Ortho

Ironman #3 is in the books. A little bitter sweet in that I had a really good race for the most part but still came in 56 seconds shy of a PR (personal record). Yes I'm very competitive against myself in these things. Cabo is a great setting for an Ironman. The course sandwiched between the Sea of Cortez and the mountains makes for incredible views throughout the day. Of course only if you can take your mind off the sufferfest you're in. Swimming directly into the sun for starters, 92* heat with zero cloud cover or shade through most of the day, and 6,000 feet of unrelenting hills on the bike. Logistics in Cabo are tough, everything is a hike. Renting a car which we did is highly recommended.  Without it getting around from registration, to bike check-in then bag drop offs (T2 different location from T1) would have been very tough.  The hotel was clueless about shuttles to the race or food availability for participants. The night before the race we f