Roadblocks

For me to get to the top of Mt. Hood and back home safe to my family, I need a body I can trust. But right now, my it's in dismal shape. Yet I don’t have any disease or disorders. I don’t have chronic pain. I would not need a doctor’s clearance to start any new physical routine. I could theoretically take up a new sport. Theoretically, I could kick Joe’s ass in tennis once again.  

Even so, there are many roadblocks in my way. Can I really share my long list of excuses? The list that rolls over in my mind, runs on a loop while I’m at work, while I sleep, while I drive to Dairy Queen at 8 pm at night for a butterscotch dipped cone.

Here goes.

I am too busy.  
I can’t afford to join a gym. 
I have to choose between writing and exercising.
I have to choose between exercising and spending time with the kids.
I can’t breathe through my nose.
I am uncoordinated.
I don’t like to compete.
I don’t have good tennis shoes.
I don’t like to be around other people while they sweat.
I don’t like to sweat. 
I don’t like the way sweat smells.
I don’t like to get heated up.
I love to cook comfort food.
I love to eat comfort food.
I have to cook for my family.
I am too busy to make two meals.
I can’t afford to cook two meals.
I feel like I’m going to die when I’m on a diet.
Food on demand feels like love.
Food on demand has brought fifty unnecessary pounds and high cholesterol.

These excuses need to be answered, one by one if necessary.

11,239 feet...pshaw

I'm reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  I hadn't felt compelled to read this bestseller before now, but since I'll be a mountaineer come next April (smile), I thought it should make my list.  

It's a good read so far, though I wish there were more sensory details.  I'm about halfway in and I haven't felt the sub-zero temperatures.  Nor have I smelled the glaciers.  But maybe that will come?

In any case, this book is offers great perspective.  Mt. Hood is no Everest.  A piece of cake by comparison.  Easy as pie.  A walk in the park.  Like a knife through hot butter.  Climbing Mt. Everest is something entirely different.  I can only imagine what might fuel such an undertaking—insanity, obsession, a colossal ego, expendable fortunes, an expendable life?

The climb from Timberline Lodge to the summit is a short three mile climb.  5000 feet are gained in those three miles, but still.

Today's hike will be Triple Falls in the Gorge.  It's a little over four miles with a 740 feet elevation gain.  Gotta start somewhere.  

Why?

Why the need to climb to the top of Mt. Hood?  I don’t want to dominate or conquer the mountain like an extreme sports enthusiast.  I don't really like to take risks or feel adrenaline pump through my body.  I think I would like to see the view from the top though.  Maybe that’s what I’m looking for on my fortieth birthday—perspective?  Maybe I’ll catch a peek of what the second half of my life will be?  Yes, I think that’s it.

It's a Start

Today I am 39 years old, with an emphasis on OLD.  Today I have exactly one year to get myself ready to climb to the summit of Mt. Hood, something I have wanted to do for a very long time.  Probably since my friend climbed it in high school and I was surprised at my jealousy.  Or maybe it goes back to when I was eight and my family moved from Southern Oregon to the Portland suburb of Gresham that's well within view of the mountain. 

I love Mt. Hood, perhaps more than the average Oregonian.  I love that from a distance, the mountain is a near perfect white triangle in the winter and spring.  I love that it helps orient me wherever I am in Portland.  Mt. Hood equals east.  I love that it has been here waiting for me every time I've left and returned.  When I lived in California for three terrible years as a teenager, the sight of Mt Hood out the airplane's thick elliptical windows made my heart beat fast each time I came back to visit.  It signaled that I was nearly home.  Like a billboard, but so much better.  A beacon or search light.  Mt. Hood found me and I had found home once again.

On the drive up highway 26, when you round the bend past Shorty's Corner and clear the thick evergreens lining the sides of the four lane road, the mountain looks so close it startles me every time, fills the view through my windshield, and takes my breath away.  Massive beauty, overwhelming power, the earth shoots towards the sky.  

So to mark my 40th birthday, I've set the intention that I will climb to the summit of Mt. Hood.  I've said it out loud.  My training schedule has started to take shape.  I will hike this Saturday and the next Saturday and the next 50 Saturdays leading up to April 23, 2013.