Mount Whitney Means
The idea of summiting Mount Whitney via the East Buttress is driving 2016. Each day that goes by, the peak and the route are always there. Up there in the gorgeous thin air, some serious energy output is gonna go down.
When things get quiet in the San Diego world, my mind can be found running a visualization of the climb, thinking through the gear, taking inventory of my fitness and confidence, thinking through the psychology of the team and the various scenarios that can present themselves.
Moderate trad climbing has been the holy grail for me and my climbing for about 10 years. My oldest son is 9. So, that means I climb multi-pitch maybe every other month if I am lucky. And to boot, my divorce was final in April, yet somehow the daily practice of training and climbing has given me a higher purpose. 2016 will be more than “the year I was divorced”.
Preparing for the climb has dropped my weight into the 170′s for the first time since college, and I have never been so in love with the act of running. When you can’t climb every weekend, losing weight and staying lean pays dividends. Not typical running, because my ankles can’t take the impact. I run the Coronado sand dunes every morning. Point Loma, the ocean, The Hotel del Coronado. Stretching on the same set of stairs. Pushing my cardiovascular limits.
Ultimately Mount Whitney means going there and doing it, but I think the larger significance lies in the discovery that the benefits of training for such a goal has the power to sculpt my life and to create new possibilities for my life.
