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Showing posts from October, 2010

Better Safe than Sorry: Adventures on Mt. Rainier

A much delayed report, but here's what I remember, about a month later.... Well, skipping right to the climax of the story, we got to about 12,400' or so, only to have to turn back due to unacceptable avalanche danger. Our outstanding guides from RMI made the right call. But it was still disappointing. Especially since my original journey in mid-August was postponed due to my broken toe, and the weather would have allowed for a summit then. It was only the second trip up of 25 or more for our head guide, Brent Okita, over the summer of 2010 that didn't result in a summit for him and at least part of his party. But them's the breaks! Day 1: The 8 of us assembled at RMI headquarters about 20 minutes outside the park for the orientation and gear check with Brent. Turns out I'm with a group of 5 anasthesiologists from Chicago along with a friend of one of theirs from Florida. And then there is a separate group of equal size, composed of mostly women, with a different he

The Breathless Rockies: Mountains RATS race report

As posted to my Yahoo group on August 4th (never did get around to writing the longer report).... This is a not so short little recap before I prepare a more> organized report for my blog and post the pictures. Will give a> shout when that happens. And hopefully Brice can chime in with his> own take on things! You can see the final results, and some of the> racers' daily posts, at> http://www.geminiadventures.com/new/?page_id=374 > < http://www.geminiadventures.com/new/?page_id=374 >>> With me and stage races, I think it was love at first sight! Such> a cool format, combining friendly competition with camaraderie and> lots of emotional support. Really like a series of organized fun> runs, with some widely scattered checkpoints and unmanned water> spots. Time to hang out at camp each day and swap stories and get> to know each other (there were 11 runners here, and almost that> many race officials/organizers!).>> The Colorado