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Friday night I went to bed a bit apprehensive. Saturday morning I woke up wide eyed saying to myself “I’m climbing a mountain today”.
I’m more sore today, Sunday, than I have every been in my entire life. I literally had a hard time rolling over in bed last night. But I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the challange. I’m going to post photos in the gallery this morning and will try to comment on most of them. My mother-in-law was right, people are crazy to try to climb Mt. Adams in one day. I went almost 2 miles up! At nine thousand feet I was starting to feel pretty sore. The muscles at the top of my thighs that help lift my legs were going fast. So I had to go from 9,000 to 12281 with very little stops so that I wouldn’t tighten up too much and cramp up.
From 9,000 feet to the false summit, it is just plain brutle. A lot of it is 45 degrees+ and you just have to take a step at a time. I did not prepare my body enough for this hike. I ran and biked for three weeks, than took a week off before the hike. But I should have ran more and I definitely should have gone on a couple of hikes in the gorge to prepare my “hiking” muscles.
The top of the mountain wasn’t quite as euphoric as I anticipated. It was very cold, and I was having a very difficult time walking. But it was a good feeling and the view was incredible. Hood, Helens, Ranier and even Jefferson and Sisters were in view. I want to thank Doug Hazen for letting me join the team going up. Thanks to my wife for letting me go and spend so much money on socks and cliff bars. Thanks to the two that made it to the top with me first (Abbie and Joel), if you two wouldn’t have pushed to the top, I would’ve had to stop more and never would have made it. Thanks to Travis our Guide for being an incredible climber and for helping us reach the top! Thank you God for perfect, awesome weather!
Friday night, I was worshippig with some people at Trout Lake Camp and we sang the song that has the following lyrics:
“Mountains Bow Down and the Seas will Roar at the Sound of Your Name”.
Mt. Adams is a proud looking mountain when you drive to it. But it’s power is in full submission to it’s creator. It could tumble and fall at one word from our savior Jesus Christ!
