Mt. Adams Adventure

At the beginning of the year I started my "2016 list", things on my list include : Backpack the Kalalau Trail, go sky diving, get a tattoo, CLIMB A MOUNTIAN. Basically anything pushing myself outside my comfort zone. Honestly, I didn't think I was going to cross "Climb a Mt"off my list this year, so when my neighbor Vicki called and said "Want to climb Adams with me?" I jumped at the opportunity.

I had a little over a month to get myself ready. I got busy with a couple trips and a lot of excuses and didn't end up doing much training during the month. As the climb got closer, my anxiety level increased. I'd never done anything like this before so I had no idea what to expect and if you know me at all you know, I'm a control freak and I like to know what I'm getting into.

A couple days before the climb my neighbor and I went to the Mountain Shop to rent our equipment.
I have hiking boots but I thought I needed something a little more sturdy to opted to rent boots (this would prove to be a mistake), crampons, and an ice axe. I was ready.

The day of the climb Vicki and 2 of her hiking buddies came and picked me up and we were off!
We drove about 2 hours to the Ranger Station to meet up with the rest of the group and get our permits. There were 18 people in our group. 18!



I felt really good as we started our hike to base camp, that feeling was fleeting. As we came to our first stop I could feel the "hot spots" on the back of my heels signifying the beginning of what would be 2 of the most glorious blisters to grace my feet. By the 2nd stop I had 2 gigantic full fledged blisters. Now this is not my first rodeo, I know when you start feeling hot spots you should stop and tape but my ego and stubbornness got the best of me and I thought "I'll just take care of it at base camp". After a couple detours to lose my lunch I slowly made my way up the last stretch and stumbled into base camp, wrecked.

I set up my tent as quickly as I could, zipped myself inside and began having a meltdown. I sent a couple "I don't think I can do this" texts. I knew how bad my feet were but was trying my hardest to pretend I was good. I decided the best course of action was for me to sleep it off. We had a 3am wake up call and I was deteremined to summit this Mt.. Fast forward 8 hrs later, I'm suited up, crampons on, ready to tackle this Mt., I got about 20 ft up the Mt before it was painfully clear that this wasn't happening for me. My blisters were bad, where the crampons clipped into the boots were digging right into them. I haven't been that disappointed in while, I HATE not finishing things.

I had a lot of time to think as I lay in my wind battered tent. I was battling myself  "Could I have done it?", "Is this the right choice?", "Is everyone going to think I'm a quitter?", I beat myself up for hours, then suddenly. Peace. I'm a very stubborn person, I often take things to far to prove I can do anything, sometimes to the point of bad decision making. Turning around was hard for me, I considered my physical predicament, it was dark on the mountain

so if I had to turn around I would be wandering down the Mt in the dark by myself. I thought about Noah. It was the right decision for me.

While I was up there my dad sent me text that said "Your best is good enough", and that stuck with me. Last year I would have never dreamed I would be sleeping in a tent I assembled on the side of a mountain. I learned some valuable lessons on this adventure, don't rent boots, stop and tape your blisters, and YOUR BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH =)