Getting in Gear

It’s high time that I review the gear I mentioned back in…when was that?
So, the Gregory pack, Black Diamond poles, MHW Cohesion shell, TNF jackets, Asolo boots, MHW gators, and Smartwool long underwear all worked great up to 14,270ft and 0* not including windchill. The MHW Cohesion pants were not great for the cold even with a base layer beneath them. Also, they trapped moisture inside of them, which seems pretty self-defeating for a waterproof pant.

So, I went with The North Face Sth ski pant. They’re actually pretty stylish, even though I’m not supposed to care, I do actually care. The inside has a fleece lining and they’re fairly breathable. Considering that they are for skiing, the style is versatile enough to be used for hiking in cold, windy conditions. The only reason they aren’t perfect is the lack of side zippers for venting and removing boots.

After hearing tale after tale about the freezing temperatures above 15,000 ft. I caved and bought a down coat and mittens. I’m sure I’ll thank myself in 5 weeks, but this gear is adding up. At least I know I’ll use it again in Colorado.

I chose this Rab Ascent down coat because it was on sale, and because it has a down filled hood. It’s 650 down fill instead of 850 or higher. The brand and the coat have gotten solid reviews, excluding more than a few of them focused on getting mail, baking cookies, and walking the dog in comfort, so it will certainly be better than nothing. I’ve spoken to a few people who have made this trek and their advice is to have one on hand, if not for hiking then to wear in camp so you don’t have to go to bed just to get warm. Part of what I’m looking forward to on this trek is meeting people, so I’d hate to miss out on staying up to talk during the evening.

A fellow hiker recommended these 3-finger ‘lobster’ mittens from Hestra Heli. I’m looking for warmth and dexterity. These were well reviewed and also on sale at Backcountry.com. Hopefully I’ll get to test all of this gear on some cold climbs in the next few weeks before we depart for Tanzania. I can’t believe I’m running out of time to get everything together. 5 weeks until we leave!

P.S. Emily, I promise to post a modeling shot when I get my coat

 

How to Climb a Rope

When I was little we had a climbing rope attached to a cottonwood tree in our back yard. It was yellow and prickly. Climbing up it was easy except for the few splinters that got embedded in my hands. I’ve maintained the idea of myself as a nimble rope climber since then despite the fact that I haven’t climbed one in something like 20 years.

Sometime during the beginning of this year, I dropped in on the students while they were learning to climb the rope in gym. Since I was such a good climber (breath on nails and polish on shirt), I thought I’d show them how easy it was to get to the top. I grabbed on to the rope and struggled for purchase with my feet. I slipped down and tried again. My body was nimble like a slab of beef. Finally, I gave up. Further attempts to climb it were made after school, and I repeated the progress of my first try.

On the last day of school this year, I decided to try again. My practice climbs still hadn’t gotten me very far, but since I’d failed, I wanted to show the kids a clear progression from failing to being successful at something. So I stopped by the gym and asked if I could climb. The kids were supportive, but they had good reason to doubt my ability. I clamped on with my hands and feet and pushed up. Then I repeated this move again and again until I touched the top of the rope. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t that hard. Maybe my technique improved, but I think more than anything that I just wanted to be successful. My initial confidence was based on the imaginary rope in my head, not the real one I was about to climb. I needed to try again and again, as much for physical readiness as for mental preparation. In the end, the kids didn’t actually care that I climbed it, so this lesson was really just for me.

I wish I’d seen this video ahead of time….

 

School’s Out

After 174 days of prodding, cajoling, crying and laughing; Yesterday was officially the last day of school for the year. You could say I skidded into the end, on my face. It’s like that every year. I sent my students out into the wide world knowing that in a few short days they will wish they were back in school. Here’s one parting message I shared with them:

Sure. That’s 100% pure, unadulterated teacher talk, but it’s all true. Most importantly, I know they were listening.

 

A Post Card to the World

Hands down, without a doubt the coolest part about blogging is interacting with people from all over the world, however accidental that interaction might be. I didn’t shake anyone’s hand, or learn any names, but information was exchanged from one culture to another.

I’m the kind of person who spends a good deal of spare time dreaming of places I’ve never been, and this wanderlust is only further fueled by seeing the flags from all parts of the globe that represent the people who have stumbled onto my blog. Maybe they were just Googling stain removal tips, or information about a Colorado vacation, but what they got was something different; a teacher in the USA telling a story.

I do wonder what they thought, if they stayed long enough to read. Did they wonder what Colorado is like? Have they ever climbed a 14er, or taught a bunch of kids? What is it like where they live? Is it cold, or pretty? What is their opinion about education in their country?

So, if you’ve stumbled onto this blog, I’m sorry that you have been sucked into the vortex of the internet without an answer to your search term. Please feel free to answer one or more of these questions, even if you hale from my neck of the woods. Otherwise, I’ll just have to keep wondering, or perhaps I’ll come see for myself.

P.S. Tanzania, I see that you’ve stopped by a time or two. Please tell me something, anything! I know so little about the place that you call home.

 

One Summit Leads to Another

Today I got to sleep in until 5:30AM before leaving to meet a fellow 5th grade teacher to hike up Gray’s Peak (14,270ft). It was steep and snowy. 7.5 miles round trip. As soon as we got to the top the people there asked if we were heading across the ridge to summit the other 14,000 ft mountain on the other side of the valley. Come on tough guys, can you give us one minute of glory for actually making it up this peak? I suppose not. Así es la vida. Up one mountain just to encounter another.

Gray’s Peak is the one covered in snow.

We saw several skiers heading down the slope.

Here’s Kurt tackling the snow.

These guys have the right idea.

That peak in the distance just looks like the top.

And we made it.

Here’s the sign and the way to Torry Peak. Maybe this summer I’ll be ready to take on two 14ers in one day.

 

Shoo, Blood Sucking Fly, Shoo

Apparently, a bite from the tsetse does more than just sting, it can kill you. Like many things, prior to this trip to Tanzania I had no idea what a tsetse fly was. To give credit where credit is due, the tsetse isn’t technically the problem. The real problem is a parasitic protozoa that causes trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. These protozoa hang out in the salivary glands of the tsetse waiting to be transferred into the human or animal through the fly bite. The resulting sickness doesn’t sound like any picnic I’d like to go on. It starts with joint aches and swollen lymph nodes, and can progress into permanent neurological damage as the protozoa bore their way into your brain. You’ll begin to develop headaches, anxiety, and, strangely, insomnia at night and drowsiness during the day. If you’re somehow able to ignore those warning signs, or unable to get treatment, it will eventually kill you.

“That’s fine,” I thought. “No worries. I’ll just get some DEET.” As it turns out, no cream or spray repels these hardy blood suckers. As I continued to read about them I found out that they are attracted to the color blue, and also purple, and sometimes red, and occasionally brown and/or khaki and black; anything that resembles a shadow. To put it another way, they are highly attracted to every thread of clothing I carefully selected to bring on this trip, and the only colors I look good in.

What is a girl on safari to do? According to my research, my options include: avoiding wooded and marshy areas; avoiding movement, such as riding in the back of a truck; staying in direct sunlight; and wearing thick, protective clothing. Short of these things, nothing will work.

Through this brief inquest, I conclude that I should avoid getting bitten at all costs.

Additional links to both intrigue and scare the bejeezus out of you:
The Disease the Makes People Zombies
Zebra Stripes Evolved to Keep Biting Flies at Bay

 

Déjà Vu

This place feels familiar.

A bonafide glutton for punishment, I decided to climb Bierstadt again today. Instead of a 9 hour round-trip like last Saturday, this excursion took 5.5 hours in total, 3 going up and 2.5 going down. I won’t bludgeon you with too many details, just a few key factors that made this trip far easier than the last time.

1) Guanella Pass was clear so we were able to drive right up to the parking lot.
2) It was not blowing and snowing.
3) I’ve walked a whole lot this week.
4) I ate and drank before we set out.
5) My mental bucket was full. I came expecting it to be a slog, but it wasn’t.

I’ve got just a few foggy pictures to share here.

From the base at 6:30AM. Forecast: Rain, thunder, and lightning. We saw none of those things.

The XSci Crew about 1/3 of the way up.

We had the summit to ourselves, but the view was…limited

 

The Week(s) in Review

Adding up the miles I’ve put on my feet in the last two weeks, the total comes to 60, not counting what I would normally walk in the course of a day and counting the day when I was too tired to walk and rode my bike instead. I took a few pictures along the way and I saw things both lovely and, frankly, disheartening. I’ll begin with the former.

I found these bleeding hearts near my school.

From my neighbor’s yard on the way home.

The view from aboard my 2009 Fat Tire Cruiser

The Viking is a bar reflected in the glass here. At 7:30AM I saw a man sitting by himself drinking a pitcher of beer.

I wonder if the owner is coming back for these.

Another day at 7AM, I saw a homeless man sitting by the road with a puppy in his lap scratching off a lottery ticket.

It’s so much easier to breeze down Colfax drinking my coffee and listening to NPR than to plod through miles of concrete jungle. There are beautiful things here, but I felt the hard reality of the lives of the people who live here weigh heavily on me as I passed by. This is the place my students call home, the better parts and the worse. I thought about the contrast between the purpose in my footsteps and this place my footsteps carried me through. I work here to be part of the solution, but I felt a chink in my armor seeing day-to-day life without the filter of glass and speed.

 

There’s Even a Medal at the Top

Mt. Bierstadt Summit Plaque

Today I did something I’ve done before, but this time was unlike the last time. I’ve climbed Mt. Bierstadt in the summer, but this spring climb required me to dig deeper than I usually have to. At 5:00AM yesterday morning a fellow XSci classmate and I set out for the 14,065 ft peak. We knew a couple things before we started: the weather forecast wasn’t good, the road was closed two miles below the trail head, and 4:30AM is way too early to get up on Saturday.

We left the parking lot at 6:30AM after donning warmer clothes. We thought it would rain, but hadn’t expected the wind and 30 degree temperatures. The hike up to the trail head was uneventful. My water system and the two bottles I brought had begun to freeze. We started off and traversed about a mile of fields, bushes, and frozen puddles. When we began to ascend, the cold and wind started to get the best of me. Usually I can turn my mind off, but I found myself focusing on my discomfort and the cold hours ahead of us. As the author of Kissing Kilimanjaro would say, ‘My mental bucket was low.’ I was tired, didn’t have warm enough gloves, and I hadn’t eaten much for breakfast. I didn’t consider turning back because of this, but the task of hiking up was more difficult because of my mindset.

The wind started to literally knock us around about midway up, and we agreed we’d need to turn around at some point to avoid being blown off the top, if we ever got there. Some places were covered in snow obscuring the trail making the walk uphill more difficult. My hiking partner offered me some water, and encouragement, but not too much. The weather began to clear by the time we were slogging our way up a snow field to the summit. Surprisingly, the top of the mountain was warmer than the bottom. There was barely a breeze and we had it to ourselves. We ate a snack and took some pictures before heading down.

It’s funny how short our stay was given all the effort it took to get up there. Our goal then became the parking lot on the other side of the valley. The hike down was long, pretty, and uneventful. The ice at the base had become mud inches deep that slowed us down a little and was a lot of fun to walk in. In all it took us six hours to get up and three hours to get back to the car.

The round trip mileage on this hike was 10.7 miles and, from the parking lot, about a 3,300 ft elevation gain. This should represent the hardest day we’ll face on Kili, except this day would follow four solid days of trekking and the elevation will be about 1 mile higher. Our breathing was labored at 14,065; I can only imagine what it will be like at 19,340. I know I will need to be mentally and physically stronger to meet this challenge. I still don’t know where my breaking point is. Like my climbing partner so aptly put it: “It isn’t about not summiting; it’s about not failing myself.” God (and body) willing, my final medal will be somewhere around 19,340 ft.

Cold and Windy

A cairn to mark the way

Cold, cold me

Looks pretty close, huh? It's at least an hour away.

The view from the top.

At the road closed sign again

 

Kili Porter Fund

This morning I read some inspiring advice from someone who’d just climbed Kili. Here’s what The Old Man had to say:

Donate your gear – a lot of it – to your porters. Sure, you’ll keep a little memento of summit day. But your heirs and the Smithsonian are not going to want your summit day boots, fleece, jacket, pack, gloves, hat, etc, etc, to memorialize your trek. The porters – who outnumber trekkers about 3 to 1 – who carried all your heavy overnight gear up to 15,500 feet (Kibo Huts) very much need what you can donate.

For the gear lottery at trail’s end, the porters snatched up my Goretex rain jacket, down jacket, headlamp, thermals, woolen socks, and more, before going for the cheaper, mundane items like water bottles. Your porters wished they could have been as warm, dry, and comfortable as you were. Tanzania has an average per capita annual income of $440 USD (2008); yup, $440. So, you can afford to give away a lot of what those porters cannot afford to buy, much less find in non-existent gear stores (regardless how well you tip them afterwards). [...] So give that gear to those who’ll remember you for it.

After reading that, I thought it unlikely the clothes off my back would fit my porter. Looking for the next best thing, I found a few nonprofits in Tanzania and Colorado that are seeking donations and couriers to bring already collected donations to Tanzania. I sent out an email to find out what items they need most. I admit that I have reservations about getting knee-deep in a project before the school year is out, but my conscience will get the best of me if I summit Kili in relative comfort alongside porters who don’t have proper clothing.

I spoke with the assistance group in Tanzania. Here’s what they said:
(All men’s sizes, large xl womens)
Boots
fleece anything
goggles and sunglasses
Thermal underwear

Gloves
Wool socks
Rain jacket, rain pants, poncho
snow pants
warm (down and or waterproof) jacket
Gators

*I will update this list as I find out about high need items

If you’re in the Colorado area and you’d like to donate, contact me and we can arrange a pick up. If you’re outside the area, please email me at: bohler.erin@gmail.com
Or you can contact these groups http://www.kiliporters.org/contact_us.php and http://kpap.atspace.com/partnerpage.htm to find out how you can help.
Assuming we are able to collect more gear than we can bring along personally in July, any additional clothing and gear will be donated to The International Mountain Explorers Connection.