Tomorrow I Climb

Hello friends. I hope you have enjoyed a great weekend. We are experiencing unseasonably hot weather (30 C plus) in the Bow Valley around Canmore. That’s great for going to Quarry Lake to enjoy the very fresh (translation cold) water and catch some sun. It’s not so great when you are planning to climb three mountains on Tuesday. More on that later.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE. As of now, we are at $20,710 which exceeds the original fundraising goal but leaves us with a little over $9,000 to reach the new goal of $30,000. I’m confident we still have some potential contributors who have not had a chance to click on “Donate” just yet so I believe we still have a great shot of reaching the goal and making an even bigger difference for some people.

MS INFORMATION. My sister shared a thought with me the other day which caused me to pause. Faye said what a difference it may have made in our mother’s life and outcome if she had access to some of the treatments which are available today for people with MS. To my knowledge there simply were no effective treatments for those diagnosed with MS 50 years ago when our mother was living with it. Your support will continue to assist in the development of new treatments and make existing treatments available to more people.

TRAINING UPDATE. The last few days have been a great part of the climb preparation as they have been rest and recovery days- no mountains to climb, no strenuous exercise and a focus on calorie input and hydration. The most I had in the past few days was chasing my 4 and 2- year old grandsons around- what a blast! Mentally I’ve been visually how the climbing day will go and it helps to recall past summit days like:

MOUNT FAYE IN 2018                                                            THE MATTERHORN IN 2017

 

Back to the weather, I will watch the forecasts closely but if the forecast continues to predict 30 C weather through the middle of the week; I will start as early in the morning as possible so I’m on the way up the first mountain by about 6:30 am. I might start earlier but I’d prefer to have good light so I can see who else is on the trail; which in all likelihood won’t be another human. As alpine climbing start times go this is quite reasonable as most start about 2 am; this is because the mountain weather is the most predictable and best early in the day.  The good news about the weather forecast is that other than heat there is no bad weather in the forecast right now. Tomorrow since I will have cell coverage on each summit so I plan to update with video clips from there. Hope you enjoy them.

Thanks again for your interest and your support of my fundraising and my climbing expedition and wish me the best,