The Best Laid Schemes

TRIPLE CROWN TRAINING. When it comes to plans for my Triple Crown climbing day; as Robert Burns said “The best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley”. Fitting I should use a quote from the famous Scottish poet because the demise of my best laid plans for the Triple Crown is a 6- week closure to access of the climbing route for Mount Lady MacDonald which I discovered on Thursday as I went for a planned training climb. They are doing major construction nearby which includes blasting of rock which seems like a very good reason to keep people away. However as far as my plan goes; Aye laddie, back to the drawing board I go!

My next idea was to substitute Grotto Mountain into the plan instead of Lady Mac but that grand idea died after Saturday when I climbed Grotto in 5 hours and imagined what it would be like to follow that climb up with 2 more mountains- not a good idea. Grotto Mountain would add another 600 feet of vertical to the total vertical climbing but the real challenge it creates is it is much steeper and trickier to manage, particularly on the way down.  My conclusion was it would be very bad idea to try and climb it and the other two mountains in one day!

My second alternative is to add Windtower to complete the Triple Crown. Windtower is quite close to Canmore and the other two peaks I’m planning to climb so the logistics of getting to all three in one day work well. It involves an up and down of about 4- 5 hours with a vertical climb of approximately 3300 feet which is less than Lady Mac but still significant in its own right and very significant when considered in combination with the other two mountains.

My training plan is to pre-climb Windtower this week (did it successfully on Sunday) to see how long it takes me (about 4 hours), how hard it is on me (hard enough!) and where in the climbing order (first or last- it will be first) I should put it. In addition, I plan to climb the East End of Rundle and Ha Ling Peak in one day so least I have the experience of climbing two peaks in one day before I attempt all 3 in one day.

I have a tee shirt which sums up what I will need to do in training over the next week “Suffer now, Summit later” and remember a bit of suffering is worth it considering the cause and the hope what we raise together will lessen suffering for someone who has MS.