Climbing Mt. Rainier

Over the Labor Day weekend this year I had this wonderful opportunity to climb Mt. Rainier with some friends.

Some facts about Mt. Rainier from Wiki:

It is Washington's highest mountain. It is the 21st most prominent mountain in the world with an elevation rise of 13,211 feet from its nearest low point. It is the most glaciated mountain in the contiguous United States with 26 major glaciers as well as 35 square miles of glaciers and permanent snowfield

We went through a day of Glacier training, which was mostly about the techniques of walking on snow and ice with or without crampons. We also learnt how to climb up and come down steep slopes and how to arrest your own or a team members fall.I found out from first-hand experience that mountaineering is a hard job especially on the lungs and legs. Perhaps as one gets more efficient, it may get easier. It required a lot of physical ability, not just brute strength. Since leg muscles are almost always under strain, the trick was learning to take the rest step without stopping. Like swimming...the resting arm must learn to rest while getting to the next stroke sort of thing. All the training, like the climb was done with 50 lb+ backpacks.

The biggest blessing was that it was a great group. We laughed till it hurt....stupid jokes, making fun of people within the group kind of thing. The backpack that we had to carry up the mountain had the absolutely necessary stuff plus some potential emergency supplies, in case bad weather rolls in or one has to get involved in a rescue effort. To me it was all new. I soaked it in and got an appreciation and respect for the skills and abilities of real climbers. 

We climbed up about six to seven hours on day one and then woke up the middle of the night next day to make a summit attempt. Climbing in the dark with headlamps, Stars, Sunrise, Crevasses...were all out of a storybook. Unfortunately due to a 25-30 ft.Crevasse on the higher reaches that made the route impassable, we could not actually summit and the party had to return to the safety of the base camp after a few hours of climbing up and then coming back down.

They say that summit is for the ego, climbing is for the soul. I got a good sense what they mean. After a challenging climb, throwing down the backpack and taking a break while looking at this incredible vista...it does feed your soul. Having one’s friends around who are going through the same pain and pleasure is a the ultimate bonding exercise.

The mountain has stood like this forever, approachable, accessible even inviting for all who are willing to make the effort...sort of like life's real challenges. Lot of preparation, guidance, teamwork, luck...and then it is just gaining one firm footing after another on the slopes. Every step counts, not just your own but that of everyone that you are roped to. That’s how you get to the top.

A race to remember

So why is a marathon 26.2 miles? Well because 26.3 will be ridiculous; so goes the part funny and part true joke amongst runners.

My second Marathon which also happened to be one where my goal was not to merely complete but also to finish in a certain time, ended up being one to remember.  I fared rather poorly based on my time expectation vs. outcome but I ended up being content with the result of being placed in the top quartile in my age-group.

So why do they do it. Why do hundreds of thousands of runners, pay good money, travel big distances, train in all sorts of weather conditions, manage work and home schedules to finally show up on race day to face several hours of grueling effort, only to walk away with a measly finisher’s medal. It is an interesting question, isn’t it.  What is it that is so compelling about endurance sports after-all? Bragging rights? Self-actualization? Serotonin kick addiction? camaraderie with fellow runners? Mid-life crises? I have received all these and many other answers when I have posed this question to others. In my case perhaps all these are true to varying degrees. However a huge driver for me and many others is always the engagement with sports as a valuable aspect of life. It is and has always been an exercise in feeling alive and happy and fulfilled. Endurance sports especially to me, is an arena where the fears are real and pain is felt in real time. The pain of sore legs while trying to finish the mile in few seconds less is not imaginary. It is felt by the organism and every aspect of the organism clamors to pull back from the activity that is producing the pain. In endurance sports the organism must learn to listen to a different voice. He must learn to drown the din that is calling him to stop in “Hope”. Hope of seeing the finish line. Hope of overcoming his lesser self. Hope of the finishers medal. Hope…The Organism must engage his higher faculties and act Human.

I try to keep my senses alert for learning something new at every event.  This event was no different. While I ran and my mind wandered on its own journey, I figured that all of us have “thresholds” and sports allows us to test them and perhaps push them further...much like building any other capabilities. Whether it is training for a 100 m sprint or a 100 mile race, there comes a point when there is a haze of discomfort that wants us to stop. However, if we bring our attention to it and identify the specific reason for that discomfort...i.e  pain in the legs or breathlessness and ask ourselves.."can I handle this?", we realize that the pain is after-all not so onerous and that we could still push faster or farther as the case may be. This may allow that moment to pass when we falter in our resolve and give up. Then we are good for another leg of the race. This of course can be applied in our real lives also. Dis-aggregating the challenge and looking it in the eye for what it really is, makes our problems lesser in some way.  Knowledge of what one specifically fears or what specifically hurts allows us to manage it much better than a broad overarching feeling of it.

The fun about participating is that that every race is different and exciting in its own way. This particular one had more women participating in it than men and for those who care…the average time for women was lesser than that of men. I rationalized it by the fact that perhaps more of them were younger. Overall though it was exciting to see so many people engaged in this cool event which was The Atlantic City Marathon 2013. The runners even had a billboard greeting them while we entered the city. The race started on the boardwalk and ended on the boardwalk. The contrast between the appreciation of life and its meaning could be felt clearly between the sprightly steps of runners getting ready for the start and the lumbering ones of gamblers who were ambling out of the casinos in the wee hours of the morning after pulling an all-nighter. To each his own I guess. Which one would you pick though?