My Everest Attempt
This weekend I embarked on my first 29029 Everesting event. My good friends, Thomas and Jen Zebley, have participated in this amazing organization for years and continued to invite me to this special event but I turned it down. Until I said “YES” because that is my motto.
Jackson Hole proved to be the most challenging 29029 in history as snow king mountain is one of the steepest ski areas in north america. The route was 1.1 miles of straight uphill with some steps requiring holding a rope. It was intense.
I trained by increasing my workouts, increasing my time on feet, increasing cardio and endurance activities on the stair-mill, treadmill, outdoor walks/runs and biking. Arriving to the site It was intimidating to see the steep face and terrain we would spend the next two days on. I was told to not think of the number of laps but just one step at a time.
At 6am and after another motivational kickoff from Colin O’Brady we were on the mountain beginning the climb with the goal of 19 laps to reach our everest. First lap was our quickest even with it being single file up the mountain. I learned quickly this was going to be tough.
SELF DOUBT ARRIVES…
By lap 5 the self doubt crept in. I started to contemplate if I could do 19 laps because my calves, achilles, arches and hamstrings were already sore and aching. I went into the recovery room to regroup and use the compression boots and rehydrate. I went back out and got to 8 laps and I started to think that was good enough and a huge accomplishment. It really was if you think about it! every Jackson Wyoming local thought we were all nuts! nobody climbs this route multiple times and certainly not 19! I called it the night and went back to shower around 9:30pm. I put another outfit on and was about to head back out when I sat down at my hotel door. wrong choice. I gave my mind a moment to grab hold of me and stop my momentum. I laid down in bed and slept 2 hours.
“To ENDURE is to suffer patiently”
I woke at 1:30am and walked out the door and started a night hike at 2am. I knew I wanted to do a middle of the night hike and I am so glad I did! It was peaceful. serene. quiet. the weather was perfect. the skies were clear. and then as a treat I got to ride the disco gondola down! I should have done another lap. But, I went home and slept 3 hours.
Saturday morning I woke, ate breakfast and was back on the mountain and quickly reached lap 10, double digits! The best part here was that on lap 11 I get another checkmark to reach mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica. And then next 4 laps were all peaks as well so I dubbed it “checkmark alley” which gave me motivation to keep climbing.
THE RESULT…
I completed 15 of the 19 laps! Something to be incredibly proud of for sure! As a data minded person here are the stats:
STEPS: 50,331
Miles: 80.1
vertical gain: 20,841 feet
This is higher than 6 of the 7 highest summits on each continent!
My Final Takeaway…
Would I do it again? I was saying no on the mountain but its a definite yes now! I need my REDemption! I don’t want to do Jackson hole again necessarily :)
The biggest learning was that my mind can hold me back from doing incredible things. unlocking that is powerful because now I know what I am capable of and it is MORE than was I did on Snow King mountain.
I am stronger than I realize.
I can do more than my mind allowed me this weekend.
I WILL do more.
I just need to be patient.
“Doing something difficult with style is FITNESS. To do something difficult with style for many hours is called ENDURANCE”
