I Climb a Mountain!

I am in Canmore, a lovely little town in the Rocky Mountains. Of course, since I am training to climb a mountain I thought I should take advantage of the locale and climb one here. I chose Lady MacDonald Trail up the aptly named Mount Lady Macdonald.

It is labelled as a moderate hike/easy scramble in the tourist propaganda. 4 hours round trip with the first two hours being hike and the rest scramble according to the internet. Hmm two hours hike and then scramble in a 4 hour round trip, somehow the numbers don't add up.

Regardless, I hit the trail head in my boots, with my poles, and carrying my pack. In it I had 3 litres of water, a couple of snacks, an emergency blanket, whistle, flashlight, a jacket and toque. Just in case I have to spend the night on the mountain I don't want to suffer too much.

The path was well marked and rocky/dirt with exposed tree roots. The first thing I noticed is that I was almost instantly out of breath. All the way up it was like I had just hauled my fat arse off the couch and decided to run a marathon. I tried to blame it on the elevation, which must be higher than my couch at home since I live on the blessedly flat prairies. Eventually I got into the rhythm of walking 200 steps and then pausing for 10 breaths. I think it is mostly psychological, I felt that if I was breathing hard I must be working too hard. I mentally assessed how I was doing and repeatedly came to the conclusion that I wasn't overly stressed or working too hard, I was just working harder to breathe. I imagine this is going to be an ongoing thing at the altitude of Kilimanjaro. I think it will be a hard thing to prepare for.

I climbed, and climbed, and climbed. I finally truly understand the purpose of hiking poles. You think you get it while walking up the paved trails in the river valley, but it is nothing like digging your pole into the dirt and really hauling your arse up the hill. Needless to say, my arms are weaker than my arse is heavy. I promise to tone down my bitching about the push ups in the training program.

 I decided before I started that I would climb up for an hour and then turn around. A four hour hike is outside my physical readiness at this point. I now understand why people go too far when they are climbing. I kept thinking I was almost there and just wanted to climb through the next switchback to see if I could see the top. I did stick to my plan and at one hour I stopped for a sit down and a snack. I planned for a 15 minute rest but was cold after 8. I even put my toque on to see if I could stay warm. I was damp with sweat and there was a bit of a breeze through the trees. Although it was 13C in the town, I imagine it was a bit cooler up here.

 This was the point where I discovered cotton panties are a bad idea! I had sweated through my underwear and the crotch and inside thighs of my nylon pants were wet. This wasn't too bad while sitting but as I started to descend I was experiencing the dreaded fat girl thigh rub. Its a good thing my pants were wet otherwise the friction of my thighs would have started a fire!

 I was quite worried about the trip down. I have a few knee issues and back in the dark ages when I used to run I always hated the downhills. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I figured out how to use my poles going down, took mincing steps and basically went down the mountain with steps the length of my boot. On the good side, no problems with the breathing! I made it down in 62 minutes.

One guy passed me on the way up. Wearing shorts, a t-shirt, trail runners and using poles. He passed me on the way down too. Shirt tied around his waist, carrying his poles and RUNNING down hill. All I could say was "wow" to which he replied, "I do this all the time". I wished I could have seen him running longer because it was a joy to watch him moving like that. Nonetheless, I kept mincing and didn't try any running.

Things I learned (in no particular order):
      Cotton underwear are bad.
      Thick socks are good.
      I need to hem my damn pants before I take them to Africa.
      The good and bad parts of up and down balance out. Which ever one I am currently doing will make me wish for the other.
      Dairy Queen Blizzard is a good supper after mountain climbing!
      And yes, when I titled this "I climb a mountain" I figured you would immediately jump to the conclusion that I actually climbed to the top. I never made it out of the trees. Hmm, maybe in the autumn....