We are champions. I knew this before we hiked to an elevation of over 14K feet, but yesterday confirmed it. The landscape was -insert some cheesy mumbo jumbo about waving wheat, mountain's majesty, etc. It was awesome, but I'd rather talk about the way up. 

I do have to say that the intense weight lifting the day before was not my best idea. But before we started the ascent I convinced myself that the first weight lifting I'd done since the Olympic Trials was just a warm up for the 14,000+ step ups I was about to do. At 11,000 ft. I learned my first lesson of climbing: Don't weight lift before climbing a 14,000 ft. Mtn. 

It may have been the elevation. Or the scenery. Or maybe I am just a little weird. But the hike looked like a scene out of Lord of the Rings. I kind of wished we had actually dressed up in wizard and elf costumes just to amplify this effect. I kept murmuring quotes from the movie to keep me motivated as my quads were not as into the one woman secret LARPing I had created.  The Lord of the Rings plot really thickened when we lost one at 12,000 ft. Kat was defeated by "the sickness." She's now yelling at me to specify that she wasn't being a wimp and that the altitude induced vomiting was a result of lack of hydration. At 12,000 ft, Kat demonstrated the second lesson of climbing: Drink until water logged.   Apparently she found her motivation to immediately hike back down to the car -instead of wait the 4+ hours for us to return- when she opened her pack to find the NOT Kindle she had so cleverly thought to pack. The LARPing was obviously not motivation enough for her...I really don't see why. She drove home in our extra car -which we DID so cleverly pack- to read off the hangover-like symptoms. I hope it was Lord of the Rings. 

After Kat left, it took me (and the other four people stupid enough to try this) 4 hours, 1 tube of chapstick, 5 bottles of water, 3 oatmeal cream pies, 25 pit stops, 4,000 under the breath words of encouragement, and 6,000 not-so under the breath angry words directed at my previous self for weight lifting with such intensity, but I MADE IT TO THE RIDGE!! (don't get excited like I did, that's not the summit). That did, however, mean one thing: LUNCH! We sat literally on the edge of the world and ate the most delicious PB & honey sandwiches (and 2 more cream pies). It was the most beautiful lunch I have ever eaten. Ever. 

At this point we lost another to the sickness. Mike laid face down on a flat rock like a lizard to soak up heat and whatever oxygen was left at that level. It was over for him. At this 13,600 ft point, I learned the third, fourth, and fifth lessons of climbing: Always apply, reapply, and again a third time rereapply sunscreen. 
The rest of us had the scramble to the top. This was awesome for the sole fact that the boulders looked identical to the Agro Crag. Here I transitioned from LOTR LARP fantasy, to childhood dream of competing on Nickelodeon's totally sweet gameshow Global GUTS! I Agro Cragged it to the top to press the buzzer and win my own personal piece of the Agro Crag. Which I left up there by the way. No way was I going to hike with any more weight in my fanny pack. Not joking, we were out of Camelbacks, I got the fanny pack. 
As my childhood dream came to fruition, it was immediately followed by my adult dream-- singing Rocky Top at the top of a 14-er. Just call me Super Vol. See Below.
-Phe