The Journey Begins

Today I begin the process of describing my journey to climb Mount Everest.  Really, it started in the summer of 2007 when I agreed to climb Mount Rainier with a friend the following summer.  That experience on a glaciated peak in the Pacific Northwest ignited something inside me that I didn't realize was there.  Besides accumulating more gear which is always fun, I accumulated experiences that laid the foundation for subsequent years of expedition climbing.

 

Rainier was followed by Aconcagua in Argentina (22,841ft) during our winter of 2009.  This trip combined a love of mountains with a love of international travel and I was hooked for sure.  It also included my wife Kriss who was game to try a big mountain, neither of us completely realizing the suffering which occurs during a 16-day expedition covering 50 or so miles in a remote part of the world.  We both lost lots of weight on that climb while earning our 8,000 meter boots.

 

 

After Aconcagua was Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa (19,340 ft).  Stay tuned...