By popular demand, and because the whole episode has been good for laughs, this clipping begged to be posted here on the blog. It all began Friday evening when the laptop popped up that I'd gotten an email. It was from my brother's wife, who lives in New York, and said: "You made it to the top!! Way to go!! After all your crazy bike races and helicopter rides you get put in the paper for this? Were you the first DR team to make it to the top or something? Where's the blog post on this huge accomplishment? Too funny!" Soon, a text message from my brother arrived, saying, "Saddle Mt! Wow! You animal." I replied, "We ran out of oxygen and I had to carry Alan down." So, here's the blog post.
When I got the email, I hadn't even seen the article. I ran to the front door and grabbed my newspaper, whipped it open, said, "No way!" and showed my wife. She thought it was funny too. Yes, they do let dentists out of the office every once in a while, and we go climb things!
Here's a quote from Oregon State Parks:
"Two and a half miles. That's all it is from the parking lot (elev. 1,650') to the summit of Saddle Mountain (elev. 3,283'). Be prepared to marvel at the sheer volume of natural beauty packed onto the mountain, from a mature forest setting to fields of wildflowers to an open rocky summit. The view from the top of the mountain is one that cannot be described ... it must be experienced."
It's really a neat climb, and I've probably done it about 15 times since it's the high point here in the county. I chose to run up it and time myself one time and made it in 39 minutes. There are great views of many clearcuts but also you can see several of the Cascade peaks including Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson. It's also a cool angle looking toward Astoria. I am somewhat vindicated by a webpage that says the difficulty of the hike is "challenging", which can be found here.
So, of course, this came out Friday and then I had two weddings yesterday. So, people had a good time razzing me about it. Then, I had church today as well, providing lots of other opportunities for people to express their awe of my mountaineering prowess. Actually, I'm surprised to find out how many people are from here and have never even climbed the mountain. Needless to say, if everybody knew who Ed Viesturs* is, they'd be comparing me to him.
*the first American to climb all 14 of the world's 8000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. He also recently completed his 200th ascent of Mt. Rainier. He's pretty good.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Ready for Everest
Posted by Bri-onic Man at 3:38 PM
Labels: Ed Viesturs, funny, hiking, running
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8 comments:
Wow.
So proud of you, Dr. Bri-onic! (Love the editing on the newspaper!)
So, if I read this article right, either Dentists stand on their high horse and look down at the rest of us, or Dentists have been known to accomplish some highly advanced and amazing feats besides dentistry. :-)
Between your helicopter and your mountain climbing skills, you have every possible remote person covered if they needed a dentist.
Next, you'll have to do Scuba.
One mystery remains, though...did the photography climb up there with you, or was the picture 'planted' at the newspaper office?
On a serious note, though, its pretty cool that you are still in that close of contact with some of your high school friends--I don't know that many people can say that.
Thanks guys! The photograph is courtesy of the self-timer and one of the bars that surround the peak (all the really serious mountain peaks have safety bars around them, by the way).
I hear it is unusual to stay tight with high school friends. With me, I'm more in touch with some of them than I am with friends from dental school or BYU. I think I just got worse at making friends over time . . . :-)
Don't let people give you a bad time man. I know a lot of 9 year old girls that can't climb Saddle Mt. I noticed the difficulty in making friends may coincide with the complusive lying disorder (CLD) that began at the Y. Take your meds bro.
For once and for all, I DON'T have a compulsive lying disorder. Really. And yes, I did take my medication. :-) (you can see how this could get pretty confusing)
You must all take into the account the time when this man himself (bri-onic-shmonic) lied about the time we were going to take the v-dub on a trip... and failed to deliver. I now must weep again.
Just so you can get yourself prepared, Steve, we're taking THE VAN up to Ape Cave this Saturday. I seriously promise . . . really.
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