Ready for Everest

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.