2 months out

hello to all! it is now the end of may and things are coming together with only 2 months 'til we start up the mountain. i recently spent a week in pennsylvania to visit family, and to get together with brian and brad for some training. it was time well spent. brian introduced me to the stairs at the cathedral of learning in pittsburgh. we worked our way up flight after flight of stairs, with loaded packs, for several hours. brian has certianly developed a great workout regime to prepare for a mountain. later in my visit, brian and i made a trip to reading, pa to get out on the trail with brad. though we were able to get out for good, physical workouts, our time together on the trail, time to practice working as a team, was far more important. all the outings (each one designed to work on specific aspects of our climb) were very productive. to me, our most difficult and productive outing was a several hour walk in the dark. on "summit day" we will be on the trail heading up the mountain just after mid-night, walking with headlamps for the first 6 or 7 hours of the climb. this will dramatically increase the difficulty of the climb for brad, taking him from 5% of his vision during the day to total night blindness!

being on the trail, practicing in the dark, is crucial for brad to become comfortable and build confidence for summit day. with a few tweeks, the communication system we practiced through the day could also be used at night. though difficult, utilizing sound, through voice was an effective way to gather some bearings. our best discovery was an idea that brian had to use ultra high reflective tape. brian and i stuck the reflective tape on the bottom end of our trekking poles, hoping the tape would reflect enough light from brad's high-output petzl headlamp to be visible to him. it worked wonderfully! and though brad could see basically nothing else, he now had 2 bright "dots" to follow in the darkness. before long we were able to work together to negotiate some fairly rough terrain by night's end.

i say "we" because we were working as a team, and each member of that team played a role in the success of that night, but....the star of the night was brad! with all my hiking and climbing experience, i couldn't begin to do what he did that night. as we were out training in the dark i saw clearly brad's full commitment to this climb in the concentration and determination that was on his face. this climb should be (with vosh, brad and the mountain itself) fairly self-motivating...and it is. but the determination that i saw that night has now inspired me to a whole new level. way to go brad, keep it up!

thanks to everyone, once again, for all the verbal, emotional and financial support the "climb for sight" and for us personally. it means the world to us!