Conditioning up Mailbox Peak

The OSAT decided on having Mailbox peak for a conditioner hike, and the name really says it, for me it was difficult, although the EastKing bragged at the end saying he wanted to summit another mountain. Anyways, we meet up and gather in a cirle and say the OSAT outh which ends with “Keep Climbing Mountains and Don’t Slip.

The trail started out hard for me not because it was a difficult trail, but because the group had a very fast pace, it took a lot of training to get in shape for this kind of stuff, which my previous training is now considered training for the training if I want to climb Mount Rainier later this year. It became difficult to the point were I could not feel joy nor exitment as we went up. I usually don’t say this about any hike, but the speed was much more than my usual pace, or even other groups of hikers I go with. I became sore fast, and got dizzy fast, and was constantly out of breath, and in total on the way up we took perhaps 3-4 breaks… which when your going at a fast pace is sorta hard, or perhaps I’m not as in good shape as I had hoped. We later got to the ice which for this time of year was unusually high, and was snowier back when I came here in April 2008. Unfortunatly I was not allowed to have my ice axe out because I almost hit the leader guy in the face when I had my ski polls in my pack that stuck out and as I was getting up… well he was’nt happy about that, so I had to have my ice axe with him. The ice was at first slippery but was’nt to bad, perhaps this was because of the traction thingy someone in the group let me borrow.

Heading Up		The Mid Day Sun		Looking off to the Side

Hiking through the Woods		Looking up the Mountain

Later my brother fell behind and the main leader had to have us stop, to be honest I thought to myself “Sweet an oppertunity to eat” which I took advantage of my brother missing, which I should’nt have, but I was so tired and so terribly hungry, this was one of the breaks of the trip. Going up the summit was’nt as hard as the first time due to having food, and I attempted to rush ahead and ran in exitement to make the final push and wanted to be first even though I was probably the weakest of the group, but sometimes strength is a mental part of us. I was held back, because the leaders had to remain in front even at the end , but I was still happy to achive the summit.

The East King		Me on the Summit

Glacier Peak		Mount Rainier

Modified Rainier Photo		Black and White Mount Rainier		Looking East (B&W)

Summit Panorama		Bird in Mid Air

My Brother Checking the Mail		Us together on the Summit

(Sorry for a couple similar ones, but because I’m a photographer, I am very picky and cannot make up my mind which one I like best, plus it’s nice to get some diffrent color effects.)
There I took lots of photos and such and I glissaded back down some of it, and found out that tractions in snow do not mix because not only could it potentially slow you down if you have your feet in front, but can easily damage them. Later I became very dizzy due to dyhidration on the way down, but the group was very nice and speared lots of water. But for the East King this was a walk in the park and he had 40 pounds of gear. In total it was around 3 hours up and 3 hours down…. I think. It was still a good trip, but very tiring.