It was the Best of Times... It was the Worst of Times...

Here are some of our tales from the Mt. Baker Summit, 2008


TIM













The Best:

• The incredible scent of the wild flowers as we ascended Heliotrope Ridge.
• Putting boot to glacier for the first time ever.
• Seeing an actual ice spider!!
• Tom bursting into weird and unearthly song as he ladeled tortellini into his bowl at high camp.
• Proving that, if I tried hard enough, I could briefly out-sweat Vern.
• Laughing at Ben describing the nocturnal mouse attack.
• Conquering blue-bag phobia.
• A BabyBel at 10,000 feet.
• Finally getting to wear 'big puffy'.
• The rain stopping just before we had to break camp.
• Garrett steering me through the steep descents.
• And best of all, the pure joy of seeing Michele's lovely face emerge through the mist onto the summit. You rock!!!

The Worst:

• That #%$@*ing rock under my butt all night. I HATE THAT ROCK!!!!

RICHIE














The Best:

• The views leading to the summit.
• Wandering around in the white out on the summit, laughing about trying to find the "true" summit just a few feet higher.
• The unwavering humor of our group in the face of everything: heavy packs, blisters, steep slopes, slippery steep slopes, and soft slippery steep slopes.
• Getting to put all of our cool gear to use!

The Worst:

• Hiking with a 60 lb pack the first day.
• Getting a dehydration headache on the descent on summit day.
• Sinking in the snow and getting a nice crampon scratch above the calf.

MICHELE




















The Best:

• The views.
• Seeing the layers of volcanic rock.
• The blues and greens of the glacier.
• The solitude.
• Sliding (Sorry about that Ben!)
  
• Getting clarification on the difference between a crevasse and a crevice.
  
• Diamox.
• Wearing a "puffy coat" in the middle of July!
• Leaning left 2 inches and having soft snow glide across my cheek.
• An appetite.
• Garrett's yellow boots.
• Ben's sarcasm.
• Tom's face and sounds after the climb - eating an apple fritter.
• Michael Rosenthal calling me a "machine."
• Tim, in his lovely British accent telling Garrett "You do know that we invented the language?" - in response to his making fun of Tim's pronunciation of "privacy."
• Vern's glowing smile the entire way up the mountain, and down.
• And after vomiting 4 times on the ascent, the kiss (on the cheek) and hug from Richie at the summit.

The Worst:

• Seeing salmon eggs benedict for the second time.
• Anything curry.
• The Roman Wall.
• Stomach twisting.
• Head pounding for 5 hours.
• Feeling broken.
• The thought of working really hard for the last 6 months to stop now because of altitude sickness or dehydration.

VERN













The Best:

• Neither the mountain or that green stuff for dinner killed me!
• Seeing Tims legendary ice spider in its natural habitat.
• Keeping up with Garrett going up the mountain.
• My hero Michele (boy are you tough).
• The entire Train to Climb team and support team for coaxing a little more life out of this old, tired body.
• The French music from Toms Iphone at bedtime.
• Micheal's camera that never sleeps.
• Being there for Richie's Birthday (same day as my mothers.)
• Ben, for seriously considering subjecting himself to this group again on the Rainier Trip.
• The Bird Driveway.

The Worst:

• Trying to keep up with Garrett on the home stretch.
• Not being able to sleep after the French bedtime music. (incidentally Tom--you snore!)
• Craving a celebratory beer with the rest of the team in Bellingham, but realizing that two nights without sleep and a beer would most likely lead to "driving while comatose."
• The Rosenthal driveway.

Best and Worst at the same time---Being so proud of the fact that I drug my butt down to the gym on Tuesday to partake in a light workout in my traditional gym clothes---only to have Richie (my other hero, by the way) bound past me with his full pack and boots for his workout.