Greetings to All,

Thanks to all who jumped aboard my Facebook Group!  (http://bit.ly/TAEverest2010) For those that don’t do Facebook, have no worries, I’ll continue to send out weekly updates via email as well! 

I backpacked to the summit of the Avalon Peninsula today with my outdoor recreation class.  It was the last challenge of their three day backpacking trip and most were very exasperated when I mentioned that the top of the Picco’s hill (at 925 feet) needed to be multiplied by 300 to reach near the summit of Everest. 

I was exasperated too!  It’s been too long since I carried 45 pounds up a hill!  My ankle, which I injured in late March, did pretty well but I’m aware both of how much fitness the ankle injury cost me and how far I still need to go to get my leg back to one hundred percent.

As I was breathing hard going uphill, I had to remind myself that I still had three weeks left to get ready for Elbrus (the highest peak in Russia) and that I have a great reservoir of mental strength to draw upon.  I’m guessing there will be tremendous learning in not going in as fit as I’d like to be and as fit as I was last time in 2006.  I’m hoping my team isn’t a bunch of speedsters…I know I can climb for hours as long as I climb slow enough.

I’ll be putting in lots of time on the hills around St. John’s in the next three weeks.  Signal Hill will become my second home as I climb the front side, back side, and the road many times in the coming weeks!  I gave a talk in Prince Edward Island on Thursday morning.  The co-chair of the conference did the closing after my presentation.  She’d grown up on Mayor Avenue and spoke of standing at the bottom of the hill wondering if she could ever walk to the top and marveling that I’d climbed it over 300 times.

I guess, similarly, I now stand at the bottom of Elbrus and wonder the same thing.  Fortunately, I know from past experience that it’s about putting one foot in front of the other.  Sometime for hours at a time. 

There is such a joy standing where I can go no higher whether that spot is the top of the Avalon or the top of Russia at 5642 metres and I get there the same way.  Step by step.  It’s funny how I have to learn the same lessons over and over again.  The top of Elbrus is just a bit higher than Everest base camp. 

I confirmed that it is possible for folks to trek in with my Everest team.  If you’d like to receive more information about that possibility, drop me a line and I’ll send you out the beta.

I just googled “quote and step by step.”  This quote by Og Mandino popped up first…so I’ll close with that.

“You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day / not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal / to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished.”

Have a good week!

TA