Friday, August 01, 2008
Run the Show 2 Plus Summit Pictures
I pasted my last post (Run the Show) plus our Mount Tweeto Summit pictures to today’s post. I did hear from Steven through a text last night (Thursday) around 11:30pm. I asked him if they were O.K. and answered back, “Yea. LOL” They must be having a good time as well which I’m thankful for since (my opinion) one of the ways Satan tries to short-circuits a trip like this is to take away the fun. Now for yesterday’s post and then the Summit Pictures below. BTW - if you want to see a picture of Steven and Zack along with their "new hairdos," scorll down to the bottom.
In the previous picture you can see a little outcropping of snow in the upper righthand side. In this picture we're now walking by that snowfield. Snow had a good and bad aspect to it:
Our first resting stop on the way to the summit. It was amazing how different your body felt climbing and then resting. For me, I was climbing in short pants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. As soon as we stopped out came the rain jacket and pants for extra warmth. Lower row left to right: Kristen aka "Kris-Kris, Josh, Daniel, and Matthew. Upper row: Chuckster, Kyle, Ron, and Craig. 
Resting stop near the ridgeline. This is where are guides huddled together and then brought us the "good news" that we were doing so well that we were going to climb the harder peak - Mount Tweeto! Notice how in the shade, we're covered up with from left to right: Kyle, Steven, Daniel, Josh with the cool walking sticks, and Kristen. 
How about this - sun is out and smiles. Chuck is pointing to Mount Tweeto which we can finally see. From left to right: Chuck, Kyle, Steven, and one of our guides, Melanie. 
Here is what Chuck is point towards - You can see the ridgeline in the upper righthand part of the picture as it leads "directly" to the summit of Mount Tweeto. As we were standing by this huge snowfield, our guide gave us the "keep off" warning." 
Here are our two "Big Easy Missionaries" - Zack with the red streak and Steven with the blond hair. They each cut and dyed the other's hair for the Trek Trip. Yes, that's me with the cool hat. This is the snowfield that the Chuckster stepped on and went down to his hip.
Remember the ridgeline that Chuck was pointing to - it is now at the bottom of this picture. I'm standing on the summit of Mount Tweeto - 13,700ft! This is Janel coming up to the summit. You can see our 2 guides, Issac and Melanie in the lower righthand side. They formed a bridge with their hands that they had you walk under as they cheered you to the summit. They were great people!
What does a summit look like? If you're in the Rocky Mountains it looks - rocky. From left to right: Mark, Janel, Kyle, Kristen, Zack, and Steven. In comparison to Long Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park which is acres wide, this summit was very narrow.
Steven and I sitting by the marker indicating this is Mount Tweeto and not Everest. A dream realized for me as I'm with my son on top of a Rocky Mountain. Thanks for stopping by.
I haven’t forgotten about my “Trek Summit pictures.” They will be coming. I hope I don’t sound like a bragging parent with my next statement. If I do, feel free to hurl blog tomatoes towards this post. I don’t think I’ve begun to grasp the magnitude of what Steven and Zack have done for the Carrollton Church.
Here are 2 very young men, 18 years old, who allowed God to give them a vision of continuing to help the Carrollton Church as well as the city of New Orleans. Further, they took this vision and acted on it. They acted on it even when their own parents, their number one advocates, the home team if you will, had their doubts. To say that is embarrassing on my part would be an understatement. I was almost an instrument of preventing the family of a man in prison, some people who have to wash and dry their clothes in a Laundromat, and a still recovering church in New Orleans from being encouraged by 2 young, determined Christians.
Isn’t this “where the rubber meets the road” stuff. We say we want our kids to mature in Christ and we say that we’re permission giving when it comes to church leadership but are we? Thank you God for teaching this guy a lesson, again.
I spoke to Steven last night. He led singing and Zack taught the class. They plan on working with one of the Carrollton’s volunteers, someone we came to know affectionately as “Santa Kirk.” They plan to return to the Laundromat tonight. Thank you for your prayers and continue to remember Zack and Steven.
Our summit climb at 4:30am or at least we were told so by our guides. Remember, no one except the guides has a watch or cell phone. Our two guides being Music Majors at ACU, welcomed up into the chilly (yes, chilly in July!) morning with the singing of the hit song from the Disney movie, Aladdin, “It’s A Whole New World.” Now some of you might be amazed that I was able to recognize any song at 4:30am, at 11,500ft, and after a night of sleeping on the ground but I did. What I thought was even more amazing was that they were able to belt out any song at 4-stinking-30 in the morning!
We quickly got out of our tents, grabbed our day-packs, came to the Crew Tent, and ate breakfast. We were told that anyone throwing up on the summit climb that hadn’t eaten all of their breakfast would receive no mercy. I’m not making that up by the way. Our guides, who were great, were quite insistent about the eating and drinking. I myself having been the victim of altitude sickness on a summit climb back in 1980, woofed my food down.
Our guides told us that we were either going to climb Treasurevault or Tweeto depending on our progress when we go to the ridgeline at 13,000. The 2 main constraints we had were:
Everyone makes it to the Summit
No matter where we were at, at 1pm, we had to turnaround. Nobody wants to be a 13,000ft lighting rod on top of a summit during a Colorado thunderstorm.
Everyone makes it to the Summit
No matter where we were at, at 1pm, we had to turnaround. Nobody wants to be a 13,000ft lighting rod on top of a summit during a Colorado thunderstorm.
Now for the pics:
Trying to get above the treeline are Janel, Kyle, Ron, Steven, and John. Why isn't anybody smiling in the picture? Lets see, we were up at 4:30a.m., the air is thin, and the temps are in the 40's - can't imagine why these folks aren't smiling, can you?
Maybe our intrepid group was looking at the view ahead thinking, "We have to climb that!" We did BTW. What a beautiful sight as we moved up with the purple flowers on the left, the last outcropping of trees, and yes - snow ahead!
This little brook was the last chance for us to get water until we got above the treeline and hit snow. This is Tara, our youth guy's beautiful wife getting water and she is smiling!
Same water stop - roughly left to right are: Mark (white shirt), Steven in black, Janel in black, and far right in jeans with a hat, Craig.
Yes, finally above the treeline! From the front are Bret, Sharon, Zack, and Lindsay. These folks would get my MVP along with David for pushing through their pain and discomfort for the sake of the group. Bret's feet had now less than 14 blisters! An extra blog shout-out to Zack who stayed back with his Mom, Dad, and girlfriend to help the all the way to the summit!
Welcome to the Alpine Tundra Zone. Short growing season, plants and grass that hug the ground, and no trees. Is that the top - No!
In the previous picture you can see a little outcropping of snow in the upper righthand side. In this picture we're now walking by that snowfield. Snow had a good and bad aspect to it:Good - Last source of water if you ran out.
Bad - In some places as Chuck found out, it could be both "many" feet deep and hanging over a ledge.
Our first resting stop on the way to the summit. It was amazing how different your body felt climbing and then resting. For me, I was climbing in short pants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. As soon as we stopped out came the rain jacket and pants for extra warmth. Lower row left to right: Kristen aka "Kris-Kris, Josh, Daniel, and Matthew. Upper row: Chuckster, Kyle, Ron, and Craig. Resting stop near the ridgeline. This is where are guides huddled together and then brought us the "good news" that we were doing so well that we were going to climb the harder peak - Mount Tweeto! Notice how in the shade, we're covered up with from left to right: Kyle, Steven, Daniel, Josh with the cool walking sticks, and Kristen. How about this - sun is out and smiles. Chuck is pointing to Mount Tweeto which we can finally see. From left to right: Chuck, Kyle, Steven, and one of our guides, Melanie. Here is what Chuck is point towards - You can see the ridgeline in the upper righthand part of the picture as it leads "directly" to the summit of Mount Tweeto. As we were standing by this huge snowfield, our guide gave us the "keep off" warning." Here are our two "Big Easy Missionaries" - Zack with the red streak and Steven with the blond hair. They each cut and dyed the other's hair for the Trek Trip. Yes, that's me with the cool hat. This is the snowfield that the Chuckster stepped on and went down to his hip.Remember the ridgeline that Chuck was pointing to - it is now at the bottom of this picture. I'm standing on the summit of Mount Tweeto - 13,700ft! This is Janel coming up to the summit. You can see our 2 guides, Issac and Melanie in the lower righthand side. They formed a bridge with their hands that they had you walk under as they cheered you to the summit. They were great people!What does a summit look like? If you're in the Rocky Mountains it looks - rocky. From left to right: Mark, Janel, Kyle, Kristen, Zack, and Steven. In comparison to Long Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park which is acres wide, this summit was very narrow.Steven and I sitting by the marker indicating this is Mount Tweeto and not Everest. A dream realized for me as I'm with my son on top of a Rocky Mountain. Thanks for stopping by.
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Thanks for the pics. Every September, weather and health permitting, I do a 4,000 meter summit. Great fun, lots of stress, and something to look forward to. Much easier to do, to. One day to the jump off point, the next morning very early to the summit, then the rest of the same day down the mountain to the transport. Welcome to the 1%. Glad you made it back down.
BRADY
BRADY
Great pix! So glad this trip was taken by someone other than your's truly! I am very content not to do things such as this any longer. But I gotta ask, was coming down harder than going up? I still remember how much my legs hurt the day after we did the Panorama Trail in Yosemite and that was nothing compared to the climb you made in Colorado.
Brady - Hey everybody - BRADY IS BACK! Good to see you my fellow 1-Percenter.
Greg - There is no doubt that coming down is tougher in my opinion. The breathing is easier but the stress mentally as in worrying about taking a fall, and physically as in each step blasts your quads and plays havoc with your ankles and feet, yes, going down is tougher.
There were a few places where the path was somewhat sandy. It was there we got to play "Man vs. Wild" and slide part of the way down. That was fun but all too short.
Greg - There is no doubt that coming down is tougher in my opinion. The breathing is easier but the stress mentally as in worrying about taking a fall, and physically as in each step blasts your quads and plays havoc with your ankles and feet, yes, going down is tougher.
There were a few places where the path was somewhat sandy. It was there we got to play "Man vs. Wild" and slide part of the way down. That was fun but all too short.
Coming down tougher than going up? Who would have thunk? All I can say is, I know this was an incredible experience, and I'm glad you all had it. You are admired and applauded from my house................but I'm too much of a coward to try something like this! :) Shoot, I don't think I'd even get on a ferris wheel anymore...........
Thanks for the great commentary and pictures of the group, Cecil! Great stuff you guys did! Keep it up!!
Much love, Dee!
Cheerw & Blessings to you all today!
Dee
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Much love, Dee!
Cheerw & Blessings to you all today!
Dee
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