58 more days...
Get There!
I hope everybody is having an excellent summer thus far! So far nobody has said
anything about transportation to and from Colorado and I'm sure some people
still need rides. If you need a ride or have extra seats for someone who does,
please announce it to the group by emailing condo@scholars.uni.edu. Don't wait
too long because we'll be lacing up our boots and heading up the hill before you
know it!
K2 on Mountainzone:
For those that might be interested there's a team of Americans assembling on K2,
the world's second highest mountain, preparing for an attempt at the mountain's
north ridge. This is an extremely difficult climb and endeavors like this are
significantly more difficult than the kinds of attempts you usually hear about
on Everest. Since the mountain was first climbed in 1954, K2 has only been
summitted by 12 Americans. K2 has gone "summitless" in 7 of the last
20 years, whereas Everest has been summitted every year since 1974.
Mt. Hood:
In a couple days I'm headed off to Oregon where I'll be taking a shot at Mt.
Hood, an 11,320 foot volcano covered by 12 glaciers. I've never been on a
glacier before so this will definitely be a new experience. Just last Sunday a
woman on Mt. Hood died after reaching the summit. Apparently she put down her
ice axe, unclipped from her rope, and moved to the edge to get a better look.
She fell, bounced, and tumbled 2500 feet to her death. This is not the kind of
story that makes my family feel better about my attempt! Despite averaging about
2 deaths a year, Mt. Hood sees approximately 10,000 successful summits per year,
making it the most-climbed mountain in the U.S. and the second most climbed in
the world (behind Mt. Fuji, where summitting is somewhat of a religious
pilgrimage). For my own enjoyment and safety I'm going with a very reputable
guide service and if all goes well I'll summit on the 19th. I've set up my web
page (www.scholars.uni.edu/~johnson) so I can report on my travels throughout
the summer. I think I'm getting a little too involved with these expedition
dispatches...
