I guess I’ll give a little context to my climb to Mt. Rainier (14,411/ft) next weekend.

I got roped into climbing Rainier by Brian D & Adroc last winter, and before I knew it, I was knee deep in climbing gear (not cheap by the way) and committed to a climb on the 31st of May 2008. The next logical question for anyone that has known me for any amount of time is: OK, What’s next?

Well, my friends, obviously the king shit peak of them all is the end game (Mt Everest – 29,035/ft for those keeping track). However, one does not go from climbing backyard mountains (Mt. Si, Tiger Mountain, Rattlesnake Ridge and Little Si) or even Mt Rainier straight to Chomolungma, unless however you want to go casters up before even reaching base-camp. The roadmap is about 5yrs long for Everest and includes other incredible accomplishments by themselves along the way.

Denali (20,320/ft), which by the way has more elevation gain from base camp to the summit than that of Everest (little known fact), is being targeted right now for about 2 yrs out. I think I’ll do the 8-day Denali prep class offered by Alpine Ascents next summer to make sure that I’m as dialed in as possible.

After Denali, the next logical step as far as I see it, is to tackle Cho-Oyu (26,906/ft) which is a peak reached from Tibet and is over 8000Meters. It gives you the chance to bag a massive peak without the exorbitant cost that goes along with doing Mt Everest with a bit lower risk as well.

If all goes well, on Cho-Oyu and Denali, then there is no reason not to go for the big daddy.

Given that by the time I’ll have done Everest (hopefully), I’ll have the biggest peaks out of the way . I’d love to do the 7 summits over the course of my life if time, money and health permits. I’m going to bag Mt Kosciusko (7,310) this summer while we are in Australia to take down the largest peak on the island. Technically, Australia is part of the continent of Oceania, and therefore the tallest mountain on that continent is in Papua and is named Puncak Jaya (16,024/ft).

Lastly, to address everyone that says: “Do you have a death wish?” “Do you just want to die?” “Why in the world would you do this?” “”

• First, get over it, I’m going.
• Second, you’re just jealous I have the balls to do something few others have. 🙂
• Mt Everest has had a death rate of 4.4% since 1990, and 9.30% overall. (179 deaths since 1959)
• Each year, 90 – 100 people die from bee stings. In two years, more people die from bees than have died on Everest in nearly 50 years.
• ‘Because it’s there – George Leigh Mallory 1923 http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/everest/game/

that’s all