ain’t no mountain high enough

We had a fun day yesterday.  As part of my training for the Leadville Heavy Half, I thought it might be a good idea if I actually made it above 13,000 feet to see how I did at high altitude. So Mr. Bump and I got up early this morning and climbed a mountain.  We climbed Mount Bierstadt, to be specific, one of Colorado’s fifty-three peaks over 14,000 feet. It’s kind of a Colorado thing, to climb a 14er. And now I’ve finally done it. I’ve earned my citizenship to the Colorado outdoors.
       

This is the trailhead.  Mt. Bierstadt is the peak on the left.  It was quite muddy until you got up a ways, and in some respects that was harder to navigate than the summit.  Somehow, Mr. Bump managed to not get mud all over him.

I, however, managed to get muddy from my ankles to my hairline.

But despite spending some time playing around in the mud, and some time playing with all the fun (and muddy) dogs on the trail, we did, in fact, make it to the top.

Proof!

I am so crazy proud of myself, I must say. As evidenced by the photo below of the self-cheerleading that went on at the summit.
Now, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I’m guessing you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal? I mean, you’re kind of a badass, Lana. You’ve run a marathon. Of course you can climb a mountain, silly.”
When I was in high school, as part of a class team-building exercise, we went to climb Longs Peak as a class.  Well I wimped out, with a couple of other classmates (who were dating at the time—awkward!) returned to the school van to wait for everyone else to summit and come back down.  It was a dumb high school girl thing to quit, and I’ve regretted it on some level ever since.
Today, however, I have redeemed myself.  I have purged that regret.  Feels good.
 
And Mr. Bump and I got to spend some quality time together, eating cherry sours for energy and keeping others entertained by singing Superfreak (along with the appropriate Little Miss Sunshine choreography). Actually, that last one was just me. And I must say, I didn’t know anyone was around when I busted out my best Rick James impression.

Next time, I will:

• remember to bring the granola bars I set out on the counter the night before so we have something to eat other than straight-up sugar.
  
• bring walking poles, perhaps.
  
• use that toilet at the trailhead rather than hoping I could “hold it until we get back down.”  (If you know me at all, you know that I did, indeed, “hold it” until we got back to Denver. I don’t go in the out-of-doors.)

But I probably will break out into song again once we’ve finished our descent. That was awesome.  And I think I’ll bring this guy along too.

I love my expression in this picture. I’m really just squinting but I look like a happy, happy mole.