Dirty Inspirations

Off to the Amazon

2008-07-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

After a serious day of sight seeing in Old Town and shopping at the Quito art exibits we´re off tomorrow to the antithesis of the mountains of Ecuador - the Amazon jungle. I´m still blown away at the diversity of the geography of this country. This leg of our trip will solidify that observation. We´ll be staying at www.kapawi.com - an Eco Lodge owned and run by the Achuar people. The lodge is a 30 minute plane ride to Colon, 1 hour helecopter ride then canoe journey into the lodge which is...

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Lets back up a few days...

2008-07-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Some fun details starting a few days ago... July 9 We´ve reached Chimborazo Base Camp and the lodge owned by Marco Cruz. Yet another stunning spot we´ve been able to experience - www.expediciones-andinas.com - click on Estrella del Chimborazo. The views from the lodge, the detail of the craftmanship and history of its housed artifacts are reflective of the man who built this dream spot. Each square inch of each room was attended to in detail and with care. The colors chosen to evoke warmth...

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2008-07-13T07:48:00.001-07:00

In short - Continued severe weather prevented us from getting to the top of Chimborazo (20,700 feet). But we have had an auspitious few days in a gorgeous place with incredible people. Today we tried to climb a part of the mountain instead of sitting around waiting for the weather to change. We got up to just under 17,000 feet to make an attempt at crossing a narrow ridgeline and with 70 mph winds it was sketchy at best - so we aborted Plan A, decended a bit and then traversed for several...

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Day 4-6- Ecuador

2008-07-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

In short - our attempt on Cotapaxi was thwarted by an ice storm. But we´re safe and heading to our next mountain...Here´s how it played out in this land of crazy weather... After a fitfull night sleep due to smoke inhalation from our room´s wood stove I had a bit of a black day.. Very tired. Doubt. Bad mood. I woke with a feeling of impending doom and it lingered for about 24 hours. Our short hike up to the lovely Cotapaxi climbers refuge at about 15,000 ft. cleared my head a bit and lifted...

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Day 3 - Ecuador

2008-07-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Today was such an special day in so many ways but I do not have time right now to type out all of my notes. In short we did an aclimation hike up Pinchincho at about 15,200 feet, learned a ton about the history of Ecuador and stayed in one of the most interesting hotels I´ve exerienced to date - check it out www.hosterialacienega.com. Very lovely indeed. I feel quite priviledged to have experienced just this day. Thus far all aclimation hikes have been fun and worthwhile. Even when we are not...

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Day 1 - Ecuador

2008-07-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today we met our head guide for the trip and did our first aclimation hike on Pasachoa up to about 12,500 feet. Our guide is an incredibly accomplished climber, has climbed peaks all over the world, a very charming guy and getting on in years a bit. He decided after we dropped him a couple of times that he would bring in some of his younger guides to work with us for the rest of the week. All in all though it was a lovely day. Quito is the largest city in Ecuador and sits at 9000 ft. Last...

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Made it!

2008-07-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Ecuador and the La Casa Sol B & B www.lacasasol.com . What a charming place nestled in the nightlife hub of the New City of Quito. Looking forward to checking it out upon our return. Long flight but baggage intact. 4 hours sleep later we´re off for our first climb. Back at you later, I have to catch some food and coffee!! Best to you on post 4th of July! Terri

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Virgin Passport to Ecuador

2008-07-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I was browsing through the copiously used pages of my first two passports inclusive of the extra pages that had been put into both. On this trip to Ecuador I’ll use a virgin passport (my third). I noticed that along with destination change ups my picture has changed up dramatically. The first pic marks the youth of my triathlon days wide eyed and eager and a really poor hair cut choice. The second a mixed bag of tri’s and adventure races under my belt with some vacation thrown in...

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I’m Rich!

2008-06-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Ten of us assembled at White Wolf off of Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park to start our birthday journey with an ambitious feast. Ambitious enough that we offered up the mega extras to neighboring campers while we laughed through some fun introductions. For what would prove to be an epic journey, I had brought together some of my most favorite friends—triathletes, ultra runners, adventure racers, hikers and all around quality folks—several of whom go back 15-20 years in my lifetime. While...

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Romancing Yosemite… Revisited

2008-06-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Four sets of great friends and endurance athletes from all over CA are converging in Yosemite for some birthday fun next week. We’ll be running/fast packing for a couple days into the high country and yet more trails I have not explored, then heading down to the Valley for a lovely dinner at the Ahwanhee, some climbing and wine drinking. A perfect way to cap off another year. I suspect I’ll be writing more when I return next week and prior to my leaving for Ecuador, but in the meantime I...

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Reflection on the Internal Switch

2008-06-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

After the 2000 Eco Challenge in Borneo, Malaysia I landed in the hospital for a week with leptospirosis and a fever of 105. Despite my delirium and inability to venture past my hospital room for 4 days, when my teammate David called to find out if I’d be able to do a scheduled race in a couple weeks, I said casually, “Yeah I’ll be fine, I'm in.” In a sport like adventure racing we have to train our minds to step up when we are physically beaten down and 6 days sleep deprived. Sometimes the...

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The Double Edged Sword of Endurance Training

2008-06-02T20:23:00.001-07:00

I hate that my body has been tweaking this last month since I severely overtrained a couple weeks before my last race. I love the challenge of this puzzle as it grows larger and more blurred each day. I despise that the fear of cardiovascular systems threatening to shut down took me out of a race. I dig that fear slaps us in the face in the ultimate tests we face as athletes. Humbles us. Tests us constantly. I abhor that my body continues to throw me lessons of which I am ignorant. I am...

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Not Quite Back...

2008-05-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not one who tends to wear physical ailments on her sleeve. Mainly because I have a premise that random people in our lives aren't interested in hearing about other peoples daily physical issues and as a society we spend way too much time discussing them. Who wants to hear an athlete or elderly person regularly disclose their litany of prevailing physical maladies? I have aches and pains just like every other person out there who pushes their body, but instead of talking about them I act on...

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Derailed Training in Perspective

2008-05-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

I was going to post today about how after all these years of training - I still recently bonked in a swim workout and how I overtrained myself to exhaustion a couple of weeks ago. But in light of recent happenings it all just seemed so trivial. Yesterday my brother in law survived 9 hours of heart surgery and I noted that 2 of my dear friends both have parents who are dying of cancer and another athlete/friend recently had a stroke. So instead of belaboring my training mishaps I want to focus...

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Tri-ing Again – After All these Years

2008-05-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

My last blog post was almost a year ago after my climb on Denali. I won’t tire you with irrelevant excuses as to why I took such a long hiatus from blogging, but I will say that I’m back – in more ways than one. After 13 years of adventure racing/running/climbing around the world I’ve decided to do a triathlon again! If you asked me even 6 months ago if I were going to do another triathlon in this lifetime I would have dispassionately brushed off the question. I raced triathlon hard core for...

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The Big Gift: Post Denali Ponderings

2007-06-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

(for the initial story of the climb and more pictures scroll down to the next post…) Above the clouds: Calm before the storm at High Camp I have spent a good portion of my life, moving through, learning to cope with, thriving on, and feeling pretty “comfortable”, under physical duress. I’ve trained my mind to work with and through times when I struggle under bodily discomfort and still mentally manage to peel those layers away and continue movement forward. I’ve also learned over...

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Denali - The "Gift" that Keeps on Giving

2007-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Note: Thanks for all your support and emails upon my return from Denali. I was counting on having cell coverage in order to post daily from the mountain but that didn’t work out. So I’ve compiled my notes from my journal to share below. This one was quite epic - enjoy the journey. I’ll be back on next week with pictures and closing thoughts. - Terri T carrying up... Day 1 – to Base Camp Busy day today plus a lot of “hurry up and wait” (HUAW will become a big part of our life on the...

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Post Climb - Reflections on the American Flag

2007-02-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

My climb on Aconcagua in Argentina involved doing two things I enjoy the most when I travel; engaging in very remote or rural areas, and, doing something in these areas that requires significant mental and physical fortitude—in other words—doing cool things in cool places. I’m quite aware that I experience a constant, altered reflection of home due to my travels abroad. This reflection is heightened when I’ve moved through less fortunate countries than the U.S.—which would include most places...

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Day 15 - Pampa De Linas Revisited

2007-01-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

After an incredible summit day (more of which I´ll share about in my post climb reflections) - we retreated to Camp 2, then to Base Camp with some incredibly heavy packs. We enjoyed an excellent post climb celebration at Base Camp with dinner, wine, a birthday cake for Nancy, champagne for all and a heated card game. We´ve started our hike out today and though it feels lovely to have a day pack on (thanks mules!) I´m having a hard time getting my head wrapped around another...

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Day 13 - They made it to the top!

2007-01-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

Penni's note: Call from Terri...they made it to the top. Everyone is safe. Very emotional for everyone! More info and blog post to follow as soon as satellite phone reception is better.

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Day 12 - No-Go Number Two

2007-01-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

We woke to another day of strong winds and snow. No summit attempt today. Bummer. Our forecast is for "better weather" tomorrow. We've been getting forecasts via satellite phone from Nick in London. Looks like tomorrow is very cold but we'll take it and hope we're good to go. Tent life at 19000 feet is getting quite interesting. David and I have taken to videotaping some of our tent idiosyncrasies. We did manage to get six people in our tent yesterday for a birthday celebration and a...

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Day 11 - Summit Attempt Aborted

2007-01-22T16:28:00.000-08:00

Not much sleep last night anticipating our summit and wondering whether the tent would still be standing come morning. We've been getting up to 55 mph winds for the last twelve hours and enough snow and spindrift to make going outside to the bathroom quite an ordeal. We are not safe going higher on the mountain so we're hunkering down at camp two. Getting reports that the next couple of days should improve and we'll have a shot at the top. One of our teammates, Nancy, has her 50th...

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Day 10 - Sunday evening, Camp Two at 19,000 feet

2007-01-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

On the way up to camp two today we ran into a few folks going down who had turned around upon arrival at camp two due to high winds of over 50 miles an hour. We proceeded ahead into gusty cold winds and despite plumes coming off top of the Polish Glacier we arrived to reasonable conditions in camp. As I write this the wind gusts are becoming stronger and more frequent and the sun is dipping, and temperature is dropping steadily. It's actually been warm pretty warm at night, in the the 20s...

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Day 9 - Saturday, January 20

2007-01-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

There's always been something attractive, pure and primal to me about living in basic conditions in the wilderness. I enjoy pondering mundane survival issues like the weather, where I'm going to get water to drink or contemplating whether I care if my mug is dirty before I pour soup into it. In a civilized world we can get so caught up in the details of getting ahead that we forget how fortunate we are to have a roof over our heads and a hot shower or a clean environment. Engaging with nature...

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Day 8 - Polish Glacier

2007-01-20T06:46:00.000-08:00

Severe winds rocked our tent all night and abruptly abated around 7:00 am just in time for us to get up and prepare for our climb. Though we were on snow for most of our gear carry to camp two, much of the snow melted at camp one by late afternoon. We brought up food, our warmest clothing, crampons and ice axes for our summit bid. The climb up to 19000 feet was very tough, very steep. I felt solid all day but definitely feeling the altitude towards the top. From camp two we've had...

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