What has kept me alive is that I’ve stayed properly scared.
Mountaineer David Hahn, 20+ expeditions to 8000 meter peaks.

Why I would’ve liked to have gone climbing in Ecuador:

Quito

Mountain aminals

Seeing the volcanic cone of Cotopaxi from the summit.


Why I didn’t go climbing in Ecuador:

Climbing up this

And making it back down.

(Photos via Jeff - major kudos for being able to photograph under duress!)

I can’t even put my own crampons on. That’s why I leave climbs like this to my Dad & Jeff who’ve just returned from climbing the Cayambe & Cotopaxi volcanoes in Ecuador.
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I can’t even put my own crampons on. That’s why I leave climbs like this to my Dad & Jeff who’ve just returned from climbing the Cayambe & Cotopaxi volcanoes in Ecuador.

Source: girlwiththerandomlife

Camp Muir / Mt. Rainier / July 2011
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Camp Muir / Mt. Rainier / July 2011

Mt. Rainier: Never Say Never When I got in to climbing I said “Sure, I’ll do this, but I never want to do anything with an ice axe, or helmet, or crampons. None of that scary dangerous stuff.”Then a trip to Mt. Rainier in Washington came up. My Mt. Rainier trip was amazing. It was completely unlike anything I’d ever done before. This was a mountain covered in snow and ice.It was scary. It was dangerous. It was hard. An Army infantry officer who was with my dad and I on the trip and who fought in Iraq said it was the most dangerous place he’d ever been. It was a gear-heavy endeavor. And sadly my pictures don’t do my layers and boots and pack and harness justice. It was real mountaineering - learning self-arrest techniques, a.k.a. stopping myself from falling down the side of a mountain with my ice axe, learning how to climb on snow, practicing the ins & outs of rope travel and safe crampon use.On summit day we went to bed at 6 p.m. in the Camp Muir bunkhouse after a day of climbing and woke up at midnight. We geared in for rope travel and climbed up and up. We made it to Disappointment Cleaver at 12,300’ and they called it due to weather - gusty winds, poor visibility and snowing heavily. The guides would call the weather gnarly. Wind, enough to knock me down on to the mountain, slammed against my ice axe. Enough to wear balaclavas and goggles against the smacking ice pellet snow. Enough to hike in our parkas, usually only worn at breaks for warmth. Enough to only see white in every direction. Going up is hard. Sometimes going down is worse. It’s best just not to look.What I learned though, is never say never.
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Mt. Rainier: Never Say Never

When I got in to climbing I said “Sure, I’ll do this, but I never want to do anything with an ice axe, or helmet, or crampons. None of that scary dangerous stuff.”

Then a trip to Mt. Rainier in Washington came up.

My Mt. Rainier trip was amazing. It was completely unlike anything I’d ever done before. This was a mountain covered in snow and ice.

It was scary. It was dangerous. It was hard. An Army infantry officer who was with my dad and I on the trip and who fought in Iraq said it was the most dangerous place he’d ever been. It was a gear-heavy endeavor. And sadly my pictures don’t do my layers and boots and pack and harness justice. It was real mountaineering - learning self-arrest techniques, a.k.a. stopping myself from falling down the side of a mountain with my ice axe, learning how to climb on snow, practicing the ins & outs of rope travel and safe crampon use.

On summit day we went to bed at 6 p.m. in the Camp Muir bunkhouse after a day of climbing and woke up at midnight. We geared in for rope travel and climbed up and up. We made it to Disappointment Cleaver at 12,300’ and they called it due to weather - gusty winds, poor visibility and snowing heavily. The guides would call the weather gnarly. Wind, enough to knock me down on to the mountain, slammed against my ice axe. Enough to wear balaclavas and goggles against the smacking ice pellet snow. Enough to hike in our parkas, usually only worn at breaks for warmth. Enough to only see white in every direction. Going up is hard. Sometimes going down is worse. It’s best just not to look.

What I learned though, is never say never.