Old Fart Training Days

The mind is willing, but the knees are screaming!

Our trip to Nepal would not be a reality without the guidance, support, and leadership of the unstoppable Kim Letson. An intrepid adventurer and seasoned traveller, Kim has taken us under her wing and organized a detailed travel itinerary. Now, when I say organized and complete, Kim takes it to the next level. She has created a masterpiece four page spreadsheet complete with daily ETD and ETA times. Her exceptional planning skills have been honed over time. Before reinventing herself as a kayak guide, ski patroller, and author, Kim served for twenty years in the Canadian military and much of her time was spent as a logistician. Skills that serve her well as a "trekking consultant." We are beyond impressed with Kim's skill set and slightly embarrassed that our contribution to the trek to date has been to book the BC ferry. Lord, I pray our sailing isn't cancelled. 

In addition to trip planning, Kim has been instrumental in designing our "altitude training sessions." Frankly, when you live at sea-level, training for altitude is near impossible, but as a group, we have dedicated ourselves to hiking up to the summit of Mount Washington, a total of 1588 metres elevation (just a little higher than Kathmandu) on a regular basis. Once again, Kim's expertise shines through. She encourages us to summit the mountain twice per outing, but to save the knees she recommends taking the chairlift down between climbs. Rob and I have enthusiastically embraced the idea and have termed our Washy outings - "Old Fart Training Days."

Jane and Kim training on Mount Washington

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Scenic chairlift at Mount Washington Alpine Resort

Giggle of the day:

Packing day is here, always one of my favourite days! Full of excitement and anticipation we reviewed our gear checklist. To our horror - it turns out our medication list is longer than our equipment list. New additions include Tylenol arthritis, Volteren, vitamins, electrolytes .... the list goes on! So much for an apple a day keeping the doctor away. This is the 60+.