Hiking, very much like running a marathon – mentally!

By Ema Dantas

These thoughts and many more went through my head today, as I did three days in a row of hiking, as per RMI’s ‘Fit to Climb: Week 14 – RMI Expeditions Mountaineering Training.’

Since this was the Victoria Day long weekend, I thought it was perfect timing. On Saturday I hiked 2 hours, and even though the schedule did not call for it, I wore my twelve pound weight vest, to compensate for minimum elevation gains, of because of where I live. Then yesterday, Sunday I did a four hour hike, again wearing my twelve pound vest, because I was only able to gain 298 meters (about 1,000 feet) in elevation, when the training called for 2,500 feet. Yesterday it was raining off and on and the trails were muddy, but great practice for the Carstensz Pyramid upcoming climb I rationalized.

These two days were the prelude to today’s hike, where I had to hike for seven hours, carrying 45 pounds. I headed to the Bruce trail. Steve dropped me off at Limehouse, and then I proceeded to make my way towards SilveryCreek, following the main and side Blue Spruce trails.

I was a little out of place on the trails I think, carrying my 80 litre backpack. This is the backpack that I will be taking with me to Mt Rainier. I had condensed the backpack, since I had put the 45 pounds of weights inside and only had packed some lunch, water and a spare jacket. However almost everyone that I encountered on the trail, either wished me well on my long hike or inquired on how far I was going? 🙂

I currently weigh 100 pounds. So 45 pounds was hard. Really hard.  And the loneliness of hiking alone played tricks on my mind.

But at the end, like running a marathon, once you had a couple of hours of rest at home, you can’t remember how hard it was – and are ready to do it all over again.