"Climb Every Mountain"

You know the end of the Sound of Music when the whole Von Trapp clan tromps up the mountain to escape the Nazis? While that probably wasn't all that fun, they did have a good excuse. They were, after all, running for their lives.

Me? I hiked up a mountain -- yes, a real, honest-to-goodness 10,000 ft high MOUNTAIN last weekend just for kicks!

Now if you are thinking that does not sound like me, you would be right. I was kind of coerced into making this treck by the employment group in my law firm who, for whatever reason, thought this would be fun.

The path we took ended up being around seven miles . . . up. We gained more than 4,000 ft and did it all in record time (less than four hours). Yes, I was at the back of the pack and just about died. Here is me with my "I'm dying" face:

Here is Jesse with his "this is so easy" face(yes, I had to bring him along for moral support):

The path we took was partially the current La Luz trail (frequented by some adventurous tourists and locals), partially the old La Luz trail (a "shortcut," which simply means that it is steeper), and partially an incredibly steep climb from one of the firm's partner's homes to the trail (he is an ultra-marathoner and runs up the mountain on a regular basis).



We all survived (even Jesse, who isn't pictured because he is the one taking the picture).

Once we got to the top, my torture was over because we took the tram down instead of hiking down (which surely would have been the end of me). Here's a view from the top right before we got on the tram (which, incidentally, is the longest tram in the world):