I was watching a special on the Travel Channel (hey, it was just while I was eating dinner, I swear!) called "The Top Ten Wonders of the West" (or something similar). Mt. Hood made number 5! And I learned that it's the second most climbed peak in the world. Wow. (I wonder what the cut-off is for "peak", though.) They tried to make Mt. Hood sound "dangerous yet beauitful" as they emphasized the volcano factor (ooooooooh) and showed clips from the climbing accident a few years ago where the rescue helicopter crashed). I'd also like to say that one of the reasons my mom is awesome is she climbed Mt. Hood.
They did a piece on Carlsbad Caverns (which was number 7)...that place looks so rad. Oh man...this special is making me a little sad that I didn't take a job with the SCA working in a national park. It makes me want to live on the West Coast so I can be a mountain woman.
2 comments:
It was fun climbing Mt. Hood. We started at around midnight. My boss led a group of about a dozen or more people. I trusted him as he had led many groups to the top before. I was in great shape so kept to the front of the group. In fact, I was so excited that they let me be in the lead as we roped up and climbed up the last "bridge" part to the summit. I later found out that they put the novices in front so that if in case they fall, they can be arrested by other more experienced climbers. It was a blast. Climbing Mt. Hood is dangerous, though, and typically a few people die every year. Not just because they do something foolhardy, but because accidents do happen. I climbed it on June 12th (my wedding anniversary). It took us about 7 hours to get to the top and quite a bit less to get down (maybe 2 hours)? I was so tired driving home that I turned across two lanes of traffic to stop at a coffee shop. That was enough to scare my passengers so at least one of them kept awake to keep me awake.
go Mt Hood!
actually, traveller magazine called the willamette valley+ashland the best romantic getaway in the country a year ago.
I kind of want them to stop, though, before to many people start coming and ruining everything
--Kayanna
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