My climbing mission

I’m on a mission — one that will last the rest of my life. I’m reasonably sure that you can guess what it is. Yes. Climbing. I’ve begun a new dietary regimen already and am going to begin training for efficient approach speed this week. That will require a lot of uphill hiking work. Since I hate treadmills, I’m going to go with the Doc’s suggestion of walking up the floors of parking garages to get used to the workload and develop the stamina I’ll need for the backcountry hikes I plan on doing once the weather gets a bit warmer in the spring. Right now, the snow is too deep and the temperatures in February are usually some of the coldest of the year for the most sustained period of time during the year. This year has been unusually warm and dry, but the first few days of February are proving to be true to form for the average. I have some technical climbing to do, some peakbagging to do, some hiking to do…and I feel good and generally happy about those prospects. I’m planning on watching the fireworks in Laurel and Billings from the top of Red Lodge Creek Plateau at 10,000 feet, where I can’t hear the sound of them going off on the Fourth of July. We’ll see how that works out, but I have to plan for these types of things because otherwise I’ll end up in the psych ward again, which I have no desire to revisit. Climbing keeps me mentally and physically functional, and I think it can do a whole lot more for me. I’m going to lose all the excess weight I’ve been carrying around, and I’m going to be as mentally healthy as possible through climbing and the hiking and other activities that go along with it — that’s my goal. I will surely have my rough days, but I have to start believing in myself. Other people do, so why shouldn’t I?