Navy SEALs are apparently trained to motivate people to go beyond their limits because the other day I exceeded those limits by a long shot. While running around the obstacle course on the SEAL base in Coronado, I managed to climb up the entire height of the infamous cargo net before descending on the other side. At one point, I dared to look down and considered, briefly, the outcome if I should fall off the 68+ feet-high obstacle. However, by carefully guiding me over the ledge, my friends were able to literally talk me off the ledge and back down the other side. Just last week, I was not even able to climb more than half way up the net. However, the SEALs are clever and so this time they dangled a proverbial carrot over my head…a chocolate bar. Speaking of which, after a talk with the good people at Hershey Chocolate Co. in Hershey/PA, it now looks like the expedition won’t starve on the mountain. We’re intending to carry 100 lbs. of Hershey’s chocolate, in the form of milk chocolate bars and Reese’s Pieces candy, all the way to Everest base camp and beyond. It’s hard to beat the taste of chocolate in terms of instant gratification after a particularly grueling day of climbing.

Most people intent on scaling Mt. Everest do their winter training in such places as New Hampshire or the Swiss or French alps in order to get some realistic sense of the challenges they will face in the high Himalaya. Others are more fortunate and don’t have to travel far for their winter training. The other night I arrived late at night in my hometown of Pittsburgh and found the temperatures to be around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The snow was drifting in the streets, wind howling. Perfect weather for a hike around Schenley Park! I had a 10 AM meeting the next day, so I decided to spend two hours in the blistering cold, carrying my 30-lb. rucksack. When I arrived back home, it was 2 AM, way past my bedtime. However, the brisk hike had somehow gotten me so energy-laden that I couldn’t fall asleep. While trying to determine how best to proceed in order to lower my excess energy, I applied logic. Hence, I got out of bed, strapped my rucksack to my back and climbed up and down the stair case in my apartment building. Llistening to my iPod, I didn’t hear the loud noise my boots were making on the way up and down the 9 flights of stairs. A neighbor, who woke up to relay his discontentment with my activity, was more than a little surprised to find me in the stair case carrying a rucksack while wearing flannel pyjamas. A brief exchange clarified the circumstance but did nothing to persuade the neighbor of the necessity of the exercise. It took a while for me to fall asleep that night and I woke up very tired, and ended up being late for my meeting before flying to a warmer climate.