You are currently browsing the Dinhternet posts tagged: Alex K

The Climb

June 21, 2010 Exercise / Friends / Travel / Videos / Work
2 comments

Unfor­tu­nately, the first part of my video from the top of Half-​Dome got messed up, and that’s the one with me show­ing off the view from the top. Here’s the sec­ond part:

My first time using this cam­era. The video qual­ity is pretty awe­some, but I need to fig­ure out why the first part didn’t work right. Also, you can really tell that this is a helmet-​cam, because I’m the only one you can hear clearly.

Other than that, though… Half-​Dome was awesome!

It took us a gru­el­ing 14 hours to hike the slightly more than 14 miles round-​trip, but I had a lot of fun doing it, mostly thanks to Aaron L, Alex K, Derek N, Han C, Jef­frey K, Mai­lyne N, Ray­mond L, Regina S, and Wei-​Wen C. (Oh, and sur­prise meet­ing with KS Tiffany H at the summit!)

Even though not the best-​planned trip, every­thing just kinda worked out amaz­ingly well. Because of the odd weather this year, Mist Trail was EXTRA wet and the falls were just spec­tac­u­lar. I thought that the cables had been put up a cou­ple of weeks ear­lier, but it turns out they were not up until the day before our hike (June 16th), so we were among the first to see the top this year. In fact, there was still snow on top, which was awe­some! We had a lit­tle snow­ball fight at the clear­ing before the steps. Oh, and we ended up not pay­ing park­ing fees because the ranger sta­tions were closed as we entered and exited the park.

My only com­plaint was about the wait at the cables. Next time, I’m def­i­nitely going on the out­side of them and skip past the slower folks.

I can’t wait for my next adventure!

Herculean Effort

March 23, 2010 Friends / Health
2 comments

So I’m sit­ting at my desk on my lunch break right now. My legs are so stiff and sore I’m a mix of a pen­guin and a pirate with two peg legs when I try to walk. My hands still smell like camp­fire smoke some­how, despite dozens of wash­ings. I have ran­dom scrapes all over, and the blis­ters on my feet have blisters.

Despite that, though, going on the hike to Sykes Hot Springs with Derek N, Alex K, Jef­frey K, and Wei-​Wen C was pretty awe­some. It was about 10 miles in, going up 3,000 ft and down 2,000 ft in the process. (Our guide­book called the trail “the ele­va­tor” because it is con­stantly going up and down hills.) It took us about six hours each way with full gear.

The springs them­selves felt amaz­ing after the hike in. If not for them, I don’t think I would have been able to make it back out. I def­i­nitely got a sense of accom­plish­ment after fin­ish­ing the hike back to the car. (And I prob­a­bly had the light­est pack, too. Thanks to Derek N and Alex K for tak­ing the big ones!)

Even though I went into zom­bie mode the last cou­ple of miles and could barely lift my feet over the rocks on the trail, I made it back. The half-​marathon and even Half Dome seem within reach now. (In com­par­i­son, Half Dome is about 8 miles long and 4,800 ft up, or about twice as steep.)

Now, I’m more men­tally pre­pared for the chal­lenges to come, and I can’t wait to get some prac­tice in once my blis­ters heal up!