Laura completed Day 9 yesterday, summitting Mt. Cedric Wright. Almost 9000 feet of gain, after 8 previous days putting in over 40,000 feet. She described it as a "brutal" 9th consecutive big summit day. That description, coming from her, sends shivers down my spine. This is
definitely big boy/girl competition!
The handful of hardy souls who complete all 10 peak days will have put in well over 50,000 feet of gain in treks totalling about 150 miles. Think about that number for a minute - that's more than 10 miles straight up (and I'm sure their knees felt the 50K' of loss as well coming down). The stamina and strength (and determination) to do this thing is just mind-numbing. Hit the trail early to climb hard and high for 10-11 hours, have dinner, soak the feet and pop some Advil, move on down 395 to the next trailhead, grab some shut-eye, and do it all over again - for ten consecutive days! Hats off to all you beasts!
Assuming Laura bagged Mt. Morgensen today - after all, it was a
mere 6000 feet of gain in a 10 mile RT from the Portal - that would give her all ten challenge peaks. The most any woman has ever completed prior to this year is 6 of 10, according to Bob Burd. I don't know how to express the appropriate congratulations she deserves, but I'm sure a derivative of "epic" belongs there somewhere.
Laura, I have a ten year-old girl with me (whom you may know
) who wants to send a brief, heartfelt message your way on this finale day of the Challenge: "MooseTracks, you
ROCK!!!!"
And I think that pretty much says it all!
