Hello there everyone:

It’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me personally. I’ve just been in that transition period between World Cup precise scheduling and the free-form less structred part of the year. And I have some news for you from that second world. But first of all, I wanted to give a shout-out to all of you ALL OVER THE WORLD! You may not know this, but I do see all the email you send in response to Stephan’s updates and my blogs. And it’s pretty amazing to see where all of you live… just the other day, I saw that people were writing from such places as Iraq and Kuwait! That’s wild… no matter what the world’s citizens may think of what’s going on out there, I want to send you an extra special ALOOOOHA and wish you safety and health.

the beginning

an unreal scene

As Chemmy, Lauren, Mark and I get ready for the Kilimanjaro in June, I went on a little climb through Haleakala Crater here on Maui and Iwanted to recap my experience for us all and for my climbing crew to get ready for the trek! The raw stats on Haleakala are: 10,023 feet high (that’s 3,055 meters); several climate zones (you’ll see those in the pictures); decent into the crater to approximately 6,500 feet and the final 6,500 down Kaupo gap on the south east side of the island down to sea level.

Right off the bat, I have to say “silly old me”: I wore runners, with cotton socks, got a blister after about 2miles! Argggghhhh that was sooo much fun… . I mean, I’ve been known to forget my ski boots here and there and perhaps accidentally use my slalom boots for a speed event, but this was clearly another dimension of silliness.

Luckily, the boyz came prepared with a first aid kit and I put some blister bubbles on and made it the 10.1 miles to the cabin where we ended up spending the night. That hike took about 4 and a half hours. One of my favorite moments was when we turned a corner and right in fron of us were the snow-capped peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island. Sooooo amazing, it felt like I could leap right over! Check out the pictures! Fun stuff, but I was exhausted… and hungry.

That evening, we just took it easy, celebrated our accomplishment of the day with a bottle of red wine, sat around and watched the sunset. Ohhh yeah, and watched the endangered Nene goose chill and eat grass on our front lawn.

We all chipped in to light the wood burning stove… I chopped the wood (ha!) and the guys setup the fire and got her going. I know, I know, what’s up with that? The girl chopping the wood? I’m telling a white lie here… you see, anyone who has ever been in the crater cabins knows that’s a really soft, easily splitable particle board… I didn’t have to hack it like a lumber jack. Ha… and here you thought I was choppin’ away…

BUT, I did take over the culinary duties and cooked some good ol’ mac and cheese on the wood burning stove and poured some hot water in some instant soups. Which leads me to my second booboo of the trip: I didn’t get enough food! I totally underestimated the strenuousness of the hike and packed WAY TO FEW calories. Now on our Kilimanjaro trip, the food aspect will be taken care of, but man, proper nourishment is soooo key!

None the less, it was delicious and with the fire crackling, we all settled in for a restful night’s sleep. I actually woke up once and had to go pee and what awaited me when I stepped out of the cabin and on to the field was the brightest, most luminescent night sky I have ever seen. WOW! I wish I had a photo to show you, but the camera we had couldn’t quite handle the low light situation… you may know that Hawaii is a great place for astronomy. We have many observatories here on Haleakala and on the Big Island. The reason Hawaii is a great place for star gazing is because there is very little light pollution and the atmosphere out here is optimal without too many light-shifting particles up there… anyway, it was the most amazing sight.