WOW! How awesome, I think to myself. I just experienced a real “pay it forward” moment. And on September 11th of all days. I almost start to cry. And suddenly realize how something as a simple kind gesture from a complete stranger can turn around someones entire day. I drive off with a big smile and thoughts of how I could then pay it forward to someone else today.  I haven’t done so yet today but hopefully just by blogging about it I can inspire others to pay it forward today as well.

Think about it. Today marks the 10 year anniversary of Sept 11th. A day that all who experienced it will never forget. On this day let’s take a moment to remember all the men/women and service people who gave their lives to protect our freedom. Reflect on our own lives and how much we have grown & how much we have changed in the past 10 years.

And if u can… do something nice for a complete stranger today. PAY IT FORWARD! Just like the military, fire and police officers do for you everyday just as they did on Sept 11th.

While on the mountain I wrote in my journal every day, keeping a record of our progress and the various thoughts floating through my head that day. From equipment planning in advance and outdoor camera gear tips, to reaching the top, here are some excerpts of how I planned/trained for the mountain and our daily progress while on our BeTheExecption Kilimanjaro adventure.

Day 1:

July 4th, 2011
Sitting in my tent in forest camp! I can’t believe I’m actually on Kilimanjaro! After checking in at Londorossi gate, we headed to the Lemosho trail head and we hiked for around 3 hours today through the forest. We saw Colobus monkeys along the trail, forest caterpillars, and birds. It was increadable. Forest camp is packed with people today which makes it a bit noisy, but we are all excited to be here.

Day 2:

July 5th, 2011
Made it to Shira camp 1 and were greeted by our amazing porters who sang for us! Shira camp is much larger than Forest camp, and all the teams are spread out now. We are filthy dirty and it’s only day 2. The fine dirt engulfs everything! But as we walked through the Heather zone we saw our first glimpse of Kibo and being on the mountain feels so real now! There were many up and down hills today so I was glad my stair training was paying off. And after talking with our guides I learned a great deal about the Masai. I am fascinated by them and often wonder if they would tell me more details about Masai life if I wasn’t a foreigner or a woman. There are no clouds tonight and I can even see the glaciers on top of Kibo, It’s so beautiful here, I am having the time of my life.

Day 3:

July 6th, 2011
We have made it to Shira camp 2. It took about 4 hours from Shira 1 and it was a nice hike with not much up hill as we have stayed around 12,000 feet or so. It was hazy earlier but the mountain looks lovely at the moment. I tried to take a shower but it was difficult to use and decided bath wipes would be easier than attempting the shower tent again. Not to mention it was very windy and the thought of the tiny shower tent blowing over with me left squatting there for all the world to see wouldn’t have been in my best interest. LOL! But the feeling of even somewhat of a shower felt fantastic after a few days without one, covered in dust. Since the Scott Fischer memorial is about an hour hike away from camp, we went to visit it this afternoon. I’m acclimatizing, currently listening to Enya and the Lion King soundtrack on my iTouch, I’m sleeping under the most amazing stars I’ve ever seen, with the snows of Kilimanjaro in the background. I still can’t believe I’m in Africa! And I’m enjoying every second of it!

Day 4:

July 7th, 2011
We have made it to Barranco camp about 13,000 ft elevation. It was a long day of trekking today, we ate lunch at the Lava Tower around 15,000 ft. I’ve had a slight headache, I don’t think it’s mountain related but rather due to the fact I have had no caffeine now for 5 days, and I normally drink coffee or have a soda every day. So I’m hoping it will pass. This is actually the most healthy I have drank and ate that I can remember. Our cook Jackson is amazing, I don’t know how he makes such lavish meals on the mountain but he manages. I have eaten nothing but soup, veggies, fruit, toast, porridge, meat, and been drinking around 4 liters of water a day. Lets just say it’s quite cleansing. This camp is my favorite camp so far. It’s nested in a valley below the Western breach and Uhuru peak keeping the wind minimal. You can see the lights of Moshi town at night below the clouds, and the stars encircle Kibo. Camps are very spread out and it’s beautiful here. Tomorrow we head up the Barranco wall! I’m excited!

Day 5:

July 8th, 2011
Karanga camp. Today was the hardest day by far but it was also the most fun! We rock scrambled up the Barranco wall and I loved it! I kinda wish more of this route had scrambling like this. There is one part called the kissing rock where you practically have to make out with the rock face to get around it. After the Barranco wall there were many rocky up and down hills getting to Karanga. Just when you think that’s the last one you get to the top and see the trail go back down again. It was exciting but tiring and I’m falling asleep now. Zzzzz….

Day 6:

July 9th, 2011
At Barafu camp now around 15,000ft. We are so close to the top!! It’s really exciting! I’m listening to music thinking about my family and wondering what they are up 2, I can’t wait to share my experiences with them. I’m realizing why I enjoy spending time in nature so much. It puts things into perspective, life into perspective, it reminds you of who you really are, and it challenges you to be a better person than you were yesterday. I’m so thankful to be sharing this journey with the BeTheException women, we are all different but all the same and I am having the time of my life with them. We are learning Swahili, making friends with the porters and pushing ourselves to truly be the exception. I know that I have made lifelong friends on this trip.

Day 7:

July 10th, 2011
Summit day!! We woke up early, left around 7am and set out with our sights on Uhuru peak! It has been the hardest day for sure! As we gained over 4,000ft of elevation and made it to the famous summit sign around 2pm. At around 17,500ft at times I felt a little dizzy but I just kept drinking water and taking mountain breaths and it would go away. “Pole Pole” today for sure! When we made it to Stella point I knew I was going to make it to the top, and once I could actually see inside the crater… I’m not gonna lie, I cried. It was epic finally seeing inside the volcano, and seeing the glaciers. The hike from Stella point to Uhuru peak was a cake walk compared to reaching Stella point and it was great because we didn’t summit at sunrise, so there was NO one at the summit but us! It was fantastic!! We actually were originally supposed to summit tomorrow but figured we were so close why not just do it now. After reaching the sign and taking a lot of photos, we descended into the crater for our night at crater camp.

Day 8:

July 11th, 2011
Crater camp is everything I had dreamed of. I walked right up to the last remnants of the Furtwängler Glacier and touched it. I took some photos and video of it as I know it will be gone soon. It’s sad really, and I’m thankful that I get to see these amazing glaciers before they are gone. Our guide thinks in about 5 years they will be gone. I didn’t spend much time taking night photos as it was to cold to take my gloves off for long, and once you put them back on it took a while to get warm fingers again. I could hear the glaciers cracking and popping at night, and it sounded like gun shots going off and echoing around the entire crater. You could feel the ground shake as rocks fell and I found sleeping impossible. Not because of the sounds but because after trying to lay down for a while I would just get up trying to breathe. To avoid breathing in the cold air I wore my balaclava but it then felt like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and still felt like that when I took it off. I spend the night sitting up taking mountain breaths enjoying the noises of the glaciers, contemplating taking Diamox and waiting for sunrise so we could head out. We were originally going to do a double summit, heading out around 4am back up to Uhuru peak to see it at sunrise. But we were all so tired and decided we had done it already and didn’t want to get up so early. And as you could still see the sunrise as we headed to Stella point that morning I still feel I got to enjoy that experience, plus seeing the amount of people attempting the summit at that time made me happy we were able to enjoy that moment alone.

Day 9:

July 12th, 2011
Made it down to Mweka camp in one day. Wow that was a LOT of downhill for one day and my toes are killing me! LOL.
We spent the night in the forest for the last time, we sang and danced with our porters and guides. We played Farkle for the last time. All I could think of was how I was so close to being able to take a real shower again! That and how much I will miss all of the porters/guides who have become my friends on this journey. It’s bitter sweet really, I want to get off the mountain but I know a part of me will always be on it.

Kilimanjaro was always something I said I would love to climb, but it was always the idea that “someday” I would do it and never really thought it would happen. When I was around 13, a family friend had just come back from climbing it. That’s when I first learned of the mountain. At the time they were hoping to climb all the 7 summits and I remember seeing the rocks they had collected from the top of the mountains they had climbed and all the interesting things they had brought back from their world travels. I thought to myself that would be something I would LOVE to be able to do.

Throughout high school I was very active and enjoyed nature, backpacking, dance, photography and spending time outdoors. As I got more involved with college, and career I found less time for hiking and even less time for doing the things I enjoyed, especially after becoming a mom. It was hard to find time to break away from everyday life, and make time to do the things I loved. Being a woman with an adventurous side can be hard to do in this day and age. Let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the smartest idea to  head out alone to the mountains, or go for a long trail run by yourself. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found it gets harder to find people who share that interest with you. And for both of you to have time to go on adventures with things like kids, family, and careers that all take priority. But I feel at home in outdoors, and as an artist nature is the most inspiring to me. I realized that to stay sane I needed to get outside more even if it meant just going running around the neighborhood. So few years ago I started running, then a friend got me into running races. I never had liked running before but now I had found something I was really into. I decided I would make an effort to make time for myself to do the things I enjoyed to do and I made sure to go hiking every weekend as well. I even started a hiking blog, (no longer online) but my first entry read “starting off small now but someday soon we hope to climb the highest US peaks, and then onto Kilimanjaro, and if we get really good someday maybe Everest!! Hey, anythings possible! And we are willing to try! So why not!” I wrote that just so I would have a first entry but who would have known climbing Kilimanjaro would actually come true!

Through my work at Wyle I met former Astronaut and mountaineer Dr. Scott Parazynski Parazynski.com. As a fan of the outdoors as well as space exploration, I am truly inspired by him and his remarkable life experiences. And I feel very lucky to be able to work with such a positive, inspirational person. It was through Scott that I met Nicky Messner BeTheException.net a mountaineer who has also climbed Everest and Kilimanjaro among other mountains. You don’t meet many women that have climbed Everest, and traveled the world as she has, she is truly exceptional! As a woman she really inspired me to start living my dreams and turn “someday” into today.

I had mentioned to her that I would love to climb Kilimanjaro sometime but had no idea how to plan or go about it and had no one that I knew that would want to do it with me. Since she had climbed it before and knew a few other women who also wanted to climb it she decided to put together an all women’s group to climb the mountain together. So of course I seized the opportunity! I was thrilled that I had met a group of women with a similar adventurous side and that I was actually going to start living my dreams! We spent the next 10 months training, even going to Colorado to climb Mt. Belford. And on July 1st we left for Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro the highest freestanding mountain in the world. It was an amazing experience, everything I had dreamed of and one I will cherish forever!

View excerpts from my daily Kilimanjaro journal [HERE]

While on this exceptional adventure I used Spot Connect to track our progress. A GPS device that is capable of tracking your progress every 10 minutes as well as sending checkin/ok messages to your social networking groups. You can view a map of our route we took below.

VIew my other adventures on SpotAdventures

In June the BeTheException.net team gathered in Leadville, CO. for a Kilimanjaro training climb. With snow still ample in the area Mt. Belford was a best bet to climb a 14er. At 14,197ft it was the highest mountain I had ever climbed. I had never been to Colorado before and I enjoyed experiencing it’s beauty first hand! The mountains are amazing! I loved getting to hike in the snow, and seeing so much wildlife. And I was overjoyed to finally get to meet all the exceptional women of our group in person.

On June 12th, we reached the summit of Mt. Belford in Colorado. At 14,197 feet it was an excellent training exercise for Kilimanjaro.

Photography is one of my favorite things to do, my grandfather was a photographer and my uncle is a photographer so you could say it’s in my blood. I enjoy outdoor and adventure photography the best, and find it fun to use the elements around me to get creative artsy shots of anything interesting or beautiful that presents itself before me. For me having my camera handy at all times is best way to capture anything that might happen at a moments notice in the outdoors. But doing this sort of photography has it’s limitations. There are just some places you can’t carry a heavy tripod, or even a lightweight one would be useless if the wind picks up. And backpacking with numerous of lenses can really add unnecessary weight.

Here are a few tips and ticks I use to keep my gear light weight, waterproof, charged up, and steady while on an adventure.

1. When you can’t take a tripod along

It would be just silly to carry a tripod backpacking or rock climbing. Although they do sell trekking poles with camera mounts now and even make a pretty cool lightweight and air travel friendly monopod www.trek-tech.com going that route I could see it blowing over on an uneven surface with a heavy DSLR mounted to it. They even make pretty cool flexible tripods that would be awesome for getting creative shots called a Gorillapod. But the one that would support a heavy DSLR would be to heavy to carry on a long trek. So when traveling light I like to use my secret weapon. A small microbead travel pillow about 8.5×11″ in size.Not only is it great to use for napping on the plane, but its extremely light weight, you can wash the outer case it’s in and I got mine at target for around $14. Dual purpose products are the way to go when packing light. I would put the pillow on a rock or in between tree branches and because of it’s bean bag like filling you can position your camera on top of it and it holds it steady so you can capture that perfect shot. I was able to get awesome night photos but what would have been even better was if I had gotten the remote Giga T Pro wireless timer before I left for this trip, so I could film time lapses and take night shots without physically hitting the trigger. But when traveling light it wasn’t a priority at the time, still wish I would have had it though. Also to keep light I only brought with me 2 lenses. A Canon 18-200 for Safari and getting shots where I needed to zoom in. And a Sigma 10-20 for the wide angle shots. Lenses can be very heavy! So pack only what you think is necessary for your adventure. My camera of choice is the Canon 60D for my adventures, although the 5D and 7D have weather sealing I purchased it due to it being lighter weight wise, it’s slightly smaller and for it’s swivel out display.

2. Backpacks & Straps

When it came time to get a new backpack I spent a lot of time researching one that was right for me and my photo needs. ClikElite makes some awesome backpacks and gear but I wasn’t sure about the fit being only 5’1″ and without a store to try them on first I went to good old REI and found a womens Deuter backpack similar to this one that fit me perfectly and it also had a separate section in the back I could put my photo gear separate yet still easily accessible from my other gear. And comes with a rain cover which is nice. But I knew that I wanted my camera accessible at all times, so carrying it on my chest was my best bet. Now don’t get me wrong there are times when strapping it to the front of your backpack would be unwise when your rock scrambling etc, and for times like that I keep a smaller camera like a Canon G10 handy if I still want/can to take a shot. But as for strapping on my DSLR I use Kata camera straps and “S” climbing hooks to strap it to the front shoulders of my backpack straps. The “S” hooks are great as I can easily unclip the camera and leave the “S” hooks in place. Like other heavily trafficked trails, the trails on Kilimanjaro kick up a LOT of very fine dust. Even just moving your arms swirls dust around so keeping your camera clean is tough. Unless you keep it in a pouch strapped to your chest on in your backpack it WILL get covered in a fine dust. But if kept in a pouch it may be harder to get your camera out and ready at a moments notice, and carrying the pouch adds weight. To stay light and have my camera ready in an instant I used a Buff and put my camera inside of it so the straps came out each end of the Buff and could still be attached to my backpack. It really helped with cutting down the dust factor and still kept my camera easily accessible.

3. Go Solar

Making sure your batteries are charged and ready is key. And if your trekking to far off places for long periods of time or in countries with who knows what kind of electrical outlets, going solar is the way to go. For charging DSLR batteries I use the Nomad 7 Solar panel by GoalZero. It has a port for a USB and an adapter for a 12V DC charger. So you can charge anything with a USB and anything that will hook up to a car charger. I got this adapter by Pearstone so could charge my LP-E6 battery with it. I took 2 LP-E6 batteries with me for my 2 week trip in Africa and always made sure at least one was charged. And I avoided reviewing my photos/video to save battery life. I strapped the solar panel to the back of my backpack so I could charge my iTouch (which was needed by the Spot Connect) while I hiked. And strapped solar panel to the tent when I needed to charge the camera batteries. At night I would take all the batteries out of my cameras and put them in my sleeping bag along with anything else techy and used my body heat to keep them warm in the cold night temps. (cold will kill your batteries) To avoid my lens/camera getting foggy due to hot/cold temp changes I kept it in my backpack at night in it’s LowePro case with packets of silica gells, like the ones you find in a new shoe boxes.

4. Memory & Waterproofing

Knowing me I take thousands of photos and out of those there may only be 100 or so that I actually think are ok . So having sufficient memory for my camera is key. And I only trust my files to ExtremePro memory cards, they are more expensive but they are waterproof, shockproof, x-ray proof, they are great for recording video with HDSLR’s and I’ve never had an issue with lost data on them. For my Kilimanjaro trip and Safari after I took three 16GB cards with me, and only ended up maxing out 2 cards with video and photos. I also brought a waterproof case to store the cards in after they were full. A Flip mino HD camera for times when you want to film discreetly and a smaller Canon G10 for around town.

With almost a year before I left for Kilimanjaro I knew that I had training was key.

Amazingly I didn’t get electrocuted at all running through the wires. But poor Michael got hit twice! heheee! I actually loved testing myself on the uphills, and was appreciating my Kilimanjaro training for paying off early. I may get strange looks for doing a set of 111 stairs (75′ straight up) 15 times with a 30lb backpack on 3 times a week but it sure payed of in this case.
I know I’m ready for Kili now.

Tough Mudder for life!!

Here is the current list of race essentials….

-The uniform

3 Wolf Shirt, hot shorts, BAD ASS socks, running shoes, and assorted 80 essential gear!

-Safety first

Mace, reflective running vest, 2 LED lights, headlamp, and sunscreen!

-Fuel

Energy bars, WATER, running belt, WATER, and candy!

-Vans

We were luckily able to use some fellow team mates vehicles! Thanks team!

-Maps & extras

Your course maps, music, mix cds, and ziplock bags for your smelly clothes.

Below is the course map! Watch out So-Cal! Here we come! Race photos soon to follow.