Old man

yesterday morning I got upwhile turning my head to the left. Doing this I felt my neck was not willing my head to move that direction. As a result I could not look to the left the next hours.  Now, my neck muscle still hurts and I feel 40 years older. At least I don’t hope to feel like this in the next 40 years. Moving means moving in ”granny-gear” and this weekend I will sit all day in the comfy chair next to the window.

Snow Run

The last three weeks there has been a pretty consistent snow layer on the ground. This is the first winter that I have really seen snow here in North Holland. To really enjoy it Paul and I decided to take a nice run in the dunes. The wind was definitely blowing a bit and it was -10degrees so we had to make sure to dress warmly.

The final result for me was two pairs of running pants, a short sleeved and long sleeved shirt, a thin jacket, and a wind jacket. A fleece scarf, gloves, and something to cover my ears. Paul had about the same on.

When we started I thought, “oops, too many layers” and began stripping things off, but when we turned around after 25min and actually had to run “into” the wind, I was really happy for all the layers.

 It was very beautiful, but really hard running. Between snow and ice, it took a lot of grip to keep moving and I could really feel my calves burning. Today, my quads and calves are pretty sore. Though more fresh snow has landed and Paul keeps asking me to go running, I think I will be staying inside with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Survival Skills in a Traffic Jam

Last Wednesday around 16:00 an enormous snow storm hit North Holland bringing down an amazing 10 centimetres of snow.  In great panic the working masses ran for their cars to get home as fast as possible to avoid being trapped driving in this horrific snow storm.  Many of those people would spend the next 5-8+ hours of their lives stuck on the highways… I was one of them.

So in many countries 10 cm of snow is nothing to panic over but here in the Netherlands this little snow fall close to rush hour created pure grid-lock on the highways around Amsterdam and the main highway going north of Amsterdam.

When my manager told me that a snow storm was coming I really didn’t believe him because it was still somewhat sunny outside.  But true to how fast weather can change in the Netherlands, it was snowing within half an hour.  Around this time my manager told everyone to go home.

I checked traffic and I could already see that there was a huge traffic jam.  But I figured better to sit in it now and get home at a relatively decent time rather than sit in it later.  This was actually good logic since as it turned out the roads would be jammed until 1:30am that evening.  But I did not count on having to sit in traffic for 5 ½ hours.

I live 25km from work and normally it takes me about 30min to get home.  I would have never believed that it was possible to take over 5 hours to drive that distance.  I probably could have walked it in the same amount of time. A colleague who lived 10km further than me took 7 hours to get home that evening.

Now 5-6hours sitting in a car is a long time, especially when you are unable to take a break.  I am a bit health conscious and therefore drink a lot of water and herbal teas, but this health tendency does not combine well with being a woman trapped in the middle of the highway with hundreds of other cars.  Sitting there in my second hour seriously considering just urinating on my car seat I looked longingly at the men stepping out of their cars just going on the side on the road.

Then I thought of this story that I read a couple of weeks ago about this hard-core woman journalist who went to the war-zone in Afghanistan when she was over 4-months pregnant.  On one of the tours they were driving through areas where it was impossible to stop for safety reasons.  Being so pregnant, her little one was seriously pressing up against her bladder.  So what did she do?  She began to pee into water bottles inside the car and then tossing them outside.  My main question when reading this was: how did she aim?

Well, I felt inspired (and very desperate).  Looking over to my passenger seat I looked at my empty Tupperware lunch container and thought, if she could do it so can I.  Well it turns out aiming is not so easy…especially when you are still driving. While I was able to get some relief, in the end I had a little stage fright especially with the big trucks driving next to me, who could probably suspect what I was up to.  But these extreme circumstances called for extreme measures.

In the end I had to stop at Ikea (along with many other people it turns out) which was about half way between work and home. I have never appreciated Ikea (and their long opening times) as much as I did that night.  After that the next two hours (and 10km) home did not seem as bad.

 It is now Sunday, and it is snowing again.  But today next to Paul and a warm fire (and a bathroom in the next room) I can really enjoy it.

Aconcagua climb

From 2 December till 24 December I have been to Argentina and Chili to climb the Aconcagua together with Harald and Marco.

 Why? In the 90^th I saw a documentary on discovery channel about a young dude that was trying to get to the top of the Aconcagua. The climb was non-technical, but it was the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. I never really forgot about this. In 2002 I have climbed and skied the Toubkal in Marocco (highest peak of North Africa). I had trained really hard, because it was said that I needed a very good endurance for it. I was imagining of searching for my last reserves to climb to the top, but in reality it was rather easy also due to good weather conditions. In the beginning of this year Marco was talking about climbing the Kilimanjaro, but I wanted a mountain that would demand me to go to my limits, where I would find my limits: The Acancagua.

 On 2 December 2009 Marco, Harald and I met on the airport in Paris. They came flying in from Duesseldorf and I from Amsterdam. A day later we arrived in Buenos Aires. After I had negotiated 5 Pesos of our taxi-ride we drove into town. At arrival at the hotel Harald decided to give the driver 5 Pesos extra. Soon we found out that the national food in Argentina is meat, Meat, MEAT, A LOT OF MEAT!!!! The next day we took a tourist-bus-tour through town. I had warmed up M&H to do an open roof tour, but we ended up in a small closed bus, not very successful. After seen the main sights, have the first layer of burned skin (Marco had 5 burnt layers), finished several beers and cocktails and been to Friday’s we flew on the fifth to Mendoza where the whole group would meet that day.

 On the plane I was sitting next to the first person of our group, Joel from the US/Canada. The total mix of the group were 5 Canadians (Chantal, Maude, Marie-Anne, Clement and Dany), the halfling (Joel), 5 Dutchlandpeople (Roel, Miranda, Marco, Harald and Paul) and an Austrian (Johann). The expedition was led by Pinky, Javier and Fernando, our local guides of INKA.

In the evening we picked up our rental equipment. I had decided to rent all down equipment and an ice-pick. The next day we went to get our permits and drove to Los Penitentes (2700m) where we would sleep a last time in a bed. In the afternoon we went for a short walk. I was restless and wanted to start. The waiting days took too long now.

 On the 7^th after breakfast we started walking. The first two days we would walk up to 3200m altitude, this slow increase was to get used to the higher altitude slowly. Each night we got measured our oxygen levels and heart rate, this to see how you adapt to the higher altitudes. The second day there was a very strong wind and Marco was having difficulties adjusting to the altitude. The next day to base-camp (4200m) he got in serious trouble. All the time I was drinking lots of fluids and eating a lot, because later this would become harder and harder. On the 10^th of December we had a rest day. We had to go to the doctor in the morning to who checked our longs on fluids, our blood pressure and other doctor-stuff. While sitting outside the doctor’s office, a helicopter was bringing some stuff. The wind of the helicopter blew the iron doctor sign of the wall, it was just above Marie-Anne’s and my head and it fell just in front of us. If this had hit us then we would be moved in the heli and be flown down again. Instead we could go up. The next day we moved food to camp 1 and came down to base-camp where we had another rest day the next day. Going up went good. Pinky put in a very nice slow pace. Going down was harder, my boots were a bit narrow and I had a lot of pressure on my feet.

Marco decided to go down the next day, because his oxygen levels and blood pressure were not good. He needed more time to adopt than the given days. This was unexpected and more difficult to deal with than expected, because we wanted to go together to the top. The rest day was used to adjust to this new situation, only the two of us for over a week in the high camps. I called with Katherine at base camp and it was great to hear her voice and listened to her encouraging words. Especially Harald needed some pep talk to continue to the upper camps. The surroundings of base-camp were spectacular and we made a nice walk that day and talked a lot. After that we were ready to attack…

 The 13^th of December we left base-camp and Marco, who would walk back to civilization. The plan was to be in the base-camp at the other side of the mountain on the 21th of December. On arrival in camp 1 it started to snow lightly. For the higher camps we got poo-bags, so these had to be tested: the best technique had to be figured out. Also that night I tested my 1 liter pee bottle. I decided to do it without using the light. I was on my knees on my sleeping bag. After finishing I turned on the cap and went to sleep. The next morning I took it the throw it, but I saw that the bottle was filled almost to the brim. This made me decide to use the light next time.

The next day was a carry day to camp 2 and back. I felt good trying not to use extra energy and focusing to my steps without loosing balance. This whole mountain consisted of stones, rocks and gravel, which is great going down, but up is another story.

The next day was a rest day in camp 1, after that we moved to camp 2 and the next day to camp 3. The walk to camp 2 was hard at first. My foot hurt, but after removing my thick warm sock it was gone. I only worried what to wear from camp 3 because there the temperature would be real low. Joel came with a solution. I could use his socks, which were thinner than mine, but still rather warm. I Slept light at the higher camps. From 9pm till 1am I usually slept ok, but then I was awake for a few hours. Before I got up I slept for a few more hours usually.

Going to camp 2 and 3 was not difficult. When I arrived at the camp I felt like walking further that day. I didn’t want to stop. When arriving in camp 3, I thought, that the only thing that could stop me from reaching the top was the weather. (sooo naive….).

 On the night from the 19^th to the 20^th there was a really hard wind. The next morning we had to start walking at 5:30 to try to get to the top. I didn’t sleep that night. The wind felt like it was lifting the tent. I kept thinking about what to wear the next day and about all kind of stuff. I had rather started now then to wait till the morning. At 4:45 I started to put on ALL my clothes for that day. I had nothing to drink anymore so I went to the main tent to check when I would get water. Outside the tent it showed that I had too many clothes on, also I walked too fast, so totally out of breath and too warm I reached our guides. They thought something was wrong with me and send me back to my tent. They came to measure my oxygen again, but all was the same as the day before. They would bring me water later. They asked me if I wanted porridge. Until now I ate 2 plates of it every morning, but since I was thirsty I couldn’t eat any. 5 Minutes before we started walking I got my water, so I had no time to eat before starting.

The past few days I felt strong when walking and had a lot of energy left, but this morning my legs were heavy from the start. Since I was wearing only 1 pair of socks I kept wiggling my toes from the beginning. Breaks were really short, so we would not get cold, but because I was wearing down mittens I couldn’t drink and eat easy. I started to suck on gels and eat some power bars. The sunrise was very beautiful. You could see the shade of the Aconcagua over the other mountains. After 2-3 hours we had our first bigger break. We had to put on our crampons, but my lace were frozen. I needed help to get them on. After some ice we reached “Windy Ridge”. In short: it was VERY WINDY.  After walking further suddenly my sight wasn’t sharp anymore. I ate another gel and felt a bit better, I was really sick of it by that time already. I had to walk in front of Javier so he could check how I walked. After a few steps my sight got fuzzy again. I felt my energy being sucked out of me very quickly and I started to loose my balance. I knew that this was my limit, my top. It was only 400m more, but still 3-4 hours to go. I reached an altitude of 6550m and felt that if I continued I didn’t have enough energy to come safely down the mountain with my poor sight. Harald asked if he should come down with me, but I wanted him to go as far as he could get. He walked an hour further (100m higher) to the beginning of the Canaletta and then decided to come down. No more energy he told me later.

 That day Pinky reached the top with Chantal, Maude, Dany, Johann and Joel. I was then already back in camp 3. I walked down the first bit by myself, Javier was watching me from a distance. Fernando came to pick me up at the little hut where we had our break. When I sat down there I felt how exhausted I was. When I got up I started walking down but I slipped on some rocks and ice. Slowly, very slowly I continued. After a bit Fernando told me to have a 5-minute break. I saw him walk to a rock to check out the view, meanwhile I fell asleep for a few minutes. I was happy to be in the camp. I forced myself to eat and drink a bit and then had a good nap.

 We heart on the radio that there was an accident in our group when coming down. The following story has been told in different versions. Here is my version: After reaching the top, Chantal could see only for 10%. She told it, but nobody really realized it. At the Canaletta the group stopped and she tried to sit, but she stepped in a hole of ice and slid down, dragging Pinky with her. Both were wearing crampons and Pinky had an ice axe = very dangerous! After 40m Pinky could stop himself, but Chantal kept sliding over ice and rocks for about 120m. It took them 5-6 hours to come back to camp 3, but luckily everybody could walk down. Pinky had hurt his knee and Chantal had hurt her head and had bruises on her legs, eyes, back, and, and, and… Later the doctor said she was very lucky, because last year somebody fell there and broke many bones and had a fractured skull.

That night the wind was blowing harder than before, I slept really good. I didn’t care about wind or cold, I just wanted to sleep. In the next 2 days we were going down from camp 3 at 5950m to Mendoza at 1000m. We walked down on the other side of the mountain, so the scenery was new. It was spectacular.

 On 22 December at Inpenitientes Marco was waiting for us, this was a big present surprise. He was the only one who had a shower in the last 2 weeks, so sitting between Harald and me, I had something fresh to smell at. The shower that night was very needed.

 The next day we brought back the rental equipment and had some drinks with the whole group. After an Argentinean BBQ and some drinks (while being shown a traditional Argentinian Bachalor’s party: running around naked through the streets), M&H, Johann and I left on the 22^nd of December to Santiago. Here we had two days to see Val Paraiso and the capital before the plane left back to Paris.

 It was a great trip. I reached my limit this climb and I left with all toes + fingers and a big smile on my face.

Oxygen-High

Yesterday I came back from South-America. It was now a week ago since I have been in high altitude so therefore I was curious how many red blood-cells were still in my system. This morning I went for a 5k run along the creek in Nieuwstadt. As usual after not running for over 3 weeks the first few hundred metres go very easy since the body has no clue what actually is already happening to it.

I didn’t want to kill myself within the first kilometer, so I changed back to moderate speed. Strange enough my heart didn’t beat in my throat. My legs started to wonder what I wanted to do, but my breathing was normal. I really enjoyed the run and I hope that this next week I will still feel the extra oxygen.

Ice Course weekend in Austria

Next week I will be flying to Argentina and make an attempt to go up the Aconcagua. Since we have to cross a glacier, some crampon- and ice-axe skills are required. Therefore Harald, Marco and I went to Innsbruck for a weekend. In Oetztal we went with a guide to the glacier. Besides all the tips on do’s and don’t’s for Aconcagua we also learned techniques to walk and climb on ice and to get someone out of a craves.

In these two days we learned actually more then needed, but it was very interesting to know. We went on very steep ice parts on which you had to go up on arms and legs: I had difficulties. It was hard to trust the materials completely. My boots were loose fitting so when I put my heel down it felt like they were falling of. Not so good for your confidence

All in all we really could check our equipment for next month and it was a very nice weekend on a sunny glacier. I am not sure yet if I ever will be an fanatic ice waterfall climber. A hilly glacier is enough excitement for this moment.

2nd place in Sint Maarten (1/2) Marathon

This last month I have been running quite a lot. I have increased my long run to 25k and during the runs I have implemanted speed work-outs. Besideds the running went to the gym about 3 times a week where besides weights I did also cardio work-outs (15 minutes of cycling, stepping, running, rowing, stairmachine, crossmachine). This all to prepaire for the Aconcagua trip.

11 November I ran a race in Drente, the “Sint Maarten Marathon”, I ran the 22.4k. There were about 34 people running and after the start I was in 3rd place. One guy took off and was not seen by anyone until the finish. After the first lap (about 4k) some people overtook me but at the end of the second lap I could still see them running ahead off me. I wanted to run 12km/h, but it was hard to keep to this pace since there was a hard wind and the rain made the dirtroads muddy. I then decided to try to run for the second place instead of run a constant speed. Strange enough by changing stategy I went running faster and ran each km under the 12km/h.
There were also marathon runners and they kept a nice steady pace. Halfway the race I ran second with another man. It got harder, but I really wanted to finish second, because this oppertunaty doesn’t happen for me many times. With a sprint in the last km I was able to finish second in 1:49:23. The number one already chenged and was ready to go home. He finished 10 minutes ahead of me.

The next day I was on a plane to New York to visit Wilco. I used this trip to buy a lot of the clothes I needed for my trip to the Aconcagua next month and to buy running shoes: shopping time!
Also in New York I ran every day along the Hudson river.

Summer Garden

When we came back from vacation in August, our garden exploded in growth. The sunflowers made me especially happy. While we are still learning to put some structure to the garden, we did enjoy some of the wild flowers. Here are some pics:

Sunflowers in Bloom

Flowers

Front Yard

Autumn is Here

So while my dearest has been training for climbing extremely high mountains and running hours in the Dunes, I have been enjoying the change of seasons from the comfort of my chair with a good cup of coffee. Soon I will have to post pictures, because these days have been beautiful. Autumn leaves scattered over the garden, crisp air, and the changing light of the sun as it moves lower on the horizon. Every season brings a great sense of nostalgia as clothes and habits change to fit the weather. The sweaters start coming out of the closet, we start cooking hardier meals, and spend romantic evening curled up on the coach with a warm milk and a fire burning in the fire place.  The evening temperatures are starting to hover towards freezing indicating the rapidly approaching winter.  Though I like to complain about the cold, I really love this time of year.

21.5km trainings run

Today I ran 21.5km in 2 hours. For a trainingsrun in the dunes with a lot of sand and going up and down this was not bad. I felt good, though it was not easy, and while running I felt like running a 1/2 marathon soon. These weeks I am also going to the gym 3 times a week, each time I do first weights and afterwards cardio: rowing, running cycling stepping, stairmaster etc. each 15 minutes.