Alpine Addiction

I don't think I have ever been this tired from so little mileage.

Over the past 3 weeks my mileage has been hovering around the 70 mile per week range, but over 90% of this has been climbing up and down steep mountains and traversing mountain ridges. I've seen more of the alpine surrounding Juneau in the past 2 months than in the previous 2 summers that I lived here.

Right now I'm addicted to the climbing. My body is thrashed (in a good way) from climbing 4,000 or more feet almost everyday for 2 weeks, but I'm finding it very hard to not climb to the high country each day after work. Last weekend I did a 3 day fastpack and got myself into some areas I previously only had heard of, but didn't think I could actually get to so easily. It's really amazing just where you can go on a mountain ridge if you just get up there and do it.

There have been some misadventures. More than one outing this summer has ended after dark without lighting, but it's been fun to push the limits and really see what's up there in the alpine where so few people go. I think tomorrow or Monday I'm going to try to put in a flatter, higher mileage run, but we'll see if I can actually force myself to do so with the mountains right there above me.