Fitness enthusiast

Climbing two fourteeners in one day

That person walking on the saddle between two 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado was me, many years ago. I was thinking about when it was that I became interested in fitness. I moved to Colorado from California in the mid-1970s and met some people who liked to climb these "fourteeners" -- actually they thought of it as "bagging" them. Two of them, not far from Boulder, are Grays and Torreys Peaks and one day I joined three men I worked with on a fine day in the winter.

I had been cross country skiing with one of them, John, on a regular basis, and he felt I might enjoy spending the day with them. We all met at a parking lot and carpooled up to the road off Highway 70. One of the guys had climbed this route many times before and it is so well used that he refused to climb it any time except during the winter. The road wasn't open, so we skied to a place where we could stash our skis and continue on up to the peaks. To be considered separate peaks, the saddle between them must lose at least 3,000 feet of elevation; this one required us to drop down more than 500 feet before climbing up the other mountain. It was a long day, with plenty of exercise and I, being the lone female, was determined not to lag behind. Although I wasn't all that old (back then I was in my early thirties), the men ascended the mountain much more quickly, and John got this picture of me. I was tired and sore at the end of the day, but I kept up and was proud to have been "one of the guys."

When I first moved to Colorado I was a cigarette smoker, and I will never forget the day that I realized, even back then, that I could not climb a flight of stairs without having to stop and catch my breath. I was overweight (not terribly, but enough that carrying that extra weight at Boulder's elevation made a difference). I decided to take up jogging, and after several fits and starts, I became capable enough to run a 10K race, the Bolder Boulder. And it helped me to quit smoking.

It occurs to me that those years I spent in Colorado were when I first became interested in exercise. Not only climbing fourteeners, jogging and cross country skiing, but in 1975 my friend Donna and I decided to set out on a bicycle trip from Boulder to San Francisco. We had panniers filled with our gear and sleeping bag, but we traveled light and crossed the Continental Divide five times before it was all over. It took us six weeks, and we mostly stayed in KOA Campgrounds or found a nice city park to sleep in. Within a very short period, the few times we stayed indoors (for one reason or another), it seemed stuffy and uncomfortable. I was happiest in a quiet place with my trusty steed and water bottle nearby, snuggled in my warm down bag sleeping under the stars. We only met curious people or those who wanted to help us in some way. It was almost forty years ago now, and I cannot imagine doing something like that today.

I didn't stop being interested in outdoor activities and volunteered for the US Forest Service for more than a decade, showing newbies the correct ways to hike into the wilderness and becoming more and more experienced. Then I discovered skydiving in 1991, and I stopped going into the wilderness, because every single weekend, winter and summer, I was at the Drop Zone hoping to jump out of an airplane. I packed my own parachute and found that I stayed pretty fit from the activity. Plus, as hard as it may seem to believe, I was madly and completely in love with this new activity. I met Smart Guy through skydiving late in 1992, and by the time we got married in freefall in 1994, I had only spent a few times hiking into the wilderness.

My skydiving career was long and varied, and my obsession covered almost twenty years before it began to let up. When I moved away from Boulder and retired from my job, I decided not to keep my skydiving instructor ratings either, and now I have found a nice little group of people who like to play in the sky during the summer months, and I've taken up hiking and regular exercise again. As most of you who have read this blog for awhile are aware, I joined the Bellingham Senior Activities Center to go on hikes of varying lengths every Thursday. And I work out at the YMCA on the other weekdays. I've been challenged many times by these walks, but they are with like-minded people and we are aware of our limitations. For the first year after I joined these hikes, I didn't go on any that were rated "hard" but stuck to the easy and moderate ones (some of which were MUCH harder than I expected a "moderate" hike to be). And now I feel that my fitness level is pretty much as good as an active Senior could expect.

I didn't ever make a decision to become a fitness enthusiast, and I am a bit amazed when I think of how it all came about. But it's obvious that I am not a happy person when I'm not able to be outdoors playing in the wilderness, or the air, or taking pictures of beautiful mountains and flowers and people.
:-)

My friend and mentor

I kept his books and reports organized

Today I received an interesting email from Mickey, my old boss, friend, and mentor. I took this picture of him sometime back in the early 2000s sitting at his desk. It's obviously fall, looking at the trees behind him. We didn't dress up at NCAR (the National Center for Atmospheric Research), and the Senior Scientists like Mickey regularly showed up for work in t-shirts, jeans, and Birkenstocks. That big bag by the trash can was one that Mickey carried back and forth with him every day.

I worked for Mickey for almost thirty years, first as his secretary (before they were called administrative assistants) and finally ending up as his writer/editor and essentially his partner in every one of his endeavors. Together we put together many international conferences, and he gave me the opportunity to travel all over the world. We published dozens of books, and I was the person who helped Mickey put into print books and reports we could be proud of. I've written about this at length in my other blog.

Mickey shopping in Hanoi 2006

Mickey would decompress from the stress of being in the front of the room and directing the workshops (usually four days long) by shopping. He found it relaxing and would give presents away to everyone he met. I remember once standing in Bangkok's terrifically crowded Mah Boon Krong shopping center with Mickey, with hundreds of people rushing from one place to another, while he guided me unerringly to his destination, a place where we could get business cards printed up in minutes. He was in his element, and I was just simply overwhelmed.

Mickey also mentored everyone he met, not just me. Once he knew what I was good at, he took full advantage of my talents. These young Chinese students are interviewing Mickey about his work, and I believe he has continued to mentor many of them through email, sometimes for years. Mickey never forgets a friend. Today in his email, he told me of the fate of the last of our colleagues in our now-defunct office. Mickey has finally retired from the frenetic pace he kept up for decades.

I retired from my job with Mickey in March 2008. Mickey took me with him on one last trip that month, this one to Rome, where I had never been before. He had a conference to attend and asked me to go with him and take notes. (It was really because he wanted to give me a gift.) Here he is in front of the Trevi Fountain, a beautiful and ancient place that brings tourists from all over the world to throw coins into the fountain, which is supposed to ensure your return to Rome. I didn't throw one in, so I guess I'm not going back to Rome.

This man changed my life in so many ways. He taught me to believe in myself, and he showed me the world. Although I am three years younger than he, I was always rushing to keep up with him as he strode through the streets of whatever city we were in. Mickey is not only a good person, through and through, but he's the only real Citizen of the World I've ever known.

Probably the most important thing he taught me was learning to give without any thought of return. He has friends all over the world, and I know that if I ever needed anything, Mickey would bend heaven and earth to help me. The email he sent me today reminded me that my blogging friends should know about this great guy, too.
:-)