Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Question Re: North Cascades

Uh Richard, I expect you'd do rather well . . . maybe you can talk Shin into going with you for the adventure?

I actually have a friend based here in Atlanta who's one of the very few senior mountaineering instructors for the Recon Marines. He's a beast. Shasta, I can't tell you how many times, Denali 3 times, on and on and on. He spent two weeks of vacation last winter snowcaving in Montana just north of Yellowstone. By himself. Just for the fun of it . . .

Ya--Army Rangers. He told us some great stories from there.

I think the hardest thing to endure might be the boredom.

And Yes, they are a different sort. He loaded up a backpack with about 55 pounds of stuff to "get a workout". 4 miles, about 2500 vertical one way. On the way down he "jetted" and was down in under 45 minutes. He says when they do their 20 milers with full pack (60 pound pack with 40 pounds of armor/weapon) they average 12 minutes per mile.