I Lift My Eyes to the Hills Part 1

A series attempting to explain my obsession with backpacking/mountaineering/all things Sierra-ish

Last weekend I took a Saturday off for the first time since I started working at the gym seven months ago. Working Saturdays has been a drag since week one. I've missed climbing trips, family events, overnight stays with the C's, even camping... You name it, I've missed it. But this time I knew I had to make it happen. The occasion: a dear friend's 21st birthday, and a trip to the Sierras to celebrate.

I've been almost addicted to backpacking, and especially mountaineering, since my first trip three summers ago. This tightwad spent almost $200 on a single piece of equipment after that first excursion, for a royal blue Osprey Ariel 60 backpack. It's my little home on my back, and I love it like a pet. Big enough to carry enough gear for a weekend mountaineering trip or an extended trip in fair weather, it is also small enough to force me to pack light.

Our destination this time was the Cottonwood Lakes area on the south end of the eastern Sierras. I was so busy at work the weeks leading up to the trip, I hardly paid any attention to the details of where we were going or when; all I cared about was that I would soon be breathing alpine air. In our planning emails sent amongst our group of six the idea of summitting Mt. Langley got tossed around briefly. Few experiences have thrilled me more than pushing my body past what I thought it capable of doing and getting to the top of one of those magestic peaks to look down on views too beautiful to take in and feel myself almost literally on top of the world... so I was not opposed, although I didn't know if I was in shape to do my first 14-er, and it was our birthday girl's first-ever backpacking trip.

I got off work Thursday afternoon, looking forward to being away from work for four consecutive days. I was exhausted, and my stop at the gym only beat me down farther instead of giving me extra energy like it usually did.

The rest of the team showed up at our house that evening to pack our gear. Packing my backpack is always the thing that really gets me excited about a trip. The anticipation was starting to build... so I decided to ignore the scratchiness in my throat that was not going away.