My intention all along has been to hike with a small group - my permit is for a party of three. I had one uncommitted friend (young, strong, capable of dragging me to the top) and some thoughts for a third, but had also considered just going alone. After all, there will be hundreds of hikers on the trail, so it’s not like I’d be climbing the cables by myself. Right. I have a history of near disasters from climbing high peaks on my own, from almost walking off a cornice in a snow storm on a 13K peak, to dislocating my ankle on the way down from a winter climb on Longs Peak (14K). That was fun - I had to hop on one foot for a mile to the parking lot and drive a manual transmission truck down a canyon with one foot to get help. Maybe doing Half Dome on my own is not a good idea based on past history. I'm not sure how many strikes I get at this game, but I've got be be pretty close to the max by now.
So, when my uncommitted friend informed me that he had work related conflicts, I was back to going solo. My long-suffering wife aka "the saint", who has an aversion to camping and long, arduous outdoor adventures (something to do with hiking with me I think - "lets go cross country skiing when it's 10 below...it will be fun") volunteered to come along so I would not have to make the long drive by myself. Given that we would be staying in a tent-cabin, without electricity, and sharing bathroom and shower facilities with hundreds of other guests, that was a huge offer.
Fortunately for her, she will not have to suffer the primitive conditions - a former boss, who I've known for quite some time and who should definitely know better than to join me on this adventure, has agreed to join me on this adventure. So now I have a two-some, and the search is on for a third.
Coming from the tech world, every project, application and conference room is given a strange tag (what the heck is a Rarog?) usually based on obscure movies, TV series, books or music that I have never heard of. I stopped listening to new music after Keith Moon died, so I'm really behind the times. Maybe I should get a Twitter account and start tweeting progress - #foolsonthehill or #therealthreestooges. Nah, I'll stick to the blog - I could never limit myself to so few characters.
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