My personal musings: July 2006

What does it take?

One of the best movies I have seen lately got me thinking: what does it take to succeed? To succeed to an extent that there is at least one person who believes completely in you and has great respect for you? And that person(s) is willing to do anything for you? How much can you push yourself in terms of committment, dedication and hard work to achieve your goal(s) (including non-professional)? At what point do you start to lose belief in yourself? How much can you stand by your principles, despite formidable circumstances? How much can you train yourself to not get mentally exhausted? How much inspiration can you institute in other people?

What does it take to make people remember you as a person they would never-ever forget?

Interesting videos...

Or at least, interesting to me; few of them were pointed out by my friends: Colbert report (wish I could talk to the President like that!), President Bush imitation (you should watch this guy on the Jay Leno show - you'll roll on the floor!), more funny Pres. Bush videos (I wouldn't post this if not for the freedom of online speech! hehe, oh man... he's the President? For God's sake!!!) and ofcourse, the Family guy creator at Harvard (what a talent he has, besides doing animation!). And oh, here's another impersonation skit that ranges from the Presidents to Cramer to Jay Leno! :-)

Enjoy!

Camp Muir: We did it!!!

It's still to sink in, but we completed the hike to Camp Muir! Camp Muir is base camp for Mount Rainier summit expeditions. It's at ~10,000 ft, short of 5,000 from the summit.

So, what was so difficult in this hike? Well:

round trip 9 miles and the elevation gained is ~5000 ft (that's about a mile); we took 10 hrs to complete it.
it's ~3000 ft of snow hike - so if you don't have snow shoes (and/or spikes) and hiking poles, you are doomed (read as: either you give up and return or, you come back in more than one piece!)
gradient is as much as 60% on most streches.
heavy backpacks - gotta carry all gear: compass, light, food and water, along with snow shoes - which alone weigh ~15-20 pounds.
very low visibility (~20 ft) when in cloud cover
for the final 1500 ft, air is much thinner; so you take 20-30 steps and take 3 min rest to catch your breath!
wind speeds of around 60 mph (few hikers turned back due to this!)
while returning, you can see straight down the snow cover; so if you are a little acrophobic (like I am :P), you will have a "nice" time.

It's an awesome feeling to go above the clouds and get a glimpse of the maginificient view! We started out late, and due to the wind, we didn't hope to get past Pebble Creek. But, adrenaline prompted us to give it a shot and it was totally worth it. Coming back was as much fun as going up - we resorted to snow sliding (to get down ~150-200 ft at a stretch!); only side-effect: frozen bum! :)

Great trip, overall. Highly recommended, but not for the faint hearted!