Summit Steppy

If you live in Los Angeles and you want to train for any of the big hikes in the area like Whitney or Half Dome, these are the go to training hikes. It's six peaks, all within 2 hours of LA. Most of the mountains have multiple trails leading to the summit. I included the routes that I took, but there are shorter and longer options for all of these. Depending on what order you do them, may determine which approach to take. These hikes will help train you for elevation gain, hiking in altitude, and just sheer length. Being on your feet all day is it's own kind of training (ask anyone who has worked a double at a restaurant or a catering event where they love to tell you that you aren't allowed to sit down for the entirety of the event. I hate catering and I will die before I ever do it again. I don't want to shine silverware or glasses over and over again to look busy and to make some asshole feel like they have a purpose. Let us sit down until people get here and then ag...

I've been putting off writing about this for over a year because it's hard for me to talk about my mistakes. I like to focus on the positives, but it's important to share your flaws and learn from your past. This sounds dramatic and in some ways it is. But this is a post about the craziest hike of my life.  Mt Whitney hike just past Trail Crest I entered the lottery three times before I won a spot to hike Mt Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States and only 3 1/2 hours north of LA in the Sierras. At first I figured I'll see if I get it, and if I do, I will figure out how to hike it. The third time I decided instead that I was going to start training before I even entered the lottery. If I got it, great. If not, I was still going to become an avid hiker in LA. This change of mindset mixed with some luck was the winning combo I guess. I won the lottery and put the pedal to the metal. I was going to hike Mt Whitney, the day after my 30th birthday. I wa...