First of many

Welcome to the "One mountain at a time" webblog.

You could say this is my first entry into the internet world of letting people know what I will be up to.  Well outside of the standard postings on facebook that is, and unlike facebook I will try and keep my postings in the first person and not the third person.

So John is now.......  whoops, bad start!!

As many of you know (or for those who have been sleeping under a rock) I have been training to attempt to reach the summit of Cerro Aconcagua.  Aconcagua, which is located in Argentina and is part of the Andes mountain range (wow that's a lot of A's) is 6,962m or 22,841ft above sea level.  It is also one of the Seven Summits, meaning it is the highest on the South American continent. If I manage to bag this summitt it will give me 2 out of the 7.

So this time in 8 weeks I'll be sitting at Sydney International airport ready to fly out.  Pardon the pun but gee the time has flown.

Also because I only have 8 weeks to go it means it's time to hit the pointy end of my training.  Monday saw me throw on the pack again to walk across the harbour bridge from Neutral Bay and into work.

Now I thought I used to get strange looks from wearing a massive pack when I walked in (especially from security), try doing that whilst wearing mountaineering boots and see what kind of looks you get.  Not only are you another 2 or 3 inches taller but they can hear the squeak of the boots from a 100m away. 

The bridge security don't know whether I'm a person of interest or some kind of deranged emo goth.  Either way they do tend to become a little more animated when I start lumbering across the bridge.

Still if I get too many looks in northern part of the city I'm sure I can just head south to Newtown, everyone fits in over there!!

So this will now be the standard routine from now until I fly out.  Heavy pack walks during the week with long pack walks on the weekends. 

I think I'm pretty lucky that I'm a kind of solo person given all the time I'll be spending walking around.  With all the gear I'm wearing I already look like a freak, imagine if I started talking to myself as well!!!

Anyway I'll sign off on my first of what I hope will be many postings, plus I don't want to use all of my A-grade meterial in my first post.

Catchya on the flip side