Mt. Baker

Matt and his friend Jake came up with this crazy idea to climb Mt. Baker for their 30th birthdays. My first reaction was disbelief and a little bit of laughing. I honestly thought Matt was crazy. But, after 2 long months of intense training, countless hours at the gym, watching everything he ate and many long weekend hikes to prepare, he celebrated his success at the summit of Mt. Baker last weekend!

Matt, Jake, Brandon, Ryan and Neil left around noon to hike up to base camp. They hung out, set up camp (which was just on a very hard looking rock) and went to bed around 8pm on Saturday night. At 1am (after setting 3 alarms) they woke up to prepare to climb the summit. With headlamps on, they left for a 12+ hour, cold, long, steep climb. And they made it! Matt said it was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and you could see Whistler in one direction and Mt. Rainier in the other. They spent about 45 minutes at the top before making their descent down (the scary part, apparently). And after 2 very long days, Matt returned home and took a nice, long bubble bath.

I am so proud of this huge accomplishment for him. What an incredible way to enter into your 30s!!!

(these are just a couple of the 300 pictures taken. There are many many more - with lots of fun stories to explain them all from matt!)