Adios! on my way to Aconcagua

I am almost ready to board the plane. Just wanted to leave a couple of links to follow my progress. I have decided to climb Aconcagua without any media following my progress ( Except for Trent of the Calgary Herald, he is persistent and I promise to call from the summit) This is a new sport for me and I want to focus on learning and absorbing what's happening around me without having to worry about deadlines, i am sure I will be rushing to blog as soon as I can but there is nothing pretty about having to recover from a hard race or climb and having to find an internet cafe in the middle of nowhere because I have a newspaper deadline.
talking about media CTV did a great interview, it will be online shortly Alberta Primetime Trailblazers

I have been going crazy to make sure bills are paid, freezers have enough food, christmas concerts, band concerts, swim meets and school rides are arranged. The only thing I couldn't do was to buy christmas presents for my kids teachers, run out of cash, it was either that or my Petzl Sum'Tec Mountaineering ax that I need for my trip, all i want to say to my kids teachers is that they all my gratitude and I wish them the best Christmas season.

Things where hectic,(ok Nadia), they where downright out of control for a couple of days, my basement flooded again and it send me on a crazy bizarre journey where I called my realtor Tanya Eklund to sell my house and move to Vancouver, it turns out my house is hard to sell, busy street, can't be subdivided, unless I want to drop the price significantly, which in it means I cant move to Vancouver either, if they ever make a movie about me, they will cast Mr Bean to play me.

Things are fine, my kids are happy to see me go, i am a bit suspicious about this, and my niece is mobile once again after having surgery to repair her birthday party injury, so I can now go and do what have been dreaming about for the last three months, to climb Aconcagua, i feel confident and ready thanks to many people, specially my mentor, and friend Patrick Delaney who has spent countless hours making sure that I am confident about everything related to climbing.

To follow my progress Adventure Consultants will be posting updates on their website about our climb on their dispatches page,not schedule to start climbing until Dec 2 once we have acclimatize properly for a few days before the climb on the town of Penitentes, there are two local guides and five of us climbing, two Australians and two south Africans. If you want to check it out go just go to this page

I am leaving you with a quote from a 7 summit and cancer survivor. The 7 summits seem to be the road that leads to enlightenment for those of us that find that life sometimes throws challenges that seem to be a bit of a maze.

The human body can survive for about thirty days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about three days without water, but no human alive can survive for more than thirty seconds without HOPE, because without hope we truly have nothing.”
Sean Swarner, Cancer Climber

Lucky Number 7

Two weeks before I head to Aconcagua,my gear is almost ready, I have been in MEC buying my gear and I spent more time trying day packs than I ever did trying wedding dresses when i was planning my wedding. :-)

I have a publisher interested a book that I have been writing, I thought of the tittle, Lucky Number 7, when Karl was diagnosed with BBS the Doctor explained the odds of my ex and I both been carriers and both passing the gene to Karl, infinite, he just said, really bad luck. Yes, bad luck for Karl but for me I am extremely lucky to be his mother.

Although the last few weeks with my niece breaking her ankle, I feel that the title of my book should be Murphy's Law. It has been challenging to keep my training schedule and keep my house functioning. Luckily I have as usual try to use the challenges as motivation to keep me focus. Wednesday I broke down crying, my niece was in pain, teachers were calling me to come to school right away because one of my kids had assignments missing, I had a short window to accomplish it all so it looked like I was going to have to push training until everybody went to bed, I was already tired from my first workout early morning and it was looking like I wasn't going to bed early, I was so mad that evening that I added 10 extra kilos to make it 40k in total to my pack and used a 15% incline on my treadmill to hike for a couple of hours. it feel sooooo good afterwards, life keeps telling me, this is a far you are possibly going and I just keep saying, i don't think so, you think that was hard, how about I make it even harder!. I have a blog follower Ana that sent me a link of her website it's a great place to gather information if you want to buy a treadmill, I use mine a lot, specially when life gets really busy, since my niece was in so much pain I couldn't leave her alone in the house for too long, I run for a couple of hours in the treadmill stopping when she needed me to adjust the pillows or more painkillers and run the last two outdoors. Also with flu season is a great way to make sure I don't skip workouts or shorten them.

I did a couple of talks on behalf of Foundation Fighting Blindness and Operation Eyesight, I loved the energy, I get nervous because i always think i have no business been there, specially when I have broke down crying numerous times in the last few weeks. but when I am there it just feels natural, not motivational speaker natural but as a regular person who is facing daily challenges but chooses to see the positive kind of a way, My message is always that as a mother of a son who is loosing his sight,I am learning that it is us the ones that are not, that see limits.

I am inspired by Karl every single day. He teaches me to not dwell on the pass and to not worry about the future, it's the now that matters. Karl doesn't worry about perfection either, waiting for the perfect time, or perfect weather is just an excuse to delay making a decision. he also teaches me that if you aren't willing to make a fool out of yourself you are cheating yourself of learning something new.

I have been approached by a daytime US talk show to possibly appear,not sure since I will already be in Aconcagua when the show is been taped, such are the exciting times, but I can't think of why i should stand there, it's Karl who, with his grace is guiding us all, like the captain of a rowing team, I am rowing the boat but it's him with his directions that is making sure we get to finish line. But like any amazing person, he doesn't think what he is doing is such a big deal. the cnib is training him on their ambassador club to be a community leader, Karl doesn't understand why. He asked me why do everybody think is amazing that he doesn't think is a big deal what he is going through,it just simply isn't, I am sure there are far worse things in life, he simply said. His teachers also told me how much of a positive influence he is in the classroom, his willingness to participate in class rubs off, at 15 years of age most kids disengage in class since it's not cool to be into school, Karl for some reason was born with his own manual, what's the point of going to school if ti's not to learn, even if working your hardest ends on just a C or worse.

Every single day there is not a moment i don't count my blessings, my kids are teaching me to have fun, to play fair, to always give your best and to never be afraid to get your hands dirty.