The cardiovascular side of Utah Interconnect

Yesterday, I participated into a special, high-octane version of the Utah Interconnect; you see, this is the sole equivalent of the European, village-to-village ski adventure that can be replicated in North America. We were a group of six guys all in their prime, except for me, a dinosaur well into his sixties; needless to say that I stuck like a sore thumb and I'd venture to think that some of my mates who knew the drill, thought they'd have to drag me back home inside a body-bag. Once more, ignorance is bliss, and while I was envisioning endless descents into fresh snow, I had conveniently dismissed the horrid climbs that were in store for us. When Nathan Rafferty, the group leader and president of Ski Utah asked if we were up to climbing “Fantasy Ridge,” I for one, said “yes, of course,” not knowing that I would experience my first encounter with personal cardiac revolt; this was just one of three tough climbs that would highlight the day; the last would see me crawl up Jupiter Peak minutes after the group had already summited.

For each climb I almost could see the proverbial tunnel and the light at the end. Skiing, I can manage okay, but climbing is a skill I seriously need to work on or get a new set of lungs and heart. I'm the first to complain that lifts aren't fast enough; now, I finally understand what a hard work it is to haul skiers and their equipment up any hill! While I was enchanted by the experience, the vistas and the great characters that made up our group, my last thought upon falling asleep was “this is it, I'm not going to ever do that again.” Today, during my morning run I recanted and muttered, “why not after all?”