Betsy Ross, The shocking recovery of Roger's ankle, the Fifth Rainier, and divine intervention

If the conquistadors could take possession of vast swaths of the Americas for the King of Spain, I figure I can rename Mount Adams in honor of Wilson the Indestructible -- at least for a day. That's what I intend to do, when Roger Matthews (my guide), Wilson and I reach the summit of Mount Adams in the next few weeks.

And things are shaping up for a successful ascent. It has been snowing on Adams, making for an easier climb. Roger's leg is healing from a recent strain. And we have our own Betsy Ross, who is in the process of crafting a Team Wilson flag which will waive over the state's largest mountain, just as the Stars and Stripes were crafted to represent a fledgling nation. Well, OK, so I wax a little grandiose. Live with it.

The scene of Team Wilson's fifth "Rainier."

After meeting the goal of 70,000 feet of elevation gain while training for the climb, Team Wilson added a couple thousand feet to the total by climbing Rattlesnake Ridge twice more, pushing the figures past the equivalent of five Mount Rainiers, as represented in the image below.

14,409 feet x 5 = 5 Rainiers, another great milestone.

The possibility of too little snow had been a worry, but the latest wrinkle in the plans occurred when Roger pulled a tendon climbing Mount Si a few weeks ago. Several years ago, while walking around the ancient Mayan coastal city of Tulum, he was descending down a house-sized boulder when he slid on some sand and struck a stone with his knee, rupturing the "quad tendon," which connects the quads (four muscles) to the knee, making it possible to sit, squat, and walk. He came very close to being crippled for life, but a good therapist and two months of keeping weight off the leg led to a significant recovery. Part of the recovery included treatments using electricity to speed healing.

Well, the shock treatments are back. When Roger pulled a leg tendon on the Mount Si hike,the initial diagnosis was that it might mean he wouldn't be able to hike for two months or more -- long enough to put our Team Wilson's Mount Adams guide out of circulation. But just last week, I received this e-mail from Roger:

Finally, a diagnosis. I did not stretch my Achilles tendon, but rather a smaller side tendon called the posterior tibialis. I can't hike for a month (therapy twice a week, and lotttttsssss of stretching, but my therapist didn't see any problem with me planning to do Mt Adams. Early to mid-July would be good, and the weather looks like that would be a good time too.

This message came right after Carla Stanley, the customer service representative for the One World Play Project, sent me designs for the flag that will be unfurled at the top of Mount Adams ... uh...Mount Wilson, I mean. I had just told her about Roger's healing progress, and she admitted she had been praying for that. So there you have it -- divine intervention. With that kind of supernatural involvement, we can't back out now, and besides, the snow is lingering on Adams, making for a safe climb and a fun descent when we slide 2,500 feet or more down the mountain on our butts.

Carla Stanley, our very own Betsy Ross. She is pictured with a One World Futbol.

Rough prototype of the

Team Wilson flag that will wave 

over the conquered mountain.

By the way, that's Carla's photo immediately above. She's poised with a One World Futbol. Carla was the individual who won our Valentine's Day contest by correctly guessing that Wilson is gender neutral, and for that she got a box of See's chocolates. When she found out we needed a Betsy Ross to create a Team Wilson flag, she leaped to the challenge. For you guy readers -- see what a little chocolate can do? Take a lesson.

So while Carla plays Betsy Ross, Roger has been undergoing therapy that involves warming the leg, stretching the tendon, then icing the leg. In each session like this there are electrical pads giving his calf muscle as much jolting as he can endure. And since there's no organ damage, no death and no-one to hear him scream, it's technically not torture.

It's uncomfortable, but it's working, and he will climb Rattlesnake Ledge again this weekend to see how the healing is coming along.

If the snow holds and the healing continues, we will be claiming Mount Wilson for a day sometime around the Fourth of July. Then it's just a matter of notifying the National Geodetic Survey that they need to update their maps.

Love,

Robert, Roger,
and Wilson