The Chief

Yesterday, I did the Chief. For those of you not from around here, that's a mountain in Squamish. I've been wanting to do the Chief for years, but carlessness, among other things, have meant that I've never done it before now.

It was a wonderful sunny day (likely the only one we'll get for the whole long weekend) meaning we were rewarded with some great views once we got to the top. And I have to say that I like the Chief more than the Grind - better scenery, less annoying stairs¹, and you get to climb up with ladders and chains at parts. Who doesn't love ladders and chains?? Also, more shirtless boys.

Speaking of which, Rachel made an observation. Boys don't get up early. We went in the morning and most of the people we saw on the way up were female. On our way back down, after eating our lunch at second peak, all the shirtless boys were climbing up. Good to note for next time.

On the hike, I got a lot of smiles and comments on my new T-shirt. - including the comment "that is the best T-shirt I've EVER seen!!" Unfortunately, it seems that you can't read what my T-shirt says in any of the photos I took. I'll have to get the ones from Rachel's camera and see if you can see my shirt in them. In the meantime, there's still 25 points up for grabs if anyone can guess which one I bought^{2, 3}!

I was going to do the Grind today, but decided not to as my muscles are a bit sore from the Chief. I was kind of expecting them to be since, unlike on the Grind, where you have a cable car ride down the mountain after the hike up, you hike back down the mountain on the Chief. And hiking down means eccentric muscle contractions, which are more damaging to the muscle than going uphill. I learned that in OAC⁴ Phys Ed class, 12 years ago. And I still remember it. No idea why that one little fact stuck in my brain so well. And why useful things like, say, where I put my keys five minutes ago, or the fact that my bluetooth headset is in the pocket of the skirt I just threw in the laundry, don't.

So, instead of the Grind, I decided to do some tidying and organizing and cleaning today. September's not too late to do my spring cleaning, is it?

¹they keep putting more and more stairs in on the Grind and I find the stairs far more difficult to hike up than natural terrain. I think, being a shorty, my gait just doesn't match up well with the stairs
²I had a few guesses in the comments section of where I import my blog postings into Facebook, but no one guessed right yet.
³And no one who has seen it or who I've told what it says gets to guess.
⁴OAC = Ontario Academic Course (or was it C for Credit) - a.k.a. grade 13.