Author: Natalie Hamilton

Andrew is a vegetarian.

Sprint sucks.  I have had no access to the internet for days!  I got home late last night after driving through a terrible rainstorm.  It is hard being away from it all, but I do have to work eventually.  I had planned on taking the whole time off, but due to the uncertain early conditions, Andrew delayed 5 days, and I was unable to rearrange my work schedule.

Here are some pics from the last few days.

Andrew has been doing very well as you can see.  He is currently going up Redcloud and Sunshine, numbers 10 and 11 of 58.  He managed to complete 8 in the first 24 hours.  We are currently hanging in the RV in Lake City with Gigi, Florian, Laura, and our eldest 2 kids Calvin and Axel.  We will be heading up to meet him at about 11,000 feet in a bit.  The tracker doesn’t seem to be updating at the moment, but he was about an hour ahead of schedule.  The weather is perfect today, so I am sure his plan is to get as much done in the daylight as possible today, and push hard while he can.  It is almost a full moon, so tonight should be nice and bright.

Hi Everyone! It has been a great start! Both of us were pretty depressed after getting SOAKED for an hour hiking into Chicago Basin, but by the time we got to the upper campsites, it was sunny. We dried out, ate burritos, and went to bed about 8pm. Andrew was out within seconds of laying down. We were woken up n the night, though by thunder and lightning, but surprisingly little rain, and GOATS! Lots of goats stomping around us. We should have known after seeing all the bits of goat fur on every branch of every bush. In the dark, we looked outside the tent and just saw LOTS of eyes, EVERYWHERE! Andrew left right at 430am. I waved goodbye from the comfort of my sleeping bag, and went back to sleep. I was awoken again when my tent was bumped by a goat. I packed up and headed down to the train. Andrew made it in great time, without running this time! The Needles went smoothly, and Andrew was warned several times by other hikers to not attempt them due to snow. Little did they know! Sorry about all the goat pictures. I am a little obsessed.  I have some videos too, but the internet is too slow to upload them.

 

Andrew getting off the train in Needleton.

So after having Micah drive me and the kids up to Fourmile Creek trailhead and seeing Andrew’s leg, I was a little concerned.  He was in agony walking.  His right leg is swollen, weeping and exquisitely painful.  Every step was pure torture.  Andrew was hoping I’d be able to give him a steroid shot to make it all go away, but alas, I don’t carry such things with me at all times.  I also told him that the injury is more serious and is exertional compartment syndrome.  The anterior compartment of his lower leg is so tight and weeping, not good signs.  I called an orthopedic friend who confirmed my diagnosis by phone.  I explained all to Andrew and James and the rest of the crew.  Andrew went and tried walking around the Kite Lake trailhead, calling it quits shortly thereafter.  He was playing the number game in his head, and while at normal pace, he could do it, not with this kind of injury.  It was just slowing him down too much, and is not worth any permanent injury.  Not only that, but he would never be satisfied with how it ended if he only beat it by minutes.  There were amazing people who came out to say hello and cheer Andrew on, and we are so appreciative of that!!!!  And for all those who were ready and waiting to hike with Andrew!  What an amazing group of people!!!!  Andrew is now home after falling asleep with margarita in hand, me having Andrea try to start an IV on a comatose Andrew (which is great for learning BTW), and him getting some IV fluid.  His asthma attack just now left his lips blue, but I am sure this is not the end…..

Someone asked what music he listens to?  Well here it is.  This is what happens when you spend all your time with 4 children! And we love him for it!

“Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway.”
Last night with great fatigue and really cold wind we climbed through the pain cave. Just two friends two mountains and the soundtrack to Frozen on loop. Grown guys at 2am singing along with the mutual understanding that there really is nowhere else either of us would rather be.

I got a very nice email from the DeLorme inReach people!

“I found your email address on Andrew’s blog. We have been following along today and know that there were periods where his inReach appeared to stop tracking. We just wanted you both to know that our engineering team spent some time analyzing the data and it appears that his device was going into “rest mode” because he was moving so slowly (due to the injured leg). inReach is designed to automatically stop tracking when the user is stationary (or barely moving with long rest intervals), but in the event of an emergency (he pushes the SOS button) his exact location will be immediately updated and can still be seen and pinged (updated) by search and rescue authorities. There are also going to be times when he is in deep canyons or under heavy tree canopy where the satellites might be obscured briefly and several text messages will queue up waiting to send. Once he has the connection again, they all send out immediately. So that might happen occasionally during his climbs.

Andrew has had almost 10,000 views of his MapShare page today [as of 2pm] and had 14,000 yesterday, so a lot of people are following him closely and very interested in what’s going on. I am sure there is some concern about the skips in tracking, so if you want to let people know that his track line may appear fragmented at times due to the rest mode and that the device seems to be functioning properly, it might put some people at ease. We’ve had at least one follower contact us about it, so I just thought I would reach out to

We are here to help however we can and are rooting for Andrew’s success!”

They also gave us VIP tech support with 24/7 access and personal cell numbers. Pretty classy.

Thanks Kim and the DeLorme inReach team

I receive this text at 4:00am:
Hi. Stefan and I on south ridge of south maroon. My leg is so bad can barely move. Can you reach James.

I have tried to reach both, but have not heard back.  No SOS has been called, but I don’t know what is going on as the tracker seems to have stalled on the ridge.  Either it is having issues again, or he is just sitting there.

From James:

So your husband is strong enough to make Homie who has completed the hard rock 100 question if he can keep pace up hill then two days later Wes who is training for the montblonc 100 turns back on the ascent of massive at 13300 because he didnt want to slow andrew down. In his defense it was his 5th fast mtn with Andrew. Your husband almost broke me on the ascent of Columbia.  Today being the Elks Stefan will probably be learning the hard lesson we all have. Andrew is one of the strongest athletes I’ve ever met.

Text from Andrew just now, 8:53pm.

Nat I am having serious injury. Likely not make it back tonight.

Waiting for reply????????????????