SEATTLE—Seattle architect Zach Price hopes to reach the peak of Mount Rainier at sunset Monday, putting him only one mountain away from reaching the highest peaks in each state in less than 50 days.
Price, 30, teamed up with longtime friend and fellow climber Mike Haugen, a 31-year-old middle-school teacher from Denver, for the cross-country mountain-climbing blitz. Their adventure is part of a program of outdoor-equipment maker Coleman to get kids physically active and to fight childhood obesity.
“We wanted to do something that focuses on our country because there are so many places to get outside,” Haugen said. “We decided to showcase everybody’s backyard.”
The race clock started ticking June 9 when the pair reached the summit of Denali, or Mount McKinley, in Alaska. Then they flew to Florida, where they met Denver student Lindsay Danner, who would accompany them on 40 summits. The team has put nearly 15,000 miles on a Toyota hybrid for the intercontinental trek.
They started off slowly, Haugen said, but dropped a few rest days and drove a few nights to get ahead. On June 17, they visited the highest points of four states Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. In Delaware, the summit was a spot on the side of the road. And in Florida it was 345 feet above sea level.
“We were looking at tufts of grass, trying to figure out which was highest,” Haugen said.
The team is on its way to beating the record of 50 days, 7 hours and 5 minutes, set in 2005 by Lynnwood resident Ben Jones.
If Haugen and Price successfully summit Mount Rainier on Monday, they will be ahead of schedule at 49 peaks in 43 days. It will be Price’s sixth time up Rainier and Haugen’s 63rd. Haugen, who works as a climbing guide on Rainier every summer, said he and Price are looking forward to being on “home turf.”
“It’s never really easy, but it’s going to be kind of a special climb for us,” he said.
Price, who has been climbing for 15 years, said he moved to Seattle for the outdoors. He said the sport allows him to challenge himself something he said he’s definitely experienced during the 50-state trek.
“Some of the big mountains, like McKinley, were very difficult,” he said. “You go through every emotion that you can imagine. It’s like all of your life is compressed into that one climb. Sometimes you’re extremely happy, sometimes it’s extremely strenuous, sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it’s kind of scary.”
Price said the pace was exhausting.
“There were a couple of moments on a few of the mountains when we were really tired and had to keep moving,” Price said. “When you’re climbing, or crossing snow fields or glaciers, or scrambling over rocks, those aren’t really well-marked routes.”
After Rainier, Price and Haugen are heading to Hawaii to climb Mauna Kea and, Price said, “spend some time on the beach.”
What will the exhausted climbers do once the journey’s through?
“I’m actually looking forward to camping,” Haugen said.
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Information from: The Seattle Times,
