Episode 143: High Bridge Hijinks

Posted by on Oct 20, 2010 in All Podcast Episodes, HD Episodes, Season 4, Everest Trek 2009 | Comments Off on Episode 143: High Bridge Hijinks

One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Sherpakind. The rest of today was the kind of day where you feel like a kid again. Thilo, Kyle and I were hiking with Sonam and were really enjoying our nice, leisurely hiking pace. Obviously Sonam thought the day could be a lot more fun and told us to run across every bridge with him.

Well, that sounded pretty good to Kyle and I so we fell into line behind Sonam and booked it across the first bridge. At first I could hear the familiar guitar riff of “Crazy Train” in my head as the blood pumped through my brain and my body felt slightly out of control as we ran down to the middle of the bridge. When you cross these bridges you come to realize that they droop quite a bit in the middle so the first half is a downhill walk while the second half of the bridge is an upward slog against gravity.

There on the downhill run gravity was pulling me forward so strongly that it seemed as if my legs would not be able to keep up with the rest of my body and I’d either fall on my face and skid to a stop (and have Kyle run over me) or I’d somehow override the protection of the railings and free fall down to the river at the bottom of the bridge! The out of control feeling quickly evaporated as I bottomed out on the bridge’s middle and began the uphill portion. You want to keep your speed going but the bridge gets steeper and steeper the closer you get to either end and your legs begin to scream under the heavy load.

We all made it to the other side safely and had a bit of a giggling session as we caught our breath.

On the next bridge we ran across again but this time went one at a time so Thilo and I could film the running from several angles. Kyle darted across after me with a smile from ear to ear. Next up was Sonam who taught us a quick lesson about style when it comes to suspension bridge running. He hopped from foot to foot, no, BOUNDED across the bridge with these enormous strides. It literally reminded us all of Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin as they bunny-hopped across the surface of the moon.

“Here sherpa from the Khumbu Valley first set foot upon this bridge May 2009, A.D. They ran in peace for all mankind.”

Jon Miller

Total Running Time: 34:03

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