HighLANder - The Highest Mountaintop LAN Party EVER - LTT Official Video
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
3,427 words · ~17 min read
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the ASUS Rog gaming notebook featured in this video is available now from
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newegg.com with a free bonus gaming bundle so be sure to check out the link
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in the video description uh it was just as hard I think as I was expecting I
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might die here I was going to have to turn back I was quite certain within
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about the first half hour of the hike that I was not going to make it I expected a Expedition where we
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would be camping out at the top or on the middle of the mountain and that it
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would be take maybe two or three days um I definitely was not disappointed when I
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found out that was not the case and when I found out about this I was really
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excited I thought it would be a great trip and whether it was an overnight trip or not I was pumped I love the
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outdoors I love hiking um so I was just really excited overall I felt somewhat
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ready uh I've been training for a backpack that I'm doing in about 3 weeks
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uh so I am in somewhat better shape than I was maybe six or or nine months ago um
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but still with the elevation with everything I I was a bit concerned I'm
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really glad that I made it but uh it was just as hard I think as I was expecting
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I didn't prepare nearly enough uh the one thing I'm really glad I did is at
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the very last possible second and my doctor really gave me um a lot of heck
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about this is I went in and I got a prescription for some drug whose name I
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can't pronounce that is supposed to supposedly help with altitude sickness
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up to an altitud of around 8,000 ft of course the town we're staying at is at
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around what 11,000 ft and then the Summit is over 14,000 fet so I did not
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nearly adequately prepare for the altitude change uh the one thing I was
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really happy with was my hiking gear even if it had rained I think I still
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would have been okay but I was I was pretty well set up for that the real
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part was bringing my shoes to The Cobbler I have these really nice hiking boots and the front flap on one of them
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is completely destroyed and the rest of it is kind of fine they fixed the back
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which had no real issues and then left the front flapping I was like this is
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not what you do at a cobbler took them back to The Cobbler to be like okay I
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need you guys to actually fix this they said oh yeah we close at 9: on Saturday
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you can come pick them up I Googled them too and it said they closed at 9: I show
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up they closed at 600 I showed up about 610 did not get my boots back and then I
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walked the whole thing in basketball shoes that I B from a friend uh the
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ascent below the tree line um was where I really got worried about my team
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overall um I had realized by about 30
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minutes in that neither of my camera operators were going to be able to
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capture the ascent with their cameras because they were at the very very back
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of the pack uh also below the tree line I had begun to experience numbness up to
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from about my fingertips to here in my hand and S is in the fingertips meaning
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that I was succumbing to altitude sickness I gave myself 15 minutes to
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have it subside um and I went pretty slow to hopefully acclimate a little bit
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more before I figured I was going to have to turn back I was quite certain
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within about the first half hour of the hike that I was not going to make it
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having never hiked anything ever before not even like the grass grind in
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Vancouver which is the easiest thing in the world because it's just stairs um I
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went out and bought shoes I went out and bought like Cliff bar way too many Cliff
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Bars I get to the hotel and I carry my
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normal luggage like my clothing luggage and my backpack up up the stairs and I
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almost blacked out up the stairs the altitude just knocked me to the floor
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like I could not move without my head pounding like I I was lying in bed just
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gasping for air uh so when thinking
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about the next day I was like w I'm going to die I never thought I would do
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anything like this I mean I do like walks and Hikes and stuff but not like
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up 14,000 ft on a mountain so yeah no I
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mean especially not taking like keyboards and laptops and the whole deal
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no I never thought in a million years I would do it but you know what glad I did
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it was awesome I've done some 13,000ft
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mountains before in the past so I knew ex kind of what to expect not in
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Colorado out in California um and I knew
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it was going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life so just
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mentally I felt like I was respecting the mountain so the ascent below the
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tree line was uh it was the beginning of the day uh full
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of energy I only got maybe three and a half four hours of sleep so once I got
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into the woods this is like my home ground I'm originally from Alaska so
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going right back into this kind of space and climbing up through all these woods
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and jumping through these Trails was reminding me back when I was like 10 my
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Ascent um was pretty miserable I was pretty horrified the entire time up I
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honestly didn't think I was going to make it within the first 15 20 minutes of the hike I was so out of breath and
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I'm like I'm only like 5% up the mountain and at this rate I'm going to
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die before I actually make it to the top but there came a certain point I think
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it was probably after the tree line when I was you know more than halfway there
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where I was like well I'm pretty much forced into making it to the top at this
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point I'm not going to just come all this way and then turn around and head back down that was just be a complete
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failure it was just out of the option so I just I hated the fact that I knew that
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I had to finish the hike but it was cool uh I think they had a little bit more
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Brawn than brain and they just decided to like we're going to do this and they
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did it um multiple people made like kind
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of like wrong decisions like I think Luke probably should have turned around
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earlier but he was like a monster he's like I don't give a I'm going to
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make it to the top Nothing is Stopping me and you would ask me are you okay
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he's like nope I'm still going above the tree line the ascent got much easier for
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me I actually didn't experience any altitude sickness related symptoms once
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I got past the trees and aside from I'd
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say the really the really tough part was the extremely vertical Rocky and not
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very grippy slope where your feet could slip out from under you that was about
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halfway between the tree line and the actual Summit that was the most
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difficult part for me where we were basically taking 20 maybe 30 40 steps
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and then we were sitting down and uh
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taking like a bite of Cliff bar and then a drink from the camel back before we
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could keep going being on the summit and actually achieving this I mean we
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thought about this over a year and a half ago and I always say this is an
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excuse to work while having fun at the same time cuz I love doing this kind of
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stuff actually being up there and doing it it was was I don't know kind of a
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weird feeling it was had this weird I didn't I almost felt nothing and
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everything at the same time you look around and it's like this amazing view
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and then you're like playing Doom which is the game that got me started on land
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gaming and the game that got just about everyone else started on land gaming and the game that got land gaming started
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pretty much in the first place standing at the top of a
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14,400 ft mountain is one thing standing
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at the top of a 14,400 foot mountain
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with a bunch of guys with laptops and keyboards playing doom on a landan with
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the batteries that we hauled up and the router that we hauled up and we got like
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notebooks strewn across rocks and we got keyboards in our laps and we're all
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yelling because Kane is killing everyone and so there's Victory Cries From like
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that one spot and then moaning from pretty much everywhere else it was
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unlike anything that I've ever ever experienced before in my life it was
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absolutely stunning and beautiful um and yet I was looking at it screen but not
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the whole time so I got to have both of those outstanding experiences at the
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same time you know it's funny that you ask that because the most memorable
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thing for me was actually not necessarily the summit itself or the
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view from the summit it was when I began to realize how high up we were when I
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was looking down on lakes and they were getting smaller and smaller so it maybe
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wasn't one image but it was hiking for 10 or 15 minutes and realizing how much
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higher I was than I was even even 10 minutes ago and just marveling at what
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we were achieving and the people around me that were doing it too cuz I had
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people in front of me that I was watching make the climb and I had people
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behind me that I was looking back at watching them come over the same terrain that I was and having that experience of
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progress was uh probably the most memorable thing about the trip for me oh
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hoisting the Highlander flag was uh was Unreal I mean what we went through to
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get that flag made at the last minute and then standing there having had so
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much of our team actually make it to the top I mean I straight up didn't think I
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was going to make it I was sure Brandon wasn't going to make it and uh just
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being able to all be there holding the flag having it waving flapping in the
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wind was uh a truly once in a-lifetime
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experience I'm so proud of Brandon when he came over the top of the hill I was
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floored because we crossed a small Creek at the very bottom and his foot fell in
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and he barely made it across the logs and I was like dude we're like 15
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minutes into this you're not going to make it man and uh as we were had all
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finished packing up and we were at the end of the journey and we were going
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home he comes up over the edge and I'm like dude come here there's no time for
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you to sign the book the snow's coming down but I got the camera you got to
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touch the flag that's at the top I'm going to video it it happened so I was I
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was so proud of him it I was just exhausted I was out of breath I I kept
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looking up at everyone else that was in front of me and I wasn't I was like I'm
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not going to be able to keep up with him how am I going to how am I going to do my job cuz like as a camera operator I I
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have to capture what's going on and I just I was working really hard and I
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really really did not have any confidence that I was going to make it
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you just have to keep believing and making sure that you find a rhythm and
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everything that don't don't get in the zone where everything that you think is
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pulling you down just make it leave your head and and just keep on
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pushing knowing I was so close to making it and then just making the decision to
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turn back I I don't think I regret it
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couldn't catch my breath like even just sitting there I was gasping
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freezing I just had to turn back
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and I think that was the right choice so cair gives us like you know k95 and k70
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RGB keyboards and I thought we were going to get a mouse so I know the guys
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at course here were like they're going to carry this to the top I knew they were laughing at us I just knew that
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they were laughing knowing that we're were going to carry these things to the top now I cannot stand gaming on a
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laptop because I just don't deal with the keys so I was I put it right on top
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of the keyboard and I was really really happy and I I made sure that I grabbed
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the brown switches CU I like the brown switches a lot so I like dug through the pile and I made sure I got that one
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there was only like one or two of them and I grabbed it so I was really happy about that and then the gaming laptop
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was completely Overkill because we're playing Doom right so we've got you know
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the ASUS laptop it's got the the brand new 4710 in it so we're we're just
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taxing the hell out of that 4710 with doom but it was a really Sleek laptop I
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I I do like the aesthetic of it The Descent was terrible uh I was fine all
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the way up and then we started coming down and I couldn't really breathe properly I started getting seriously
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dizzy I had a migraine and I think due to the migraine I couldn't really see
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very well it got to a point at actually at one point where I couldn't see pretty much at all uh I threw up about six
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times which is a big problem du dehydration and stuff like that and it
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was it was bad once I got to the tree line though I laid down for about 5
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minutes I'm in the trees the air is a lot better there's a lot better in the trees than it is even in town and sprang
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back up and I was completely okay everything was gone no vision problems no more vomiting everything's fine we
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start going down and then we realize Jimmy's not really Keeping Up With The
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Pack and he's got a whole bunch of problems with his knees and he's feeling
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sick and all that kind of stuff so so on the way down I got past the steepest
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part and right after the steepest part I literally felt like I had no energy in
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my body whatsoever and my knees were starting to like hurt really bad because
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I just had no energy Austin and I run back and shoulder carry him we start
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rotating bags around I'm carrying Jimmy Logan's helping and we eventually kind
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of make it down we're at the point where we're rationing water because we have basically none left we're eating tons of
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different food we have no communication with the base camp at this point in time
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when I was coming down at one point lonus was anchoring me and then because
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I couldn't see then he takes off he's like I'm going to go get some footage up ahead I'm like okay and I kind of stay
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there and then I see him sprinting down the hill and and I'm like oh so guess
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he's not coming back thanks bro and then we're trying to get down the last part
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through the trees we're messaging Kane and we're me trying to message people
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and we get a message back that's like some quote from some freaking movie that
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I don't even remember I'm like thanks bro so we're trying to get down this
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mountain we have no water left people are seriously dehydrated like having
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actual issues we're carrying people like
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ridiculous I get down to the bottom like we all get down to the bottom there's a
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lightning storm partway through we all get down to the bottom I'm ready to
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murder lonus I'm ready to murder Kane I'm ready to murder multiple people but
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I'm just like I'm just going to shut up and wait and see what the stories are
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everyone had good stories so it was okay I didn't have to kill anyone and then
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yeah that was that was The Descent all by myself in the snowstorm wearing a
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shirt and windbreaker I had like this
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much of Gatorade left this much of a cliff bar left and I was thinking I
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could actually die up here I had bumped into a couple who are who were making
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their way down they're like hey do you need some water or food I'm like yes
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please okay so we kind of came around this Bend and you come around this Bend
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and then there's these last set of switchbacks and you can see the the uh
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parking lot down below but there's still like another good quarter half mile to
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get down these switchbacks right as we come around there some rain starts
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falling and we start to hear a couple lightning a couple Thunderbolts uh I
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started Counting as soon as I would see a flash the first one was only maybe
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five or 6 seconds still too close to comfort but we just as soon as we
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started hearing the first one or two we started moving much much faster coming
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around this one Switchback is the most Vivid experience that I had I was
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looking straight down I could see uh Brandon and um who who was still in
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front of me at that point uh Brandon and Luke were in front of me and at the end
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of the Switchback where it turns back just beyond lightning bolt just straight
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down and no no delay at all between when the lightning bolt went and the thunder
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so it's just like it's on top of you at any moment you're thinking if if
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lightning hits a tree next to me it could Arc over to me and you could just
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die or or maybe just get really badly
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injured I guess but uh so at that point we were fearing for our lives and the adrenaline took us the rest of the way
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down the mountain it was a harrowing frightening uh kind of terrible
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experience but uh honestly very memorable and in retrospect since nobody
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died I guess good to some to some degree
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back
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back let it be known to the world that lonus is a litterbug you should be
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ashamed of yourself we in a beautiful place there's food in here shame and you
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threw it on the ground threw it on the ground I the rest of the
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cake too