Odd Days: Fear x 4

The four of us who are planning to climb Pikes Peak on Wednesday are each suffering some level of fear or anxiety. It doesn't help that we all spend significant amounts of time on the internet and are inexorably drawn to articles about the climb, one of which is titled, "The 10 most dangerous hikes in Colorado." And so we are each attempting to address our fears as best we can.

One of us is anxious about lightning. So we plan to start at 3:30 a.m., instead of 5:30, to try to beat the afternoon T-storms. Another of us is anxious about the length and steepness of the hike. So we will start at 3:30 a.m. to allow plenty of time. A third is anxious about the altitude. He is considering carrying oxygen, but probably won't. And the fourth is anxious about the scary places. She is contemplating taking drugs and probably will.

At this point, it's hard for me to think about anyone else's fear but my own. Here's how I'm dealing with it. Yesterday, I read as many articles as I could find about the climb. Then I noticed something odd. After reading the first article, I felt pools of water between my toes and flowing onto my flip flops. My feet were sweating! Weird. But in the end it was good because I figured I could test my acclimation by reading more articles and checking to see if my toes produced less water. Sadly, they didn't.

Naturally my mind began to turn to drugs. Could I somehow drug myself into complacency? Enter serax, a drug that purports to combat anxiety and fear. I figure I could pop one just before the sign for the cirque -- the sign that says "1500 foot drop to your left." What if I accidentally go left? I definitely need to be calm when I come to that fork in the trail!

Never having taken serax before, I decided to read up. I was stopped short by the potential side effects: mental confusion and lack of coordination. Wow, two effects that could easily make me veer to the left. Not good.

So the scientist in me decided to do a trial run: take some serax and see what happens. First I'd pop a pill and go for a run to see if I could stay on my feet. Durf suggested I climb a ladder to the roof of the garage. And I figured I'd try a quick game of scrabble to test my mental acuity. (Probably not a good test, given my less than impressive drug-free scrabble skills.)

And the final test: I sat down, closed my eyes and conjured the cirque and its sign. Then I checked my feet. The verdict: damp but not wet.

Hope lives!