GORUCK Ascent 2012- Resentment to Redemption

"Hey, let's go climb some big-ass mountains!"

There was a time (I call these years my "smart years"), when I had those stupid conversations with friends in bars... and they stayed there. I'd wake up the next day and ignore the fact that I'd promised my friends - mere hours earlier - that I'd drive to Vegas with them next weekend or pool our money for a jetski. When you're drunk in a bar, everything asinine sounds like the best idea you've ever had. If I followed through with any number of inane plans, I'd be living in Key West and running a bar that sold only Pina Coladas, tacos, and fortune cookies. The Hunt for Red October and the Back to the Future trilogy would be played on a loop over the bar.

Don't judge me.

Back then, my friends and I would never bring up our convoluted, drunken plans the next day for fear that one of us may have actually been serious. Ah, the good ole days.

Now, when I come up with something stupid to do... it only makes MORE sense in the morning. Stupid alcohol... killing brain cells and whatnot. Sadly, my travels have introduced me to others with similar failings, and we egg each other on.

"Yea, filling a beer bottle full of tequila and chugging it DOES sound like a good idea!"

"Well, I suppose you COULD do that, but why not do it while carrying a huge rucksack full of bricks?"

Yea, why not...

So, as a graduate of the GORUCK College of Poor Decision-Making (read about some of my poor decisions in Savannah, Washington DC, or the GORUCK Challenge in general), I latched on to some of these buffoons for some jackassery in the Collegiate Peaks area of Colorado where we would be climbing 14,000 ft peaks in a masochistic ritual that has become known as GORUCK Ascent.

This exercise in insanity began (for me) on the Thursday before Labor Day at Cadre Brian's place near Nederland, CO. I say "for me" because I opted out of the optional Gun Day on Wednesday. Though the opportunity to fire off hundreds of rounds of ammo with America's Special Forces was enticing, the price was a bit much for my tastes. Plus, since I have a standing invitation from a friend (when we doing that again, Geoff?) to go back up to Quantico and play war with the USMC Competitive shooting team, I have been wholly spoiled. In one day last year, we blasted through thousands of rounds of ammo thanks to the SVT, AK-47, M110, A5, PKMs, M4, MP5... No offense to the GORUCK folks, but you can't compete with that.

So, we arrived Thursday and spent it learning rope skills and applying them. We built tag lines and come-alongs... and we rappelled off the face of nearby cliffs. It was pretty bad-ass. I can honestly say that I learned stuff that has come in handy since. That's something that I can't even say that about college, though one would assume math would be useful at some point...

Repelling
I can honestly say I kicked ass at this

Then, at 10PM, we piled into the buses for a 3-hour drive southward to the mountains. Now, I should take a moment here to discuss my packing list. I wore TAC pants, compression shorts, boots, a t-shirt, and a hat. In my pack I had:

- two pairs of socks
- compass
- headlamp
- change of compressions
- fleece
- wind/rainbreaker
- Gloves
- Knit cap
- my tent
- sleeping bag
- lickies/chewies
- toothbrush
- Advil

There ya have it. I used it all, though the fleece would be a bit of a burden until the last night. My pack wasn't overly full like many others. (Cadre Chris spent an hour systematically destroying the rucks of others. "What's this? You don't need eight pair of underwear!"). I returned a couple things to my car (like a spare pair of shorts and my bulky DSLR camera), but I used what I took.

And, we were off... The Collegiate Peaks range gets in name thanks to the apparent competition of early explorers to claim the peaks for their Alma Maters. It was like us planting our flag on the moon... but with beer instead of Tang. The range has impressive peaks such as Mt. Harvard, Mt. Princeton, Mt. Oxford, and Mt. My-Daddy-Paid-for-College-Thanks-to-Oil-Money.

We arrived at 0100 hrs and started to climb Mt. Yale, a quite lovely hike that we were told would put us at the summit around sunrise. There were 37 of us at the start. One dropped out almost immediately. Chain-smoking at the trailhead prior to stepping off is not recommended.

The peak of Mt. Yale (14,202')
[Note: Awesome pics by Mike Petrucci]

The trail led us up to about 11,000 feet through some beautiful - if dark - countryside. A full moon was right around the corner, so we had a nice view even at that time of the morning and kept most of our headlamps off. Eventually, we broke from the trail and took a short break while we waited on some of the trailing hikers to catch up. We were blazing our way across the East Ridge. At night. This wasn't hiking, this was bouldering, leaping from ledge to ledge and struggling around narrow-to-non-existent paths. After the 8th false summit and thousandth expletive (it's amazing how they echo around a canyon's confines), we could see the end. The route, hazardous and steep, claimed more of our number including two cadre that had apparently failed to recon it. They brought their dogs and couldn't negotiate the trail with them. They had to turn back.

We reached the top of Mt. Yale (14,202 ft) and waited on others strung out for a half mile behind us. Of the 37 that started, 31 reached the summit... impressive when you consider that we hadn't made camp, yet. We still had all of our gear, including tents and sleeping bags, strapped to our rucks.

We started down and got lost. Even with a cadre. I won't go into details, because the 6-hour trek down the mountain turned into a huge goat-screw. This was the 'resentment' part of the trip. The lack of route recon coupled with the inability of our team leads to get us off the hill was extremely irritating. I voiced this opinion frequently and loudly. Others shared my discontent but not to the degree that I did.

I was annoyed.

We eventually reached camp, but I was ready to call a taxi for home. After setting up tents, we were treated to a mix of burgers, MREs, and stew. I understand this was different from the previous year in which food was harder to come by. Well, 2012 was essentially a camping trip with good people and not an orchestrated event with time hacks and cached food. I was okay with that.

Land Nav Instruction

The next day we spent the morning learning land navigation (MGRS) from Rob, and I can confidently say that I will be okay in the middle of nowhere with a map and a compass. Very interesting. The afternoon was spent with Matt learning emergency survival skills. Again, great stuff. I could do an entire blog just on what these two guys taught me. But, I digress.

While we were learning how to build shelters (ours was awesome... I'm just sayin'), Cadre Brian came around asking what we each wanted to do on Sunday. We could leave right after dinner and - staying up all night - attempt a double climb of Mt. Harvard (the highest peak in the local area) and Mt. Columbia. Or, we could set out early the next morning for an attempt on Columbia only. A third option had us maintaining the camp.

People were tired. No one jumped at the double peak.

Except me. I went there to climb mountains, and I wasn't going to miss the daddy of the local scene. Through some lobbying, I was able to increase the number of poor decision-makers. Like I said, all we need in order to be convinced to do something is for a person to ask us. We're idiots.

The top of frozen Mt. Harvard (14,402')

We ate a brief dinner of cardboard and smoke and made our way into the night. No offense to the others that were at Ascent, but this team was awesome. We tore through the night and were hours ahead of our pace. We'd hoped to make it to the roof of Harvard (14,402 ft) by 5AM.

We were there at 0230.

As the highest point for miles, the wind was howling. We were cold. We took a quick picture, then damn near jumped off the side. At 5AM, we took a well-deserved break at 12k ft for 45 minutes. It was cold. I'd have rather we kept moving. We assaulted Mt Columbia.

The scree face of Mt. Columbia
looking back at parts of our team

We went the wrong way, blazing a trail up a 60 degree, scree-covered slope. This surpassed the cascading boulders of Mt. Yale as the 'Bad Idea' champion of the trip. In the winter, I'm told that the route we took is a class-4 climb requiring ice crampons. Yea... so that happened.

After a brutal climb in which we leaped up three feet only to slide back two... over and over... we reached the ridge. Mt. Columbia was within reach, and we were still ahead of schedule. Of course, we went the hard way, so finding either 8-year-olds or geriatrics that had summited (14,079 ft) via the 'easy' way was slightly strange. But, we bagged both mountains.

Adding in the ascent of Pikes Peak that I completed with my buddy before the formal GORUCK Ascent began, it made for four 14ers in five days. Having come from sea level only 16 hours prior to my Pikes summit, I'll call that impressive.

The 'A' Team at the top of Mt Columbia (14,079')
14er #4 for the week

We returned to Cadre Brian's place on Sunday, all of us asleep as the bus driver careened along mountain roads, to find beer and a pig roast waiting for us... as well as the GORUCK Trek team that had just completed Boulder. It was drunken, exhausted, hungry hilarity, and I found it hard to leave my new Ascent comrades.

Redemption.

Would I do it again...? Probably not. It was a good time but a bit pricey when you consider flights, hotels, car, and gear. This is especially true when one considers that I've done the Collegiates. Admittedly, there are other 14ers in the range, but I don't think I'd be jazzed about heading back there. Now, if someone pulls together something similar for another Colorado area or something up in Alaska, I can be down with that.

But, if any GRTs out there are considering Ascent, it's worth your time.

Yale looking East

Descending Columbia

The GORUCK Family: What is a GORUCK Challenge?

What is a GORUCK Challenge?

It's a "team event and never a race," if you go by the site's vague descriptors. "Inspired by Special Forces training and led by Green Berets, the Challenge builds teams and solves problems."

That's it. That's all it tells you. And, as participants and those seeking more info will tell you, any further details are NOT forthcoming.

So, let's start over. What is a GORUCK Challenge? Well, I've done two of them, and I don't have a gawdamn clue. I've tried to explain it to people, but I can't do better than those two sentences above. They just breed more questions, though.

"Did you win?"
Um... only in life. You compete against your internal fears and mental demons, not each other. You come out stronger, as a team and an individual.

"I run... I could probably do it."
"I lift weights... I could probably do it."
Probably. But, tell that to the 6-time Ironman that dropped out shortly after the Okinawa Challenge started. Or, tell it to the guy who just jumped on a passing scooter and told the driver he'd give him $20 to take him home. If you aren't mentally strong, it won't matter how physically capable you may be.

"Why the Hell would you want to do THAT?"
I honestly have no answer to this question. But, I can tell you, I can't wait to do the next one.

Ask a GORUCKer what it takes to complete a challenge, and they'll tell you (1) good physical shape and (2) EXCELLENT mental shape. "It's all mental." That's the mantra you hear over and over from 'ruckers. And, it applies to us as well as the challenge. We're all mental.

GORUCK itself is a company specializing in high-quality rucks and military-grade gear for the hiker/mountain man(or woman)/soldier in your life. They make great bags (my second is on it's way) and are very customer-oriented. Also, they are extremely proud to say that all their gear is made in the U.S.A. Every test model goes through several GORUCK challenges to ensure there aren't any weak points that might have been missed. These challenges are abusive. If it survives multiple challenges, it's well-made. Best part? You meet great people. Better part? Part of the proceeds go directly to the Green Beret Foundation. Score!

Like Jason, the company's founder, the cadre 'employees' that lead the teams during challenges are all active-duty or retired Special Forces. Interest in GORUCK is increasing steadily, and they are adding cadre (currently up to 6 or 7) to accommodate the growth. The brutal entry into the GORUCK family is the basic GR Challenge, but there is nothing basic about it. Billed as 8 to 10 hours and 15 to 20 miles of "Good Livin,'" I can tell you that those numbers are woefully inaccurate. Distances quickly disappear into a dark void thanks to the start times (usually 10PM or 1AM), and I have yet to hear of a challenge taking under 12 hours. A Providence, Rhode Island, challenge went 18 hours last fall.

You may ask, 'Why?' Bah... I answer, 'Why Not?' The GORUCK team lives by the tag, "Under Promise, Over Deliver," and they do it in remarkable fashion.

GR Challenge alumni are quickly added to the GORUCK family, and this is where the real magic of GORUCK happens. The bonds you build in those short 12-15 hours (ok, it's not short at the time) can quickly form into long friendships. I still talk with many of my classmates and have built new friendships with others in GORUCK Tough (the alumni group) simply because I know what they went through when they did their challenges. And, of course, it takes a special kind of crazy to do one of these anyway. We tend to congregate together... only crazy can really understand another crazy.

My first cadre told me he felt at times like he was 'training Americans' (let's be clear here, the cadre and a high percentage of participants are military, but the lessons in teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving that 'ruckers gain can be used with their spouses, in their careers, and in any other aspect of their lives). Americans have become a lazy, accepting, and apathetic group that appears to have lost much of the self-sufficiency and forward-thinking for which we were once known. Energizing people to find out what they're truly capable of is one way to get us back to the forefront. (I'm digressing here... save that for another post).

So... this GORUCK family talks. We share. We support and encourage. There have been some brutally honest discussions among GRT, soul-bearing and soul-searching. Some are quite funny. Others, such as what flooded the discussions yesterday, can be extremely thought-provoking and inspiring. And, we talk about when we are going to get together again to do more stupid crap. But, what do we do after a GORUCK Challenge? Well, the easy answer is... Another challenge! GORUCK wants you to branch out and try new things, though.

But, these new things, things other than the Challenges? What could we do? Glad you asked... How about spending four days in the mountains of Colorado over Labor Day with Green Berets, elements of the 10th Mountain Division, and GR alumni climbing 14,000 ft peaks and learning survival skills (GORUCK Ascent)? Or, how about learning fieldcraft from Berets - along with survival skills, land and water navigation, emergency medical triage, and mission prep - in the waters off Key West for five days (GORUCK Beached)? Or, how about team missions designed by spies and operators to learn how America's Best covertly thrive in communities all around the globe (GORUCK Trek)? Or, do you just want to carry a bunch of bricks (Oh... we haven't even gotten to the 'bricks' discussion, yet), around our country's great cities and compete against other GR Alumni teams to track down the greatest monuments to our nation (GORUCK Scavenger)?

Oh, yes, there's plenty to keep you busy. But, what is a GORUCK Challenge? Well, you're gonna need a rucksack full of bricks, energy bars, water, and a change of clothes. The clothes are necessary, because you're gonna get wet... a river, creek, lake... you're getting in it. And, bring gloves, because you're going to be carrying a log great distances... as a team. Yes, you read that right. Oh, and you'll be doing PT the entire time. Bear crawls, crab walks, push-ups, smurfjacks, divebomber push-ups, human caterpillar, human shopping cart, buddy carries, flutter kicks. fireman carries. And, then there are the coupons you're forced to carry for the entire challenge: ammo cans full of sand, 5 gallon fuel tanks full of water, additional rucks, gear cases, blocks of cement, concrete, slosh pipes full of water, your group guidon (flag), and whatever the cadre sees on the side of the road that looks remotely portable. (This has included tables, recliners, additional bricks, additional rucks, and... bystanders.)

This is not for the weak of mind or body. The Challenge is based on the Special Forces Training and Assessment program Green Berets are required to go through. This isn't easy. It's grueling, and you'll drink several liters of water and force down thousands of calories of energy bars and the like... And, you'll still lose weight and certainly risk dehydration and dizziness if you're not careful.

My first challenge wound through the streets and forests around Savannah with Dan, an active-duty Green Beret and a baaaaaad man. The guy is a beast and eminently quotable. I can't count the number of times the wisecracks he opened up on us broke the monotony and pain of my first experience with GORUCK. GORUCK requires you to have strong muscles and mind, but you have to have a thick hide, too. Whether you're talking to cadre or fellow 'ruckers, the language is graphic, crude, and awesome. Ladies, feel free to join in. There are many female 'ruckers, and they jump into the gutter talk as much as the rest of us. Being part of the family is oddly freeing.

So, GRC Savannah? We went 13 hours and 25 miles (carrying a telephone pole for 6 of them). We waded through the Savannah River and a rather questionable-looking retention pond. We witnessed the aftermath of three homicides. We caused terrorist threats in the city to hit 'red' levels, resulting in the FBI being called. In short, WE HAD A BLAST. I could barely walk afterward. I've run 2 marathons, and my first GORUCK Challenge was the most difficult physical and mental task I've ever completed.

After that? Well, that was the recent GRC Austin during the South by Southwest Festival with Cadre David. We 'only' did 18 miles this time, but it was through rougher terrain in Barton Creek Wilderness Park. It was made difficult by the revoking of our shoe and sock privileges (it is what it sounds like) and rapidly deteriorating water stores that caused an outbreak of cramps on much of the team. The fact that David got a perverse thrill out of watching us (we, who paid for this crap) suffer was offset by the fact that he was such a nice guy.

What's up next? Well, I'll be at the aforementioned Ascent this September. And, I've got a Washington, DC Scavenger set for October. Then, there's my crazy new 'family' members that are close to convincing me to join them for the 9/11 GRC New York City (How can you NOT do that, I ask?).

Still, what is a GORUCK Challenge? This is a long-ass blog post to not have answered the original question. Well, that's because I can't tell you. Which cadre are you going to have? They all do things differently. What city are you going to be in? GRC San Francisco is significantly different than GRC Bozeman. Lastly, what kind of person are you? You're going to get out of it what you put in. If you have problems making it through, your teammates will pick you up. That's what the challenges are about - coming together as a team. So, if you are powering through and the guy next to you stumbles... will you grab his pack to carry it and give him your precious water? If not, maybe GR isn't for you. If so, maybe I'll run across you at a challenge, rucksack filled to the brim with bricks and a smile on my face. Then, as with all GORUCK get-togethers... many beers will be downed.

It's not about the strong or weak link, it's about how to make the chain unbreakable.

Embrace the Suck.

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