Mont Blanc Group of Mountains

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I did manage to finally get some work after completing my contract with the university last Friday (27th March). The other roles fell through due to funding and internal machinations, so despite the stress being minimised for now, it's still lurking in the background.

I did score a new short term role with the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, after being telephoned by one of their faculties. They're hoping to secure me long term and possibly permanent, so fingers crossed in that regard. My new bike is dependent upon things going well!!

Speaking of riding, as this is a riding blog afterall, this coming Easter weekend I intend to do the "Mont Blanc Group of Mountains" in elevation, that is, those mountains are all over 4000 metres and this is my target goal in metres for this upcoming Saturday.

I rode out to Mt Gravatt last weekend to check out the climb and see if it was "do-able" for me and my level of fitness. The first kilometre is steep (ish), but not too bad at all, with the second kilometre being of a lesser gradient and a much easier "spin" to the top.

I'll be looking to do 36 repeats, or approx 4320m of climbing. For me this will not be easy as I've never done this before, have no idea how my mind and body will go, and won't have anyone there to support me when I'm stuffed and need some motivational speeches to keep me going. But this is all irrelevant to those amongst you who have summitted multiple times! You've been there, done that and know what to expect so I won't go over my present thoughts in that regard and bore everyone.

I'll get through this weekend, and then write up my thoughts on this interim path to Everest.

have a good week and stay upright.

Choices

Choice - what life is all about I suppose. Presently life has turned a few corners. I have a couple of offers now that, while they seems great, are taking their sweet time in turning into concrete jobs. Consequently you reach that stage where people (those with offers on the table) need some answers, i.e. “yes or “no” whilst the others are still dilly-dallying with their decisions. The question that then comes to mind is “ should I wait it out and hope for a “yes” in my favour for the more preferable role?” or “should I take what’s on offer now and see what happens afterwards?” Anyone have any ideas???

I went up to Toowoomba last week for a discussion with some of the uni staff up there. On the trip up, beautiful and green for a change, I spied some mountains with towers on their pinnacles. This needs further investigation in case there’s a good road that needs “Everesting”. Potential is everywhere at the moment! I also remembered growing up around the area and that in turn made me think of some of the big hills around our farm. Perhaps that’s in my interest to check out too.

My biking has started to get going, slowly, but at least it’s going OK. I’ve started doing the Strava Climbing Challenge for March and whilst I haven’t done any riding the last two days, I’ll nevertheless get back to it tomorrow and smash out some more metres. This is a challenge I will complete.

I read today the Strava blog about the girls down in Melbourne doing their Everesting of Mt Donna Buang together. How inspiring was that! Looking at some of the photo’s it seems like a truly beautiful ride and one I’ve now got very interested in.

It seems decisions will be made in the next day or two and that these will determine whether I'm still my present role, possible in in Melbourne (my preferred role) or in Toowoomba.

Sometimes it can be nice to have choices afterall.