through the roof...

I grew up in Akron, Ohio my father was going to Kent State to get his PhD in Communications.  I was the fourth of six children.  One of my fondest memories as a child was feeding raccoon’s peanut butter covered crackers on the back porch of our home.  We had a little yellow house as well as a matching tree house out in the back that was also yellow.  All I used to wear was a diaper and cowboy boots, and I never took off my Davy Crockett raccoon hat.  At age five my mom would send me to fetch tomatoes from the garden on the side of our house.

At age six we moved to midway Utah, as we were too poor to afford a house, so my mother’s parents allowed us to live in the family cabin.  My dad was teaching at BYU as a professor for their Communications class.  To go to school my two older brothers, sister, and I would hop on sleds to make it down the hill to the bus stop in the winter.  I had a pair of moon boots and I never took them off.  I got sprayed by a skunk a couple times, my mom had to throw me in the tub, and the only way to get the smell to go away was to have my mom cover me in tomato sauce and peanut butter.  My mom always used to send all the kids to hike Eagles Peak in the back yard.  I have a feeling that’s where I became so fond of the outdoors.

A couple years later, we moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.  I’ve lived in Salt Lake ever since.  I still remember my first job, when I was 15 I worked at The Pretzel Maker and they called me the Pretzel Boy.  Growing up I was a very energetic boy.  I say energetic because I was so hyper that my family used to be called “Taz”, after the Tasmanian Devil.  I remember in fourth grade I was so hyper that I spent most of the year in my desk that was facing the back wall.  My teacher didn’t like me much.  My mom even put me in kindergarten a year early so that she wouldn’t have to babysit me anymore.  I’ve learned to channel my energy now in a positive way and I know that this is going to help me climb this mountain.

What I think prepared me for this trip more than anything else is becoming a life scout.  My scout master was the best scout master in the entire world.  He would take us on a back packing excursion once a month for a weekend and a summer camp once every summer that was a week long.  One of my fondest trips was when we hiked the Wind Rivers, and we didn’t come back to civilization for a week.  We had to carry an 85 pound pack with all of our food, and everything else you needed for that week.  Being that I was 14 and I only weighed about 135 pounds, carrying an 85 pound pack 10 miles a day, made for some great training for this climb.  There are many great trips but nothing tops when we had to pack up camp and leave because bears had ransacked our camp.  One night I woke to find a bear cub licking my toes, the tent zipper was broken.  Best merit badge was the cooking merit badge.  We brought 4 chickens, two of which the bears had eaten and one of which I was chosen to chop the head off.  Yes, chickens do still run around when their heads get cut off. 

-Zackamanjaro