scuba_man7

After my first entry, I stopped smoking for about a month before I went to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro. I was training every day, and lots of exercise filled the void and the need for any “weed fix”.

I had a 4 day layover on the way back from Africa – in Amsterdam – and smoked my body weight in weed while I was there. I highly recommend that city if you’re a pot smoker. It’s nice to see lots of other people smoking great weed and relaxing. No problems with cops, paranoia, and you can find good weed easily.

But after 4 days of that, I came home and really didn’t feel like I accomplished my goal. I had only stopped smoking because my training was ramped up, and I started again on the way home. Also, when I got back I smoked pretty heavily for a couple more months, but it served a purpose. My Africa trip was really life-changing, and it helped me put everything in perspective.

A couple of months ago I quit again to accomplish my original goal of cleaning out for a while and then going back to occasional use so that I can get the good things out of this drug without having it be such a habit that it takes away from the productive things in life.

I wanted to make it to the New Year, and did. I don’t have any around, and probably will stay clear of it for a few more weeks, but will then go back to smoking every now and then to get the good things (relaxation, stress release, increased creativity) from weed once again.

This was an amazing experience, life changing, rewarding, and really hard to put into words. This is the safest and the most non-technical of the 7 summits (highest summit on each of the 7 continents), but the summit rate is still only about 50%.

We saw lots of people turn away because of altitude sickness concerns, and most were preventable with the right guides and the right gear. Shitty tour companies are common on Kili, and you may end up spending a few grand and not making it to the top just because you went with a group that didn’t know how to pace your climb, when to push and when not to, etc.

Definitely worth it. Train aggressively for 6 months and get the right clothing to stay warm and you’ll make it.

I’ve been trying to cut back lately, but the little buggers just piss me off sometimes. Deep cleansing breaths….