It was breezing morning in Vuosaari, Helsinki on 28th of January. Temperature was -16 celsius and it was quite windy, 14m/s. We had agreed that we would start at 9 am, so I was ready with my 12kg backpack, poles and proper clothing for 3 hour walk with Carina Räihä. I received a sms, “Stuck in a traffic, I will be there soon.” It is always the same, when there is little snow in the air and windy, traffic is in chaos. Suprisingly – when Helsinki is situated in same latitude than southern end of Greenland and Anchorage, wheather can be bit winterlike – especially in winter time – and it is always a new suprise for this city.

We started our training session around 1000 and when we were walking towards the forest areas of Uutela, we didnt saw anybody. Weather was perfect. Idea was to go for a walk and trying to find some deep snow to make it bit harder.  And of course – discuss about her project, reach summit of Mt.Everest on this spring. She wants to be the first Finnish female to reach the roof.

Jon Krakauer wrote in his book “Into Thin Air” following - “I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium,  and suffering, it struck me that most of us were seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace.”

I have always volunteering myself for suffering – and now that years are passing, I eager to suffer some more. But learning to suffer cannot be made in environment as 8000ers are, it has to be done before. We always talk about physical training, about gearing up, what cones we have climbed in past but we never go deep in our discussions when talking about mental training – is it truly so that this is something that cannot be thought? Atleast people can tricked to suffer, little by little set the bar higher with inconviniency level. Diminish the luxury.

Carina is in good physical shape so we had actually quite good 3 hour training session. Weather was more enjoyment for both of us. When we had our talks, one thing shined trough her, passion for mountaineering. She told me about her reasons why she quit her day job, how she feels about the nature, environment in high altitude and there is no excuses to stay away from the mountains. Then I asked what is the longest time that she has ever walked, cycled, climbed or whatever in a row and the answer was somewhere between 15-20 hours. So, Everest could be her longest “run” this far.

There is nothing wrong to have a passion for mountaineering and there is nothing wrong to be climber who has climbed only few peaks in the past – and there is nothing wrong for desire climb Everest. The wrong part is in there when none of us “older” climbers told her that “you need to learn to suffer before Everest, not on Everest.” For many mountaineers & athletes who have done for years this is so simple thing that it doesnt even cross to our minds – we do it everyday when we train, we have pushed the comfort zone so far that is is hard to comprehense from outside why we are torturing ourself in various ways and why in earth you go training in a blizzard.

I made a desicion couple year ago when I totally lost my nerves with one guy that I had climbed few years. He wanted things badly, to tell everybody what he is going to next and what are his plans and blaa blaa, he was never able to do actual boring & mental training or to do the efforts what needed to be done i.e. to put a expedition together  – talk in this case was bullshit and it made me sick – almost alike – until I realized in one day to call him and said that “you really need to get the f*ck out of my life.” After that I changed the course and started to train & climb solo a lot and the reasons were simple, I had no time to train in reasonable time of the day due small baby & day job, and I wanted to. I decided also that I needed to deepen my relation with suffering – so I did. Good example is the reason for me running in ultra-distance races, it is purely mental training.

I writed earlier that Everest could be her longest run – luckily I am wrong, as conversation ended up in a conclusion about to have a another training session. Why not to start in a morning to “climb” for 8-10 hours, dug up in to a tent in a Finnish forest and wake up at midnight and hit it for next 24 hours. Poor mans Everest summit day simulator – sorry guys, no money for regulating the oxygen levels. ) It is not even near the experience because of various reasons but this is close as it gets – but it is enough shit to push the limit little bit away from the current status. Feel free to join us.

At this point I have to wish to Carina all the best for her preparations – and all those who are training with Carina, make her suffer. Reason for this very simple – it may save her life.

Check out her website, www.carinaraiha.com