The Dairy Blog

Eddie here. You usually hear about how Mayfield products are made from me, but I’ve got something a little different for you this month. Don’t worry, that inside look into life as a plant manager is not lost forever, I just wanted to give you a glimpse into my life as a…

I was inspired by a book called Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer about his climb up Mt. Everest. Yes, inspired to climb a mountain and not inspired to avoid climbing a mountain! So, with that inspiration, I set out to climb Mt. Rainier. At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest peak in Washington and the most heavily glaciated peak in the contiguous United States. Yeah, and pretty dangerous, too!

Well, I wasn’t going to do this alone, so I shared my goal with Scott Watson and got him suckered into it. We have more in common than just both being plant managers for Mayfield! We began by training in December 2003 by running, weight training and taking long hikes in the Smoky Mountains carrying 45-pound backpacks!

It was on May 12 that we arrived in Washington. The next day, along with 12 other climbers, we began our hike at 5,000 feet. With a deep snow and a 30-degree pitch up the mountain, the journey of 4.5 miles took six hours. When we reached the base camp at 10,000 feet, 11 climbers decided to continue the climb. Stay tuned to see if Scott and I were among them…

Eddie

                         ME                                       SCOTT