Neal Mueller

Thursday, March 24, 2005 — Chanhassen Villager — Page 11
I Tim McGovern Sports Editor 952-345-6576
SPORTS
[email protected]
Who says the dome doesn’t have windows?
Indoor practice facility is welcome addition to Skipper sports teams
By Daniel Huss
CORRESPONDENT
A common sports analogy is
the window of opportunity.
That so called window opened
at Minnetonka High School the
day spring practices began.
It closes April 9, the day Minnetonka Dome comes down for
the season.
Until then, the dome represents an opportunity Skipper
teams have never had before.
For the softball team it represents the first chance for the
coach to see her outfielders.
“In the past,” said Mary Beth
Wigg, “I’ve had to wait until we
get outside.”
For the track teams, the dome
represents a head start for the
sprinters, jumpers, and throwers.
“Outside works for distance
kids,” said Chris Cohen, head
coach of the Minnetonka boys
team “but it doesn’t work for
much of the rest of us.”
In years past, Cohen said his
team “toughed it out” and trained
outdoors.
“You have to be careful,” he
said, “Not only is the footing
bad, but the cold weather makes
it easy to pull muscles.
“The dome has allowed us to
train harder early on,” he said.
“We’ve been in here almost every day.”
With team that numbers 117,
Jane Meads has had parts of her
girls track team use the dome as
well.
“The dome’s surface has been
easier on our legs,” she said.
“One the best things about it, is
that offers good footing.”
A premium, considering the
recent snowfall still covers much
of the track.
Snowball effect
If there is downside, it’s the
dome’s availability.
“We can use it for free from 35 p.m.,” said Activities Director
John Hedstrom. “The rest of the
time it’s rented.”
That said, Hedstrom said that
his coaches have been pretty good
at sharing.
“We’ve been able to work
things out,” he adds.
On related note, dome access
has freed up gym space.
“With teams using the dome
it’s made it easier to get in the
gym,” said Wigg.
Whether it’s related or not, it’s
interesting to note that the Pagel
Center didn’t have to drain one
of its rinks. In the past, the area
inside the rink has been used by
various spring sports teams until
they can get outside.
But all’s not perfect under the
Teflon-coated sky.
“With the dome located in
the middle of the track,” said
Meads, “you can’t see how our
relay teams are doing.”
Indeed, it’s impossible to see
different parts of the track from
any one location.
“You gain one thing and lose
something else,” said Hedstrom.
Care to bet that the gains outweigh the losses?
Mt. Everest has had 2,249 successful
summits since 1953, when Sir Edmund
Hillary and sherpa Tenzig Norgay were
the first to return from the 29,029-foot
peak. Last year was a record for summit
success, with 330. Though the journey
is safer by the numbers, the danger
remains. Here is a list of summits and
deaths on Everest for the past 15 years.
Summits
72
38
90
129
129
83
98
85
129
117
146
182
159
264
330
Deaths
4
2
5
8
8
3
15
9
4
4
2
5
3
4
7
Source: www.everesthistory.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF NEAL MUELLER
Chaska High School graduate Neal Mueller conquered Antarctica’s Vinson Massif in January, and is preparing to depart
for Nepal next week to begin an expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest.
Climb of his life
Mountaineer Neal Mueller prepares for ultimate test of skill and will
By Tim McGovern
SPORTS EDITOR
Neal Mueller has shouldered
a lot of packs up a lot of mountains, dragged sleds up snowy
mountain slopes and survived
severe sunburn and scorched
corneas in his quest to reach
the world’s tallest peaks.
But the mountaineer’s current expedition promises to be
unlike any other.
After standing at the highest points of five continents,
including a January summitting of Vinson Massif in Antarctica, the Chaska High School
graduate will depart March 28
for Kathmandu, Nepal, to begin
a two-month trek to stand atop
the roof of the world.
Mueller, his friend and climbing partner Chris Grubb, guide
Jim Williams and a team of
Sherpas will embark on the ultimate test of climbing skill and
mental will to reach the summit
of Mt. Everest. At 29,029 feet of
elevation, Everest is the highest
point on earth.
“We have a 100 percent success rate climbing big peaks,
which is totally out of the ordinary,” Mueller said. “We’re
younger than most – Chris is 25
and I’m 27. So I think we have an
advantage that, I hope, will help
us out.”
Mueller has been working out
four to five hours a day preparing for the two-month odyssey,
and its many 16-hour days of
climbing.
A flight from Kathmandu to
the Lukla airfield at 9,350 feet
of elevation, starts the journey.
Mueller is looking forward to
many of the cultural experiences of the expedition, including a
visit to the monastery at Tengbouche.
“All the climbers get blessed
with rice and their ice axes get
blessed,” Mueller said. “They tell
us when is an auspicious day to
leave. Then, we climb to the base
camp at 17,000 feet.”
By then, it will be mid-April
and the month-long climb be-
gins to ferry gear between the
four camps along the route to
the summit. The back-and-forth
climbs allow the mountaineers
to adjust to the strenuous activity and increasing elevation.
Climbers often develop maladies
such as fluid in the lungs or even
pneumonia, which warrants a
trip back down the mountain to
recuperate.
“If we don’t feel healthy on
any of those climbs, we go back
to Tengbouche, back to base
camp, or back to Lukla,” Mueller said. “If you go back to Kathmandu, that means you’re really
sick and the expedition is over.”
Treacherous trip
The camps are relatively close
together, but falling rock and
ice, as well as the thin air, make
it a treacherous trip. The route
Mueller and his group must follow winds through the Khumbu
ice fall, where huge ice towers –
caused when glaciers cleave – jut
from the snow.
“They’re like skyscrapers
two or three stories tall,” Mueller said. “They can fall at any
time so (climbers) take a very
circuitous route to find the safest way.”
With the gear and good health
in place, the mountaineers will
begin to look for summit windows in mid-May. Mueller said
the object of the expedition is to
bring everyone to the summit.
“The goal is not to go down
and rest the whole time,” he said.
“The goal is to help ferry gear so
the others can be rested as well
and go to the summit with you.”
Mueller says there is camaraderie along the Everest route
– a sharing of medicine, food
and equipment that differs from
most other expeditions.
“There’s more of a team attitude on Everest – sacrifice for
somebody else, and they sacrifice
for you,” Mueller said. “It’s a cooperative environment because
everyone’s so miserable.”
Shelby Lieffers, a senior discus thrower, is one of number
of Minnetonka High School athletes to begin their spring
practices in the Minnetonka Dome. In years past, they either
“toughed it out” outdoors or made do in either the gym or
the Pagel Center.
It’s up, it’s good!
Take your best shot
To the top
Year
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
PHOTO BY DANIEL HUSS
Out of their hands
While frostbite, falling ice and
storms are all dangers on Everest, hypoxia, or the body’s lack of
oxygen, is of primary concern.
Thin air saps energy levels,
curbs appetite and clouds rational thought.
Mueller said that Williams,
one of the world’s foremost
mountaineers and frequent leader of Everest expeditions, has the
experience to make critical decisions when thin air trumps rational thought.
“Above 24,000 feet, we really
don’t have a choice to say ‘I’m
going’ if Jim doesn’t want us
to go,” Mueller said. “He has
the authority to say ‘I know you
want to do this, but this year is
not your year.’ We trust him in
that way.”
With oxygen levels dwindling
at the higher elevations, oxygen
tanks become standard equipment. No first-time Everest
climber has summitted without
bottled oxygen.
Mueller has climbed to 23,000
feet, but has not used oxygen.
Once the expedition reaches
26,000 feet, he will hook up to a
10-pound titanium oxygen tank.
The mask stays on – climbing,
resting or sleeping.
“I’m not excited about another
piece of technical gear,” Mueller
said. “It’s just another thing that
can break.”
Everest has no quick exit, as
helicopters can reach only as far
as the base camp on a good day.
There is a large body of work
detailing the highs and lows of
scaling Everest. Everest DVDs
include titles such as “Mountain
of Dreams/Mountain of Doom,”
“Everest: The Death Zone,” and
“In the Footsteps of Legends.”
Jon Krakauer’s best-selling
book “Into Thin Air” documented a storm that killed several
members of his 1996 Everest expedition. In “Touching the Void:
The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival,” Joe Simpson
recounts his harrowing struggle
to survive a blizzard and frostbite
after breaking his leg and falling
into a crevasse in the Andes.
“We’ll listen to Jim,” Mueller
said. “We’ve seen the videos; we
get the message.”
Unique expedition
There are several aspects
that make Mueller’s expedition
to Everest unique. Grubb and
Mueller are on track to become
two of the youngest to scale the
seven summits. Mueller was born
in Iowa City, and moved with his
family to Minnesota as a child. If
Mueller reaches the summit, he
will be one of few “Minnesotans”
to do so. Former Polaris CEO W.
Hall Wendel Jr. has climbed
all seven summits. While not a
Minnesota native, Wendel lived
much of his adult life in the state.
Mountain guide and Seven Summits mountaineer Eric Simonson
of Washington state holds a degree in geology from Northfield’s
Carleton College.
Second, the group is pitching
in to help clean up the mountain.
The group will fill a bag donated
by an outfitter with discarded
gear and other garbage left by
previous climbers.
Third, Mueller said the group
is participating in a study by
Philip Lieberman of Brown University to study the cognitive
effects of the brain undergoing
oxygen loss. The group will take
a series of tests on a Palm Pilot
as they make their way up the
mountain.
The study will help with
similar situations that astronauts would face in a projected
manned voyage to Mars in 2020,
as well as treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
With so much time, money and
effort put into the quest to scale
the seven summits, Mueller said
he has some trepidation given the
mountain’s death toll over the
decades. The clues are scattered
along the desolate terrain.
“You see a bone up there, you
know it’s human,” Mueller said.
“Only humans are dumb enough
to go up that high.”
When Hopkins sophomore
Blake Hoffarber swished his
shot from the seat of his Royal
blue gym shorts to send the
Class 4A title game against
Eastview into overtime, he
combined two of the magical
aspects of sports.
It was an unbelievable shot
at an unbelievably important
time.
I thought of Duke’s Christian Laettner catching an 80foot pass from fellow Blue Devil
great Grant Hill. Laettner had
time to dribble, wheel fake and
swish in less than two seconds
as Duke beat Kentucky to get
to the Final Four of the 1992
NCAA Tournament.
I thought of Minneapolis
North’s Khalid El-Amin holding the ball for two minutes,
then his final shot falling short
against Staples-Motley in 1995.
But a teammate was there to put
back the rebound as time expired to tip the title to North.
I also thought of more recent great shots in lower-stakes
games, like Minnetonka’s Brett
Tuma scooping up a loose ball
and shot from his hip to beat the
buzzer and defeat Chaska early
in the season.
And also, I remembered
Hawk sophomore Bret Chapman launching a game-winning, buzzer-beating threepointer to beat Park of Cottage
Grove in the Hamline holiday
tournament. The Hawks then
faced, you guessed it – Hopkins
for the title.
Then, I got to thinking.
What’s my greatest sports
shot?
Basketball is not my game.
The only bucket I can remember sinking was in a pickup
game in Minneapolis when
someone forgot to guard me. It
usually is a good game plan.
But I’ve been practicing on
my children’s Little Tikes hoop
in the basement – so look out,
SportsCenter.
from the
SPORTS
DESK
OF TIM MCGOVERN
My greatest shot came in a Pee
Wee hockey tournament game.
Playing left wing, I chased after a
rolling puck in the corner to the
left of the goalie. I had an opposing
player on my skate-blade heels, so I
flipped a quick backhander toward
the crease.
My backhander sailed off my
freshly taped stick high into the
air. It landed on the goalie’s back
and into the net.
As I remember, it might have
turned out to be the game-winning goal.
What’s your greatest sports
shot? E-mail it to scores@
swpub.com for publication in a
future edition of the Villager.
Youth sports
Thank you to all who sent the
flurry of youth sports news and
photos this winter.
Obviously, this area has some
excellent basketball, gymnastics,
swimming, wrestling and hockey
talent, judging by the flood of emails lately.
Remember, keep the stories
brief, the photos sharp and list
everyone in the photo.
The deadline is noon on Monday, but space sometimes fills
faster than that. In each edition
of the Villager, I put all the youth
sports that space allows. This
meant that some have waited for
a week or two to see their information in the paper.
Thank you for your patience,
and congratulations on so many
successful seasons.
BRIEFS
Still time to sign up for
Chanhassen Little League
Carver Community Youth
Softball Association. Registration deadline is March 31. Call
The Chanhassen Athletic As- Rose Peterson at (952) 448-3907
sociation invites all local families for more information.
to now complete registration for
Little League baseball and softball being played this summer in Dist. 112 softball signup
the parks of Chanhassen.
Register for 2005 District
Late Registrations completed 112 In-House fastpitch softball
after March 12 will be accepted, teams now through March 31.
with a $20 surcharge.
The 2005 3CV (Carver,
For fees, schedules, and more Chanhassen, Chaska, Victoria)
information about the Chanhas- In-House Fast Pitch Softball
sen Little League, visit www. cha League invites softball players
nhassenathleticassociation.org. from their respective cities to
register for summer softball.
This league emphasizes fun
Spring Break baseball camp and skills development. DiviThe Minnetonka High School sions exist for second grade
baseball coaching staff is hosting through high school. Register
a three-day baseball camp at the by March 31 to avoid late fees
new Tonka Dome. This Camp is and to be ensured of a spot.
open to players outside MinFor more information and
netonka School District.
registration forms, contact ch
The camp will run Tuesday [email protected] or
through Thursday from March check out the CYSA website at
29-31 and is available to boys www. eteamz.com/chaska.
and girls 8 through 15.
For infor mation: Call Jon
Guy at (952) 484-7299 or link Sign up for men’s softball
to www. tonkabaseball.org/
The Chaska Men’s Softball
SpringBreak2005Camp.pdf.
League is now forming. League
play for the 14-week season begins April 27. Games are played
Sign up for Carver
at Lions Park on Wednesdays.
youth softball, T-Ball Team fee is $425.
Contact Kathy Skinner at
Registration forms are available at the Carver City Hall for the Chaska Parks and Recreanyone interested in playing ation Department at (952) 227youth softball or T-ball for the 7747 for more information.