Climbing Pike's Peak in PA

Not Pittsburgh.

Christmas was spent in snowy Pittsburgh this year, home of the Steelers and my wife's extended family.  Trips to "the Burgh" are mostly a whirlwind of activity that makes sprinting through the Atlanta airport with our Wiener Dog in a backpack, trying to make our flight connection seem like a relaxing break.  This year, in four days we squeezed in a snowboarding trip, Christmas Day at two different locations (made dinner for 12 at Heidi's mom's), three shopping trips, dinner with Kim (Great to finally meet her! Immediate friend.), and a partridge in a pear tree.  Oh, and the Cathedral of Learning.

Our makeshift mountain.

Heidi, her sister Ange and I were able to get in our trademark workout in the University of Pittsburgh's extremely tall tower.  We have climbed the 36 story edifice for a workout once before, so this year, with a some simple google research, we decided to create a new goal for the day.  Each climb equates to 440ft straight up, so with some simple division we figured out that 12.5 climbs would equate to 5,500ft - the prominence of Pike's Peak, in Colorado. 

So, long story short, we climbed a lot of stairs.  Two and half hours later, we were at the top of what would have been one of the most majestic mountains in Colorado Springs.  Instead we had a lovely view of snowy downtown Pittsburgh.  But hey, the Rocky Mountains don't have handrails.