 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
Tigers Take Pride to Mountain Top
Two LSU students and their father, an LSU alumnus, recently reached a peak with their school pride--literally. LSU alumnus Dale Mathews ('71) and his children Katherine, a senior in photography, and Michael, a junior in finance, hiked to the top of Mt. Rainier in Ashford, Washington, in August 2003, carrying with them an LSU flag from home. Mt. Rainier, located in the Cascade Range, towers 14,410 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest summits in the lower 48 states. To prepare for the climb, the Mathews trained for two months in Tiger Stadium by climbing the stadium steps. Their training consisted of hiking the entire set of stadium steps (excluding the upper decks) approximately 12-15 times, four days out of the week and 30 times on Saturdays.
"Being inside the stadium got all of us fired up quite a bit," Dale said. "It seems that the energy that place creates is there permanently. Knowing how much the Tigers work to hang in a game and reach their goal to win makes you want to do it, too." Dale's wife Carroll, a professional-in-residence in LSU's Department of Interior Design, trained with her family even though she did not participate in the hike. Dale said it was great training with his wife and children. Currently, the Mathews often work out in Tiger Stadium to prepare for future hikes.
Climbing a total of 18,000 vertical feet, the Mathews completed their goal within 28 hours. "We couldn't see 20 yards in front of us, at times," Katherine said. "You're supposed to spend an hour at the top, but we only spent 10 minutes because of the weather." Even though Dale has been hiking for more than 40 years and owns his own adventure store in Baton Rouge, this was his first time to hike Mt. Rainier. The desire to climb the impressive mountain finally became a reality when his kids wanted to accompany him. "Reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier was one of the best achievements of my life, especially since I did it with my kids. It was a real family-building accomplishment," Dale said.
Contact Bethany Hales or Robin Dunkin
| LSU University Relations Related Links LSU Alumni
|
||||||||||||
"[The training] was really monotonous," Katherine recalled. "but if we hadn't have done it in Tiger Stadium, we wouldn't have been able to [climb Mt. Rainier]." 
Although Mt. Rainier is not considered that technical of a climb, the extremity of the weather makes the speed of the climb an endurance test. On the Mathews' summit day, they faced 49-mile-per-hour winds and a blistering cold wind chill of minus 5 degrees. They started with 24 people but only finished with 13. 
