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Intermittent Fasting www.BrandonClimbs.com I am a "Self-Experimenter", that means I try all sorts of remedies, diets, sleep patterns etc. in the search for the most optimal and efficient solutions to every aspect of my life. Through out my experimentation, I have found that a lot of stuff is BS, other are near impossible to sustain for extended periods of time and that very few actually work and do provide benefits over traditional habits we might be used to. One of those is intermittent fasting. I’m not saying this is for everyone, this is solely my experience and my findings after sticking with this particular eating schedule over a period of 3 months. I have always been a relatively fit individual having exercised daily for the last 10 years. That being said, I’ve never struggled much with staying in shape. Obviously when the holidays come around I’m usually a few pounds heavier but I quickly shed any excess fat in the following months. None the less I’ve always been a clean eater. I’ve never been on an actual diet but I have avoided sweets, processed sugars, refined carbs and processed foods. The only issue is I usually eat A LOT of the foods I consider “healthy”. In an attempt to stay leaner through out the year I stumbled upon the new craze of intermittent fasting. To my surprise it has been surprisingly easy to keep up and my body as adapted quite well. I wake up with more energy than usual and I have gotten very lean without sacrificing muscle mass. At first I thought it was insane to starve yourself. Especially someone like me that’s always hungry, I couldn’t fathom having to restrain my self for a large portion of the day without eating and still maintain a healthy weight. But the more I researched the topic, the more sense it made to me. Most people are out there trying to eat this super clean diet that is practically unsustainable, after having spent the last 20 years of their life eating fast food and ice cream. The problem is, we live in a day and age where the media is constantly bombarding us with irresistible commercials of Dominoes’ new cheese stuffed crust, extra cheesy pizza with cheese on top. So when you are on your eleventh hour and you’ve spent the day eating a hand full of almonds, a dry rubber chicken breast and an apple, it becomes nearly impossible to to not give into the temptation of devouring that delicious and greasy pizza. So it makes total sense why most people can’t stick to a diet and why we are amongst the most obese countries in the world. I’m not saying intermittent fasting is the solution to all of this, but in my experience it’s a great tool to have and given the right circumstance can prove to be very beneficial for many individuals. So what is Intermittent fasting? Well it’s not a diet and its not starving yourself. Its basically limiting your eating to a specific time window... The average American eating schedule goes something like this: 7:00am Breakfast & Coffee 12:00pm Lunch 8:00pm Diner An intermittent fasting schedule looks something like this: 11:00am Lunch 3:00pm Snack 7:00pm Dinner The difference is that the normal schedule has you eating 13-14 hours of the day while the intermittent fasting schedule limits you to some certain hours a day (4-10). This on its own is big game changer. By just limiting the amount of hours you have to eat food in the day, you will automatically reduce the amount of calories you consume. Even if you stuff your face with food during an 8 hour eating window, studies have shown you will eat less than if you had your typical 3 meals of the day. This is important not only for weight loss but for for a variety of reason. Everything from low insulin levels in the blood to raised GH levels during your fast. How does it work? Step 1. You fast Step 2. Your insulin levels drop Step 3. Your body turns to burn stored energy in the form of first glucose then fat Simply put, when we eat we consume more energy than what we can use immediately. There fore our insulin levels rise while we eat which allow the liver to store glycogen but when the liver is topped off it will convert the extra glucose into stored fat. If we are eating through out the day our insulin levels are constantly high and our stores are constantly being topped off, giving no time for the body to burn the stored fat. By fasting we are allowing the body more time in the day to burn stored fat. What is the right way to do intermittent fasting? There is no right answer to this, since there are a variety of ways to fast. Its all about what works for you. Some of the most popular are: -16hr Fast / 8hr eating window (I follow this particular schedule) -14hr Fast / 10hr eating window -5/2 Eat normal 5 days of the week and fast (500-600 calories) for the other two days -6/1 Eat normal for 6 days and do one full 24hr fast a week -1/1 Fast 24hrs / Eat normal for 24hr Choosing what works for you is based on what is easier for you to sustain over a long period of time. Remember the reason most diets fail is because people can’t keep up with the demands and find it too hard to sustain. The goal with intermittent fasting is not to limit your self so much on the foods you eat but instead on the duration of time you eat in the day. My experience with intermittent fasting I’m a very active individual. I do Crossfit 5 days and I run 5-7 miles 3x/week. This means that I need a lot of calories and energy to get me through the week. When I first started adapting my self to this eating schedule I found it a bit difficult the first 2 days but by the third day my body was fully adapted and I was cruising through my 16 hour fast with out a hiccup. Not only was I adapted but in the mornings when I’m usually groggy, now I was full of energy. By the time lunch came around at 11am, I was excited to eat and would devour a big lunch. Around 5pm id go to Crossfit and kick ass. To my surprise I didn’t have the least bit of weakness I thought id experience. Finally, when I got home I would have my final meal of the day, usually a big plate full of a lean protein, potatoes and avocado. In those 3 months of following a time restricted eating schedule I’ve lost considerable body fat (not that I had much to begin with but now I’m very lean) and kept or even added a bit of muscle mass, I’ve gotten stronger with my lifts and I feel my endurance on long runs is much better. I’m not sure how much of this can be accredited to intermittent fasting, but I can tell you that I have felt overall better, lighter and with more energy since I started. I also indulge in more “cheat meals” than ever before with out any sense of guilt. This in itself is enough for me to make it part of my life style. As a climber I do have to modify the eating schedule as I approach a trip since a typical 2 or 3-day climb does require you to feed yourself every few hours to try and not fall into a calorie deficit. But for my day to day life, intermittent fasting has proved to be more efficient and convenient for me and will be something I will maintain going forward. You can read more of my articles at www.brandonclimbs.com

Trip: North Cascades - Southern Pickets - Southern Pickets Enchainment (Traverse) – Second Ascent Trip Date: 08/17/2018 Trip Report: Climbers/Scribe/Photos: Jeff and Priti Wright Priti and I completed the Second Ascent of the full Southern Pickets Enchainment (Traverse) between 8/12/2018 and 8/17/2018 via the first ascensionists’ agenda (VI 5.10+, ca. 3 miles). Thirteen peaks in four days staying on technical terrain enchaining every peak in the Southern Picket Range from East to West. The Chopping Block was our 14thpeak on the last day à la Bunker-Haley-Wallace. We were lucky to have splitter weather the whole time except for our approach day which was non-stop drizzling and kept us from jumping on the rock right away. We had previously attempted this climb during the July 4thweek earlier this summer but were stormed off at the base of Mount Terror. View of the entire Southern Pickets from Mount Triumph. Photo Credit: James Blackmon (1) Little Mac Spire, (2) East McMillan Spire, (3) West McMillan Spire, (4) Tower 1 summit of the East Towers aka "Don Tower", (5) Tower 5 summit of East Towers, (6) Inspiration Peak, (7) Pyramid Peak, (8) Mount Degenhardt, (9) Mount Terror, (10) The Rake aka "The Blob", (11) The Blip, (12) East Twin Needle, (13) West Twin Needle, (14) Dusseldorfspitz, (15) Himmelhorn, (16) Ottohorn, (17) Frenzelspitz, and (18) The Chopping Block The Chopping Block is on the left. History: FA: In 2003, this visionary line of 13 summits (Little Mac Spire to Frenzelspitz) was first completed by Mark Bunker, Colin Haley, and Wayne Wallace in an incredibly speedy 4 days car-to-car. http://c498469.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/2004/34_wallace_pickets_aaj2004.pdf https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/15094-walking-the-fence/ 2011: Dan Hilden, Jens Holsten, and Sol Wertkin completed 12 of the Southern Pickets summits (Little Mac Spire to Ottohorn), but were halted by an impassable moat under the South Face of the final bookend peak, Frenzelspitz (a lesson we borrowed to not take the snow approach). https://www.outdoorresearch.com/blog/article/chad-kellogg-jens-holsten-tackle-complete-picket-range-enchainment http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web15s/wfeature-never-ending-holsten-kellogg https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/82900-tr-picket-range-complete-enchainment-attempt-922011/?tab=comments#comment-1029444 2013: Jens Holsten and Chad Kellogg traversed 11 of the Southern Pickets summits (Little Mac Spire to Himmelhorn), and carried on to the Northern Pickets to do a mind-blowing Southern and Northern Pickets traverse. Even though Jens humbly calls their climb an “attempt” since they left out three minor summits, their ascent was easily one of the greatest alpine achievements in the lower 48. https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/92032-they-made-it/?tab=comments#comment-1101276 http://jensholsten.blogspot.com/2013/07/desperate-country-seven-day-enchainment.html https://www.outdoorresearch.com/blog/article/chad-kellogg-jens-holsten-tackle-complete-picket-range-enchainment Legend In the topos below, note the following color codes -Blue circle: belays that we chose to take (all are optional, obviously) -Yellow arrows: Bail options, or ways to enter/exit shorter segments of the Enchainment -Green tent: bivy sites (note the comments) -Red lines: Ascent -White circles: Rappels -White lines: Descent Day 1 With our packs each weighing in at 28lbs, we hiked in to Terror Creek Basin via Goodell Creek through wet bushes and a light drizzle and bivied at the Terror Creek Basin High Camp. Day 2 As we roped up at the base of the start (Little Mac Spire) on Day 2, Priti glumly pulled two left-footed red Moccasym rock shoes out of her pack, but decided to keep going like the hardcore badass that she is! We climbed from Little Mac Spire (5.8) through East McMillan Spire (5.6), West McMillan Spire (5.8), the East Towers (5.8) summiting Don Tower and Tower 5, and finishing the day with Inspiration Peak (5.9). We had to climb up 1/3 of Pyramid to find a small snow patch for water and dinner. On our last trip in early July there was a lot of snow at the cols, so it was easy to find water. There was a lot less snow in the cols in August, making finding water along the traverse very tricky, to say the least. We filled our dromedary up every time we found snow. The smoke made the views hazy, but we could tell how far away the later peaks were, and how far we had to go. The base of Little Mac Spire The start of the technical climbing (5.7) on the face of Little Mac Spire The upper ridge of East McMillan Spire View looking West in July View looking West in August Upper face of West McMillan Spire Starting up Tower 1 Priti is belaying below Pitch 2 (5.8 with a hand/fist overhang) Inspiration Peak Summit is the impressive overhang on the left Day 3 On Tuesday (day 2 of climbing, day 3 of the trip), we started out on Pyramid (5.8), and traversed over Degenhardt (3rd class). We chose a steep face crack for the first pitch on Terror to start. This may be the 5.8 start Jens and Chad did. Starting further out left might go at 5.6. After finding the piton rappel off Terror, we downclimbed about half of the Rake-Terror col before starting up a loose gulley on The Rake (skier’s right). The climbing didn’t feel too hard, and we must have avoided the 5.9 R climbing described by previous parties. However we didn’t make it to the nice bivy at the summit, instead hunkering down on a slopey grassy ledge for the night. Snafflehounds poked me in the face and jumped on my feet to start the night out. The meteor shower sparkled above us. In the morning, Jeff found his helmet strap had been gnawed through, his crack gloves stolen and the nut butter munched. Nothing a little duct tape won’t fix! Starting up the technical climbing on Pyramid Peak Inside the crux chimney Day 4 On Wednesday (day 3 of climbing, day 4 of the trip), we only climbed for a few hours doing lots of fun ridge climbing on the Rake (5.8) which took us to the best bivy spot of the trip: on top of the West Rake Summit. It was so nice, we decided to relax the rest of the day and camel up for the next day. The choosy 4th class gully which exits the Terror-Rake col (about halfway down) on climber's right The entire Rake ridgeline is pictured here. Priti is on the initial ridgeline, heading to the Rake's deep, major notch (right of center). Stay high on this initial ridge to get to a 5.6 traverse about even with the notch to get over to the notch. Starting the traverse too soon may result in 5.9R climbing. The vertical ridgeline just left of the major notch is the technical crux. The technical crux of The Rake. This is the second pitch after getting to the major notch which takes you to the The Rake's ridge proper. 5.8+ ledges with small gear. Starting out on the Rake's ridge proper. Looking back at the Rake (Eastward) from the summit Guns out! Amazing bivy site! Don't stop at the col (aka "Ice Station Dark Star"), but continue to this bivy after a short pitch. Day 5 Thursday morning we woke up stoked for the Twin Needles and Himmelgeisterhorn. The Blip between the Rake and the Needles was a quick jaunt (5.6). In the descent gulley, Priti kicked a small rock down, which tipped a precarious car-door sized boulder over and core-shot our rope. She literally had two left feet! We just climbed the rest of the way with 40m of rope out. East Twin Needle (5.10a) had some of the best climbing on the trip, following an aesthetic line up the knife edge ridge, that looks like a gothic tower. There was a TCU that the previous party stuck behind a flake, and was reminded of the giant footsteps we were following. The last couple moves were extremely dirty though. The left variation of the crux is much easier than sticking right. West Twin Needle was chill 3rd Class. Then came Himmelgeisterhorn (5.10), the “Horn of the Sky Spirit”. The climbing was fantastic: engaging, with great position, and unique au chevaling! We climbed over Düsseldorfspitz, on the way to the summit of Himmelhorn. We rappelled down the North Face of Himmelhorn with our 60m rope which worked out perfectly. Ottohorn took about an hour to summit and get back down to the Himmel-Otto col. The 3rdclass route that Bunker-Haley-Wallace took is gone due to some fresh rock fall. Instead of taking the 2 pitch 5.7 variation that Hilden-Holsten-Wertkin took, we attacked the fresh rock scar directly which was splitter 5.6 hand cracks for maybe 15 m to the ridge and summit. In the fading light, we then headed over to Frenzelspitz (the final peak of the Enchainment) from the Himmel-Otto col, traversing along rock on the north side of Ottohorn. The ledge/gulley traverse had the most heinous, scary, exposed choss. Luckily the climbing on Frenzel was pretty great 5.7ish. We made four fresh rappel anchors, starting with a runner on the summit block, two double-nut anchors, and another slung horn. 5.8 ridge (vertical blocks) The fantastic climbing on the technical crux of East Twin Needle. Priti leading out onto the technical crux (and I mean technical!) - face climbing on crimps with small gear Looking up and over Dusseldorfspitz. Priti is belaying between Dusseldorfspitz (foreground) and Himmelhorn (background). The crazy outcropping (Dusseldorfspitz) just East of the summit of Himmelhorn Looking back down from the Himmelhorn summit at the belay. Left to right: Dusseldorfspitz (the small spire along the ridgeline, just below the summit), Himmelgeisterhorn ("Horn of the Sky Spirit", also a small suberb of the German city of Dusseldorf), Ottohorn, and Frenzelspitz...three names taken from the label of a mustard bottle brought along by Joan and Joe Firey (kindred spirits and personal heroes of ours) during their first ascent of these peaks in 1961. Ed Cooper, also on the trip, was "aghast" at the names chosen! The magnificent Northern Pickets Frenzelspitz, a perfect pyramid Day 6 The last day we climbed the Chopping Block via the NW Route (4thClass) and hiked out via “Stump Hollow” to Terror Creek. Mega thanks to Wayne, @solwertkin, and @jensholsten for their great beta, inspiration, and support. Priti and I have been dreaming of this climb for years now since reading Alpinist 47 magazine’s expansive article on the Picket Range and being inspired by Jens Holsten and Chad Kellogg’s 2013 Pickets Traverse (of both the Southern and Northern Pickets, 10 miles) after we had just taken the @boealps Basic Climbing Class. The next level of alpinism in the Southern Pickets may be to complete the entire enchainment in a day! This seems like an entirely reasonable feat (especially for a soloist) given enough familiarity and speed. Bivy Beta: Primo bivies (East to West) base of West McMillan Spire descent (snow through the summer, nice bivy walls) base of Mount Terror, cross over ridge to North side - late season snow available on top of the Rake sub-peak (1 pitch past the “Ice Station Dark Star”) – lots of snow just a short scramble distance away along the Rake descent. Himmel-Otto col (if no snow on the col, make one rappel toward Crescent basin to find snow) Terrible bivies (East to West) base of East McMillan Spire descent (sloping ledges, snow early season) slabby ledge about 1/4 the way up the Inspiration West Ridge (exposed) Pyramid-Inspiration col (no snow late season) grassy ledges down and climbers left when you first gain the ridge proper at the start of the Rake “Ice Station Dark Star” (as coined by Hilden-Holsten-Wertkin) which is the col after just rappelling from The Rake summit (snow early season, but rappel north late season to find snow down a heinous choss gully)…if no snow just at the col, then recommend continuing on to the Rake descent to find tons of easily accessible snow in late season Himmelhorn summit (no snow) Gear Notes: small set of nuts and some brassies doubles BD UL Camalots .4-2 single BD UL Camalot 3 (for Inspiration East Face) singles BD C3 000-1 (extra green 0) single BD Camalot X4 Offset 0.1/0.2 single BD Camalot X4 0.3 singles Metolius Mastercam 0-3 4 double-length runners with 2 Camp 22 biners each 3 double-length runners with 1 Camp 22 biner each 9 single-length runners with 1 Camp 22 biner each (can’t have too many runners) 30L Patagonia Ascensionist pack (for him) and 30L Black Diamond Speed pack (for her) Patagonia Micro Puff jacket (each) Patagonia Alpine Houdini jacket (each) Patgaonia Nano-Air Light Hybrid Jacket (for him) 2L MSR DromLite (essential!) Garmin inReach Mini (love this little guy!) Beal Escaper (for emergency bails) Petzl Leopard FL crampons (each) Petzl Sirocco helmets Petzl Sitta harness (for him) and Arc’teryx harness (for her) Metolius Feather Nut Tool (each) Camp Corsa Nanotech 50cm (each) chalk bag, each (didn’t use) tape gloves (for her) and OR Splitter gloves (for him) x2: Mammut Smart belay device (not the Alpine Smart) + Grivel Sigma Wire D carabiner 3 lockers for group: Grivel Tau K12L, Grivel Lambda HMS, Grivel Plume 60m 8.5mm Beal Opera rope 15m 5mm cord (did not use ever) 1 medium fuel canister 1 small fuel canister (did not use) Jetboil Sol stove Safety ‘biner (each) – Edelrid 19g caribeener, Petzl Micro Traxion, short Sterling Hollowblock, Trango Piranha knife Bivy setup (each) – Short Thermarest NeoAir XLite sleeping pad, Exped Air Pillow UL, Feathered Friends Vireo UL sleeping bag 8.5ft^2 tarp by Hyperlite Mountain Gear TC Pros (for him) and Moccassyms (for her) La Sportiva TX2 (for her) and TX4 (for him) approach shoes Petzl Reactik headlamps (each) + 3 extra AAA batteries + Petzl e+LITE headlamp Other things: 1 long spoon to share, chapstick to share, small Joshua Tree sun stick to share, Kenu iPhone tether, lighter, whistle, duct tape, Thermarest repair patches, Voke tabs, Nuun, pain killers, 1L Platypus soft water bottle (for her) and 750mL HydraPak Stash (for him), warm headband, glove liners, 1 pair thick long socks (each), sunglasses, ear plugs, WRFA emergency form, small pencil Dinner: 2 AlpineAire meals, 3 Near East Couscous boxes repackaged with small olive oil packets in ziplock bags, salt Day food was mostly bulky, yummy snacks: vegan jerky, dried mango, nuts, Cheese-Its, sesame sticks, Gu, nut butter, etc Approach Notes: Excellent Approach trail Goodell Creek to Terror Basin. The descent from Crescent Basin is tricky The luxurious tree marker where one descends from the ridge below "Stump Hollow" towards Terror Creek Log crossing Terror Creek on descent

Damn, that's impressive. Well executed you two!

Trip: Goode and Storm King - NE Buttress Trip Date: 09/02/2018 Trip Report: Nate and I climbed the NE Buttress of Goode and Storm King then took a scenic exit via Park Creek Pass and Easy Pass. We started from the Bridge Creek TH at 11pm on Thursday 8/30 and exited at the Easy Pass TH a couple hours before sunset on Sunday 9/2. Getting onto the Goode Glacier was difficult, and the bridge across the moat on the left side of the NE Buttress won't be around for much longer. I wouldn't recommend the route at this point in the season. I wrote up a full TR on my site here: https://www.laneaasen.com/2018/09/goode-ne-buttress-storm-king.html Gear Notes: Approach shoes, crampons, ice axes 8 small nuts and 5 slings for NEB 60m half rope, doubled for simuling Approach Notes: Approached from Bridge Creek TH, exited via Park Creek Pass and Easy Pass

Jason, there were some insane flights this year. Jessie Williams flew from Sauk, around back of Shucksan and Baker to Mosquito Lake Rd. Paul Baron flew from Blanchard to Concrete, over Sisters Range, Nick traversed entire Pickets and Sawtooth ranges, plus traversed Canadian Rockies unsupported, Jessie Williams flew from Blanchard to Hope, Cedar Wright flew from Tumwater to Pateros, Mitch Riley flew from Blanchard to Tiger, following Skagit flats and foothills of the Cascades. Alex Raymont flew from Pemberton to Squamish and back to Pemby via 213.24km triangle. This was Canadian triangle record, which stood only for a couple of days, as Igor Tolsky flew 238.5km triangle only a couple of days later. Benjamin Jordan flew from Roosville , MT to McBride, smoke and all in 50 days.

Nature is much of a canvas as it is a mirror. Well done. I'm so happy to see the psych torches lit, pass that shit along! I really miss those mountains and it's great to see a trip report just like the golden days on this website. Proud

Kev, what is your address? The rangers need to know where to send the ticket. Especially after you go so far as to call them "lazy". And your "city boy" attitude regarding the Enchantments is moronic. It isn't "far back" and the permits are there for a good reason.