[I Got The Axe Today]

And here I thought you were excited to tell us about your new Charlet Moser tool. "I got the axe today!" Cool! Graphite shaft? Hammer or adze?

[I feel the need, the need for...]

I bet that several of the climbing rangers or the RMI guides have done that, or at least gone from Muir to summit to Muir to summit, or Schurman to summit to Muir to summit, or some variation. No reason not do do it again this year!

[I feel the need, the need for...]

27 hours 56 minutes is pretty good, but not even close to the fastest it could be done, in my opinion. If he followed the route that is 93 miles long, that's only a little more than 3 mph the whole way, or a fast walk. A few hours of running on the flatter sections would give you the chance to walk the rest of it, if all you wanted to do was beat the record. (Of course, you would have to keep up the fast walk even on the steepest sections, on a continuous basis, for more or less 24 hours.)

If I do all right on the Chuckanut run, my next goal will be to hike/run the 30 miles or so from Longmire to Mowich Lake, which is apparently the most challenging in terms of elevation gain and loss per mile. Most years I think it's not in hiking condition until June, but given the lighter precip this year, maybe it'll be clear by May.

[Decent Skiing this Weekend?]

I sure hope so. I took my son up to the pass last night for our first-ever snowboarding experience. It was raining buckets. We were soaked by the time we finished putting our boots on. Didn't bother to get a lift ticket but just walked up the hill half a dozen times instead, till our gloves were sopping wet sponges and we were good and sick of it. Visibility on I-90 was about 100 yards, between the rain and fog. But boarding was still fun, even under the most unpleasant conditions imaginable. We plan to go to Stevens or Mission Ridge on Sunday so I'm hoping for cooler temps.

[I feel the need, the need for...]

I dropped a line to Mike Gauthier, to see if he knew the record or the record holder. He's not sure, but he thinks that Rainier climbing ranger (of course) Dan Ostrowski did the trail in under 24 hours back in 1991. Now the big question is how much under 24 hours. I will be more motivated to go for it if I think I have a shot at the record. I start out on these ventures with the purest of motivations, seeking only unity with nature, but I find that a little competitive urge adds spice to the mixture and keeps me going.

[Johannesburg Mtn]

That's one memorable shot of the Sill glacier from below in the depth of winter. I am in agreement that this sort of epic equals any other N. Cascade exploits I've heard before.

[Mt Olympus]

Tried it but I can't find an easy way to reduce the file to 100KB.

[Mt Olympus]

Actually, the west peak or true summit is not visible in the posted photo, but is off to the west (right). It's in a line with the cleaver which is furthest to the right in the photo. I have a photo showing it, but I don't have a web account, and I remain too clueless to figure out how to post photos in this medium.

 

You could probably avoid avalanche paths on the way to Olympus if you went in via the Elwha, to Dodwell-Rixon pass, then west to the Humes Glacier, across Blizzard Pass, traverse the Hoh Glacier, then to Glacier Pass, which is the saddle visible in the left center of the posted photo. Of course, just to Dodwell-Rixon Pass is something like 36 miles from the road. Not exactly a time saver.

[I feel the need, the need for...]

When I cited Jurek's time, I was only mentioning the winning time from last year, because I didn't actually know the course record for the WS100. It's easy enough to find out the record for an organized event, as you say, but might be harder for the Wonderland trail. This brings up other issues about verification of times. I have not forgotten the skeptical responses to Dan -'s first speed climb of Rainier, which caused him to do it a second time with a GPS on his person. The added weight of a GPS would be unwelcome, but might be necessary to quash naysayers.

[I feel the need, the need for...]

I haven't made any solid plan, except to carry a waist pack, probably my usual 3 liter camelbak plus food, a light extra clothing layer, probably iodine tablets instead of a filter. You can cache food at 3 different places along the way. I would feel a lot more secure if I had a few people checking on me at the main trailheads, mainly so they could decide to force me to stop if I was too out of it to make my own decision. I will only pursue this goal if the Chuckanut Mountain 50 K in March (31 miles, 5000 ft elevation change) goes well. If I bag the idea of the Wonderland, I might go for a Stevens to Snoqualmie PCT run, or an Olympic range crossing. Then there's always Olympus again, this time a dawn-to-dusk run in under 14 hours.

[I feel the need, the need for...]

Pencil Pusher and I have been batting this idea around. The only record I've seen posted has been about 29 hours, and it didn't even specify if that was in a single push. To do it in under 24 hours would be a record of sorts, although the Western States endurance run in California is slightly longer, has about the same elevation change, and has been done in 16:40 or so by Seattleite Scott Jurek. To do 93 miles in under 24 hours would only require a 4 mph pace, meaning a fast hike at all times, increasing to a slow jog for the flat and easy downhill parts.

[Ingraham Direct TR]

About time we saw a Rainier TR in 2003! Good work, guys.

[Interesting Article on High Alt Adaptation]

This is extremely interesting. Just when you thought we knew everything about exercise physiology... but that part about running success in E. Africa being cultural is not true, in my opinion. Some physical types are better at distance running than others. If the researchers can figure out how they squeeze more oxygen from the same thin air, I hope they can also figure out how to pass on the advantage to the rest of us.

[Fear versus Judgement]

Fear has different effects on different people. There is a whole range of human temperament and response to fear. A good number of people are 100 per cent avoidant of risky experiences, because the presence of fear is so unpleasant to them. Then there is the climbing community, most of whom need a frequent dose of risk to feel normal. I agree with an article I read about monkeys a few years ago, looking at personality/temperament range among baboons. They found that the baboon groups studied tended to have a blend of conservative, risk-averse types and daring, risk-taker types. The study concluded that any one community is probably better off with some of each, since each behavior has its advantages that could benefit the entire community (i.e. if risk taking was only risky, never beneficial, then the risk-taking gene would have been eliminated).

Besides the danger of the risky behavior, the other negative of the risk taking personality, according to this article, was that creatures (monkeys, people) with this temperament may actually need to take frequent risks to feel normal, and will get listless and depressed if they don't get the regular stimulus of risk. This rings completely true to my experience with most climber types. The negative side of the risk-averse personality is that it's too easily overwhelmed, when the risky situation can't be avoided. I have also seen examples of this. Most of you have probably been in the mountains with someone who was there for the first or second time, and was discovering that they really disliked the risky environment. Those people don't climb for long. But I would venture that they still can lead full, interesting lives-- just different ones than I would choose for myself.

 

 

 

 

[Calendar solstice]

The reason that the shortest day is not also the day of latest sunrise and earliest sunset is due to the Equation of Time. Basically, when the Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbit, it orbits faster, which means it has to rotate a little more than once around to be facing the sun again. The few extra minutes of rotation mean that both sunrise and sunset move later at this time of year. The earliest sunset is about Dec. 10, latest sunrise about Jan. 1st.

 

[Calendar solstice]

I become completely obsessed with the solstice at this time of year. My wife tells me to turn on the Happy Light when she hears me babbling on, about how we'll only be losing ten more minutes between now and the Solstice, but how due to the Equation of Time, both sunrise and sunset are moving a few minutes later each day, so even though the days will soon be getting longer, until about New Year's I will have even less daylight for my early morning runs... I never felt a need to know this stuff until I moved to the Northwest. Now it's my strategy for waiting out the long dark winter.

 

I used to wonder how the solstice occurred at a specific second. The best way I have found to visualize this phenomenon is to picture the line of the ecliptic, which is the line the Sun follows against the (invisible in the daytime) stars through the year. It's a great big circle drawn at an angle, from north of the celestial equator to south. (The Celestial Equator is a projection of Earth's equator on the Celestial Sphere, which itself is an imaginary sphere in the sky that can be used to map celestial objects.) Anyway, at the equinoxes this line crosses the celestial equator, and at the solstices it's at the extreme north or south end of its boundary. If you imagine which invisible stars are behind the sun as it rolls by in the sky, you may be able to visualize what I mean.

 

Another way to observe this phenomenon is to take note of the position of the full moon at different seasons. The moon travels along the same path in the sky as the sun, give or take a few degrees. Because the full moon is on the opposite side of the sky from the sun, the full moon on any one night will follow the same path as the daytime sun 6 months earlier or later. The moon will be nearly full on the Solstice this year, and will be very high in the sky-- about as high as the sun will be on the summer solstice. It's one more coping mechanism of mine to note the position of the December full moon, and to remind myself that the sun will once again be that high come June.

[Cheap Ice Tools]

By the way, mountain equipment has Barrabes beat on at least a couple of ice tools, sometimes by 40 dollars or more.

[Cheap Ice Tools]

I've been checking Ebay for ice axe deals on and off for a few months. They start out cheap, of course, but by the end they're usually just a little higher than I want to pay in a forum where I can't see and touch the item beforehand. I bought a Cassin axe on ebay this past May, and found when it arrived that the head had a very annoying bump built into it, right where the heel of my hand goes when on easy alpine terrain. I couldn't detect this problem in the photo, but I think I would have in a store.

 

I have placed several bids on ice hammers and avvy beacons in the past two weeks, preparing for the season, and have managed only to drive up the final price of the item to just above my own limit. On every occasion, another bidder was willing to outbid me, and got what they wanted for one bid above my own. They've been going for about the same rate you'd see at Second Ascent. I have been forced to sign up with Esnipe. We'll see how the next auction goes.

[WSDOT will begin salting this winter]

What you said, Allison.

I haven't ever lived in Oregon, but I have to say that the OR state government seems to serve its population better than the one here in WA. I don't believe that all Oregonians seethe in daily rage over the fact that they pay income tax. They may even be able to recognize the connection between taxation and public services!

Some of the voters in Washington (no one who subscribes to this page, of course)really seem to believe they can get something for nothing. It does not take a genius to see a connection between the move toward $30 car tabs, and a policy of salting the roads because it's cheaper. Or do the $30 tabs have nothing to do with reducing state funds, and instead it's all those wealthy transportation workers giving themselves fat raises? Give me a break. Washington voters have made their bed, in the form of an abandoned mattress on the roadside, and now we're all going to get to lie in it.

[Mt. Whitney]

I called the rangers for info a couple of years back and found them very helpful, with lots of specific info. They even had beta on the Mountaineer's route on their recorded message. ("Do not proceed directly west once you exit the couloir. This area is exposed and icy. Proceed to the south instead.")

[Alpental Valley 11/25]

I hiked up to Pineapple pass and the TOOF today on my way back from Othello. The valley is in full autumnal splendor: trees and flora all were frosted with big ice crystals-- very photogenic, too bad I had no camera. Temperature was just at freezing. Blue sky with not a breath of wind. Snow is patchy at upper elevations, hard crust which gave me no problem in trail running shoes. There was some verglas in the stream bed on the way down. I heard a muffled rumbling at one point on the descent, and when the expected aircraft did not fly over, I was amazed to discover the sound emanating from deep beneath a thick mat of moss covering the talus, as the creek flowed by beneath. All you TOOF veterans probably know about this spot.

 

South facing rock is still snow free. It would have been a great day to climb the TOOF, which I still have never done.

[Avvy beacon]

I rented a Tracker a few times last season, and found when testing it out that the range did seem to be exaggerated. As I recall, I expected it to be good for about 80 meters, but it was more like 40.

 

I agree with you, Mattp. The last thing you want is for that beacon you carry to change your behavior.

 

Ebay has several beacons for sale right now. The older models seem to be going for about $120 each. Newer ones are closer to retail.

 

Besides taking a course, I would recommend subscribing to the NWAC page, which is a great way to keep aware of current conditions if you haven't been out recently, or even if you have. I don't have the link handy, but you could do a search. Also, there are a few good books out there, such as Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper.

 

[ 11-19-2002, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Norman Clyde ]

[Tower Mountain]

I was impressed with the grandeur of Tower from a distance while climbing Silver Star last summer. This peak isn't so impressive from the road, but it's got a real classic look from higher up. (I would post a photo if I knew how.) Sounds like a worthy objective.

[Wilderness First Aid]

Sherpajeff, you are completely correct-- It's hard to sum up even first aid principles into a simple set of rules, hence my disclaimer. Lightning strike is one scenario where, from a triage point of view, the dead are resuscitated first, since anyone who is breathing after a strike is likely to keep breathing, but those not breathing may have had a respiratory arrest from the strike. However, often they still have a heartbeat, and will resume breathing on their own within a few minutes, as long as someone delivers oxygen to them while their system recovers from the shock.

[Wilderness First Aid]

A few things to keep in mind in case of an accident:

 

1. Make sure the scene is safe. No matter your sense of urgency, don't put yourself or others in greater danger by rushing prematurely to the rescue.

 

2. The ABC's of Airway, Breathing, Circulation. These fundamentals should be re-visited periodically during every rescue situation. Make sure the victim's airway is not blocked, perform artificial respiration if victim not breathing, CPR if no pulse. In the backcountry, CPR is less likely to be useful, but repositioning an unconscious victim's head (carefully)to open the airway is an extremely simple maneuver that can be lifesaving.

 

3. Direct pressure is the best way to stop bleeding. Don't worry about tourniquets and other nonsense-- unless someone is actually missing a limb.

 

4. If there is any chance of cervical spine injury, do not let the injured party move. Stabilize the cervical spine to the best of your ability. WFR courses will give you some practice in rigging systems for this, using pack waist belts around the victim's forehead, etc.

 

5. If someone is sufficiently injured that he/she can't walk out, but is alert, make every effort to keep the person warm and hydrated. There may be a gray area here for someone with abdominal injury, but for the most part, anyone with a traumatic injury is going to be better off if they tank up on fluids. This can stave off shock and renal failure, especially if there is a long wait before rescue.

 

The above is not a substitute for an actual WFR course or actual medical advice. Climbing is dangerous, etc. Your mileage may vary. (MattP, TheLawGoddess, all you legal types, help me out with a disclaimer here!)