Mountain Ice Skating

Last weekend I hiked up to Loch Leven with my ice skates to investigate the alpine ice. It was sort of drizzling at first, but then at higher elevations it was more sleety with some mini graupel. The trail was almost completely clear of snow with only a few steps that were more than an inch deep. A few wet spots were icy though. Once I passed the ridge it was very windy. I don't think the temperature was much under freezing but I am sure the wind chill was severe. I drilled a few holes in the ice with an ice screw. I went in about 4 inches and didn't strike water although it looked like there was a bit of very thin ice and open water near the inlet. I stayed well clear of this area.

it was a gray and windy day

Next I laced on the skates and started sliding about. The ice was decent but not all that smooth with a few snowy patches. The wind and the fact that I am not a particularly good skater and I think my skates are dull did not help. You could just sail downwind without doing anything - but upwind travel was a little more work.

my feet look really small here

Once I started getting cold I switched back to my boots and slid down to the end of the lake before walking back. Sometimes I was unable to stand still with the wind - it just slid me sideways on the ice - luckily there wasn't a hole or anything too scary downwind of me.

This is a video I took when I was leaving.

there was an odd texture where precipitation stuck to the ice
also note the snow blowing just right of the trees

In other news, there were some new birds at city park - Canada geese and American wigeon

Canada goose head

American wigeon

Fall Highball Classic

This weekend (November 7-9) was the Fall Highball Classic here sponsored by the American Alpine Club, Access Fund, etc. It involved a showing of Valley Uprising Friday night, Clinics and Climbing Saturday, A party and big alpine granite slideshow by Dave Nettle, cleanup and other work at the Buttermilks Sunday, and of course more bouldering and climbing. It was nice to catch up with a few people there, and someone even recognized the name on my jacket tag and asked if I was the one with the blog (someone not related to me has actually read at least some of this!). There were some 60 or more people getting a variety of projects done at the Buttermilks including dispersing (mostly into holes in the road) a large pile of soil produced when the toilet was installed. Hopefully that will help keep things a little nicer in the area. Then I did some bouldering mostly on the green wall - it was a little warm and felt harder than last time I tried it. Oh well.

warming up at the party Saturday night

some of the people gathered to work on the Buttermilks

soil pile before

soil pile after (and new toilet)

our fearless leader Andrew tells us what is up

bouldering on the Green Wall

Bouldering season is well and truly here - it is like someone turned the climber switch on. I have mostly just been bouldering with a few bike rides thrown in - and trying to insulate my ceiling. It sure is nice to have cool nights and sunny days even if they are starting to get short. I also got enough gear to set up a longish line (up to 110 feet long so far) so I have been working on that from time to time. It still doesn't feel comfortable, but I am getting better - and better at holding my arms up for a long time.

longline in the park

gratuitous Owens Valley sunset

In other news if you haven't seen it Sam, Raquel, and Ben have been hard at work trying to get kickstarter funding for making a movie with all the footage they took during the 50 state Peace Love Car end of the road tour this year. Sam and Raquel didn't actually drive to all 50 states, but they visited them all and drove to all but Hawaii and also all the Canadian entities that you can actually drive to. This is a worthy project so if you are interested in this sort of thing check it out - there aren't many days left and they are in the final push.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971174019/road-to-wanderlust-film