Packing for Patagonia

It has been a busy week plus. First I packed up at home and then to the OR show in Salt Lake City. There we tried to get all the last minute gear and food we could - mostly successfully. Then we sorted and packed and built bike boxes and ordered last minute things we hadn't gotten yet. The bike boxes were a bit of an experiment. We built them with 3 mil corrugated plastic, gorilla tape, velcro, some hardware... We made it so both bikes could fit inside one box nested in the other. Then for the race we will have a bike in each box without having much assembly and dismantling which should speed things up a bit we hope. It is a cool material, but our boxes are definitely somewhat experimental.

Things were pretty crazy. We got our last shipment of stuff around 5 pm and were planning on heading out at 9. However we were running on YogaSlacker time and didn't get out 'til after 10. At the airport we got all our boxes checked in - for the bike box coffin they thought it was overweight (it was, but only a few pounds, not 20) and they wanted to charge us an extra $75 beyond the $150 bike fee. The check in guy re-read the rules and we passed. They also thought it was way too big, but it was within 1/2 an inch or so. A few pounds over covered almost all our bags - I think one was 49 lbs and the others were 51 or 52 lbs. I won't even go into our 55 lb carry on bags. The flight was 12:50, so we actually had time, and managed to get onto the flight standby. On the way we were able to send out our location with the DeLorme inReach satellite communicator. It is pretty slick.

In Atlanta we rushed to international terminal to check in, then a friend picked us up so we could sleep at her place before the evening flight. I think it might be easier to actually sleep at night and be awake during the day.

Hopefully tonight we can get on our way down to Santiago.


LATER

We did get on the flight to Santiago that night. I even got in first class, which is a very civilized way to travel. Now we are in Santiago visiting with Jorge and Catalina and trying to figure out how we are going to get to Punta Arenas - either buying a car and driving or shipping our gear and flying or taking a bus. I think the logistics of getting all our gear together and to the race might be more of an adventure than the race itself... Of course I haven't done the race yet, so I could be very very wrong.

Thanksgiving and so on

For Thanksgiving I went to Flagstaff for the traditional Ethiopian feast. Lots of good food and interesting conversation with a mix of scientific types - from Linguists and Astronomers to a herpetologist. I continued to eat lots of deliciousness for the remainder of my trip there.

While there I did some climbing at the Pit with Dawn. Here she is hamming it up on True Value. I even managed to get an on-sight - Sling Fest (it didn't have bolts before).

Speaking of hamming it up - here I am in an egregious gratuitous double toe-hook bat hang in Joshua Tree from a while ago.

Here I am sending Go Granny Go at the Buttermilks. 

Jen appears to be a closet member of team color-coordination - here she is on Smooth Shrimp

Bouldering Season is upon us

That's right, cooler temps means it is time for the little rocks. (I suppose it has been bouldering season up at higher elevations, but I mean down in the Valley - the volcanic tablelands and the buttermilks among others).

It is still a little toasty for sending in the sun, but that makes for nice warming up and relaxing in the sun in between burns in the shade. I'll have to take more pics, but here are a few for a start.

My fingers feel pretty weak and my skin is so soft and tender. I am working on that though and hopefully soon I'll be back in sending form.

Sorry I have been neglecting the blog, but such is life.

Jill focuses on Wills Arete

gratuitous moonset over Mount Humphreys

It is the season to nap in the shade

the conditions up higher are more "exciting"

Evolution Traverse - attempt or scout

We (Sean, Kim, and I) prompted by Kim decided to try the Evolution Traverse. This would be a big undertaking for us, but we thought we'd check it out.  Kim had hiked in to the base once, and then bailed due to the enormity (and weather I think). Sean hates bivying, so we decided to try to do it in a push, which would make things even harder. We started shortly after 2 am and hiked in to the start (actually we probably started a little east of where you are supposed to start). By then it was light, so that was nice. We busted up onto the ridge and on to the summit of the first peak (Gould). Then on towards the next with some creative scrambling and a short pitch of climbing where I regretted not bringing the nut tool. A bunch more scrambling over false summits brought us to the summit of Mendel. From there we had a nice ridge descent for a bit before things got spicier with some raps down to the notch before a long scramble up to Darwin. I was no longer keeping up with Sean, but we were still moving right along. It was 1:30 pm or so and supposedly about 40% through the business, although the hardest technical stuff was just ahead. We decided that if we continued on there would be unpleasantness - more unpleasantness than we wanted. This would take the form of a long cold uncomfortable bivy or climbing through the night with headlamps with route finding problems. Also we weren't sure we were up for meeting the technical challenges at the speed required to see us through. So we lounged on the summit longer and then headed back. Well after the pass Sean reverted to his normal mode of mountain transportation - running - and Kim and I continued to stumble down the trail to get out before 9:30 - over a 19 hour push - which was probably enough.

The theme of the day was "MEAT" according to Kim which she would yell out from time to time - prompted by trying to eat a bunch she had before it went bad. I am not sure we succeeded, as part of the reason Sean left us was intestinal distress.

We were trying to go light and fast, so I didn't even bring my camera! It did make the hiking and scrambling quicker and easier, but I didn't get many pics. We had a single skinny 50M rope as well as a set of nuts and a bunch of slings. We all brought rock shoes, but I was the only one who wore them (for the one bit I led).

Here is the spot track.

http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=314886

Kim on Gould with the ridge to Mendel behind her

Here I am on Darwin with the rest of the traverse behind me

This traverse has teeth and isn't afraid to bite

All of these pics are from Kim's camera. Thanks Kim.

Disaster - sort of - good thing it is a Pentax

The unthinkable happened, while pulling my camera out of the case I had strapped to my chest it caught on something and popped out of my hand and out of the case and dropped from chest height onto a granite slab. CRASH. I said a choice word (or 2 - loudly) and picked it up. The flash had popped open but otherwise it was in one piece, except for the large cracks across the front of the lens - luckily they were just the clear filter on the front. I turned it on and it seemed to work, although it had trouble focusing with the cracks across the front. Still, the pics appeared to be ok and with a different lens it seemed to be 100%.

This looks like a good place to drop a camera - NOT

resulting in this

the cracks actually didn't degrade the image as much as you'd expect

especially with a larger aperture and zoomed in a bit

It took 4 hands and a skeletool to get the busted filter off the next morning, but then that lens (Pentax DA* 16-50mm) seemed to work fine too. That is good because I would have been extra super grumpy to have both busted my camera and to be carrying an extra 12 or so pounds of useless dead weight on a 3 night backpack trip. Thanks for building such a solid tool Pentax (the K5 and 16-50). Needless to say, after all the trouble getting the camera out of the case I went to the Cotton Carrier shoulder strap carrier the next day. Not only was it easier to get the camera out and back but it had a backup attachment so even if I fumbled it the camera wouldn't hit the ground. It still sucks to have fumbled my camera and to break an expensive filter, but it is so much better than it could have been.

luckily the camera seemed to still work fine (taken with different lens)

2012 Sierra Challenge - take 1

I would like to write up a nice trip report for the 2012 Sierra Challenge with lots of pretty pictures and gruesome detail. That won't happen for a while, so meanwhile I will say that I did complete the challenge and it was challenging. I managed 17 peaks total for 2cd for the polka dot jersey - not really contested as Sean could have blown me out of the water any day. I was a very distant 4th for the yellow jersey - only by virtue of completing all of the challenge peaks. I need to stop carrying a dslr and learn to run down mountains if I want to compete in this category.

Sunrise on day 6 - an "easy" day

This challenge started out easily enough but quickly turned rough with a lot of rain and some brutal days at the end. Even the approaches to some of the trailheads were hard.

To make things even more challenging I twisted my ankle on the approach to Mt Carl Heller and then climbed and downclimbed the E ridge and exited George Creek. It was sort of hurting and quite swollen that night. The next (and thankfully last) day involved some 26 miles and 8700 feet of vertical - you see how it was. There were also more early starts - as early as 4 am and plenty of 5 am starts. This did help us to get onto the summits before the rain and more importantly the lightning. The weather did deter me from trying to get more bonus peaks - so did the fact that I got pretty exhausted.

There were many incredible people participating in the challenge. It was humbling and inspiring to get dusted by people many years older than me and those with full time jobs that live near sea level. Still, I think just completing the challenge is a worthy accomplishment.

Because I am lazy I will post some links now...

Bob Burd - the instigator's - website

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/

He posted some more links here:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/reports.html

A thread on summitpost with some trip reports and extraneous chatter

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/http-www-snwburd-com-bob-challenge-2012-t61880.html

Sean's Blog - he describes what he did every day - I was with him for most of day 2 and 9

http://drdirtbag.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/matterhorn-whorl/

Rain on the lake below Mt Mendel - it continued back from here up over Tamarack pass

At some point I'd like to talk about every day and some of the my gear choices - such as using a cotton carrier for my camera, but that will have to wait for later.

Slackline and other fun with the Yogaslackers

Things have been a little hectic and when I finally get around to it I should have some good pics to post. Meanwhile I have a few teaser pics.

From the East Side I went over Sonora Pass to climb a bit at the Columns of the Giants with Ted et al. I did ok, but once I got too tired it was all over. Then I headed up to Grass Valley to join up with Sam and meet Isha, Jenny, and Phoenix. We swam in the beautiful Yuba River, set up some slacklines over the Yuba and a longline in a park. Fun was had by all - although there was some excessive uv exposure too.

Jenny falling off the waterline - some photoshoppery involved with this one

Sam on the waterline - he didn't fall

Here I am on one of the Yuba River lines

Sam leaping onto the longline

Raquel on the longline

From there I headed up to Squaw Valley for the Wanderlust Yoga and Music Festival. We set up a heap of slacklines and taught slackline and balance classes. I also got to meet more Yogaslackers - both old and new. It was fun to hang out with such an entertaining crowd. We also set up a line over a pond which was more fun when you were sort of wanting to get wet than when you were cold. Another entertaining thing was being a small part of a performance during one of the opening acts for Ziggy Marley. 

Teaching at Wanderlust - note Ben & Jerry booth behind - free frozen yogurt samples

Jason's reflection from the waterline (flipped)

Anya on the waterline

Here is a link (or embedded) video from Prana of Wanderlust 2012. There are some good bits of Sam slacklining and you can see a bit of our performance near the beginning.

After the end of Wanderlust I headed to Lover's Leap for 2 days of climbing before moving on to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer (OR) show. Someday I plan on sleeping too, but the Sierra Challenge is coming up fast.

Sam at the ToeSox booth

Dan and Sam at the Brenthaven booth