Monday Image

A classic Mount Rainier image to start the week, taken last Friday after the last major snow. More soon...

Putting in the Glacier Stakes

Good news for climbing this year at Mt. Rainier!

Many of you may have seen the white schedule-40 PVC pipes in various locations on the mountain. These stakes are installed using a steam drill and a big frothing wand to put an 8-9 meter long stake into the snow down past the layer of glacier ice.

When we put the stakes in, the snow depth is measured from last year's late fall layer. This year, all of the way up the Nisqually and even at 11,100' on the Ingraham, we have measured an amount of snow comparable to most years at this time.

This is good news for climbers. Many of the non-standard routes rely on Mt. Rainier's typical snowfall to make the route endure long enough into the summer for climbers to take advantage of the better weather.

The project's aim is to analyze the mass-balance of the Nisqually Glacier. One of the things that we have learned from this project is that the Muir Snowfield at about 9,700 feet has lost about 1 meter of ice each year for the past six years. Many of you may have noticed the rock rib that has been exposed just down from Camp Muir at about 9,700 feet!

The Glacier Monitoring Program is coordinated by the geologist at North Cascades National Park. Many of the Pacific Northwest's glaciers are incorporated into this study. Field crews from North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park are involved in the project.

The "Born Again" Moment

Some of you were surprised when I mentioned in a recent post that I only began cycling again in Spring - so I thought it would be fun to share my "born again" moment. The Co-Habitant and I developed a huge batch of film for one of our art projects earlier this week, and it turned out that one roll contained these pictures from 8 months ago - pictures of my first real bicycle ride after not having cycled in 12 years.



After testing a coupe of bicycles on the premises of local bike shops, we finally took the plunge and rented a his and hers KHS Green, to see how feasible it would be for us to travel by bike round Boston. These shots were taken along the Charles River trail.



It was an unseasonably warm day, and within the first half hour of the ride my jacket was folded up and tucked under the spring on the rear rack. Also within the first half hour of the ride, I knew that this was "it". How could I have lived without a bicycle thus far? And what would I do when the time came to return the rental?



The day after these photos were taken, my search for a new bicycle began in earnest, and that is how this weblog was born: It was initially meant to be a collection of reviews and photos of beautiful, functional bicycles for people with similar skill levels to mine and with the same beginner anxieties. I guess my viewpoint has progressed a bit since then, and I have gotten much more into "cycling culture" than I had anticipated. But still, the whole point of this website is that I am not an expert and do not have a great deal of cycling experience - which hopefully makes me unintimidating and approachable to new readers curious about bicycles.



The Co-Habitant and I had been toying with the idea of bikes on and off for years. But what finally made me start cycling had nothing to do with the practical considerations this involved. It was a result of a very personal, visceral sense of pure joy - which apparently has been captured on film quite nicely! Seeing these shots was a nice surprise; we had forgotten that we took them. And it was especially timely before Thanksgiving, as I am most grateful for the role bicycles have played in my life this year.



Enjoy your week-end, and make sure to feed your bicycles some turkey. They don't like to feel left out!

The Hover Children :: All Dressed Up

The Hover Children. Probably about 1886-1887.
Edith was born in 1873, Bessie in 1883, and Charles in 1882.



Their relationship to me is Half 1st Cousin Twice Removed. They are the children of William Henry "Hank" Hover and his first wife Elizabeth Biltz. Hank was one of six children born to George and Rachel (Van Curen) Hover. George passed away in 1855 and Rachel married William Alexander in 1859. William and Rachel are my great-great grandparents.

Contributed to "Smile For The Camera :: Crowning Glory"

Pecan Trees

Pecans are a major business in the Las Cruces, NM area. At this season they were turning their fall shade of yellow and the leaves were flying off. In one place it was like driving down a road under an archway of pecan tree branches. There were several other cars stopped to take photos. In the 1st photo you can see the irrigation ditch that takes water to the trees in the spring and summer. The pecan nuts had already been harvested. I couldn't find even one nut laying under the trees. The machines that pick the nuts are very efficient. There are lots of shops that sell all kinds of pecan candy, cakes, muffins and other goodies made with the nuts. I have heard that the pollen from the flowers can cause a lot of allergies for some people and that the insecticides used on the trees bother a lot of people.

Rock Squirrel

this is a few photos of the rock squirrel that has decided to live under our small metal, junk shed. I first saw him earlier this week when he made this trip to get food out of the compost ben that I have. He decided that orange peels where the best I had at the time. I took the first two photos through a window and the last one out the back door that is a sliding glass door. After his forage into the compost he came and looked in the door at us. We have also seen him behind the shed where we discovered there was a hole where he could come and go.

Busch Gardens, Williamsburg VA

Today we headed over to Busch Gardens. I've been here before, but it's been years since then. None of the guys have ever been here.

I thought this was pretty fitting:

We had a lot of fun together! It was a great day!

Spiral Aloe

Fibonacci, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

This is one of the coolest plants I've ever seen. The natural geometric pattern is incredible...this specimen was at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden in California.

Road to Trail: Speed, Skills and Bikes

Among the people I ride with it is popular to mix stretches of dirt roads, paths and trails into what are otherwise fast road rides (well, they call the rides "social pace," but there is a certain level you have to reach in order to be social at that pace!). At first I would only join the rides that promised not to do any off-road whatsoever, but now I am gradually starting to ease into riding stretches of dirt trails.



Doing this in the company of experienced cyclists has given me a different perspective than riding in similar terrain alone. The biggest difference is that they go fast, whereas on my own I used to see cycling off road as something to be done cautiously and slowly. Now I am noticing that going fast can actually make things easier.Riding on rock-strewn dirt and gravel requires more effort and lower gearing than riding on pavement, particularly when going uphill. Ride too slowly, and the bike can get bogged down. But maintain speed, and the momentum "carries" the bike through sections that might otherwise seem difficult or scary. It's counterintuitive for a beginner, because the natural inclination is to slow down if the terrain gets challenging. And this is where riding with a group is helpful: following their pace means quickly learning the "faster is easier" lesson through experience. Of course partof it is also psychological. When I am focused on trying to keep up with the group, I don't really have the opportunity to worry about every single ditch and rock and root formation - my instincts kick in and somehow I end up riding through sections I would have considered too challenging if given a chance to think.



As far as skills, I am finding once again (as I did with roadcycling earlier) that I improve quickly with others and very slowly, if at all, on my own. I've ridden on dirt trails before, but now I feel that all those rides taken together did nothing for me compared to the single stretch of off-road I did as part of a ride last weekend. It wasn't a long section, but it had a bit of everything that terrifies me: ditches, rocks, mud, a bit of climbing and descending, even a tad of residual snow and ice. We rode through it quickly, and afterward I suddenly felt like I "got it," whereas on all of my slow and cautious lone rides previously I wasn't really getting it at all.



It seems to me that a good bike for transitioning from road to trails and back needs to be fast, light, responsive, and ideally to have wide tires. Last year I would probably have started with "wide tires" and listed everything else as optional, but recent experience makes me reconsider. I have found it easier to "push" a faster, lighter bike through dirt, especially uphill, than a slower and heavier one. And I have found it easier to avoid obstacles on a quick-responding bike than on a stable but sluggish one. And while wide tires would make things better still, it seems to me that those other factors are crucial.



My impression is that for a while there was a tendency in the bicycle industry to associate wide tires with more relaxed, heavier and slower touring-style bikes - the reasoning being that if you want wide tires, you probably do not need to go fast. Therefore, it was difficult to find bicycles that both had clearance for tires over 25mm and were sufficiently fast and aggressive. That began to change with the rising popularity of cyclocross, and with people like Jan Heine reviving interest in the classic randonneuring bicycle. Races and other competitive events with both road and dirt sections have become more mainstream over the past several years as well. I am not sure whether in the long run any of this will be relevant to me, but it is an interesting development. More builders and manufacturers are starting to specialise in fast road-to-trail bikes, and locally this type of riding seems to be all the rage. Whether I have what it takes to take part in it remains to be determined.

Ice Arch Sunrise

This winter has been quite productive when it comes to having interesting ice formations to photograph, much more so than last winter. December and January had plenty of very cold days which meant that there was quite a bit of ice both along the shore and floating around in various places on Lake Superior. Near the end of January we had a wind storm that came up and blew a lot of this ice onto the Minnesota shoreline of the lake. Just north of Grand Marais was one area in particular where the ice had been jammed into many fascinating forms along the beaches. The wave action not only resulted in the packing of the ice along the shoreline, but also contributed to the hollowing out of the ice from underneath in several places. Several ice arches were formed as the waves continued to work at the ice from below.
The arch shown in this image was the most photogenic arch that I found. On the morning I made this image I was photographing the shoreline with my friend Paul. It was a very calm morning which was a stark contrast to the previous days which had made all these ice formations possible. Paul and I set up our tripods and started making images of the arch. We had only taken about 5 or 6 images each when we heard a cracking sound. Both of us were in the process of moving our tripods to set up a different shot when we heard the cracking. We both looked up just as the arch collapsed into the water. Needless to say, this scene was a lot less interesting to photograph after the arch fell. Thankfully we each got a few images before it was gone! This image was made at 8:03 AM using my Canon EF 17-40mm lens. Shutter speed was 1/15, aperture f16, ISO 100.

Deltaform's Super Couloir

Mt. Deltaform N. E. Face - Lowe/Jones aka "Super Couloir"



Deltaform from the summit of Temple. I decided on that trip I must do the two Deltaform ice routes while descending from Temple. Little did I know at the time that Super Couloirhad yet to be climbed.









By the body count, two of the most deadly climbs in the Canadian Rockies are Super Couloir on Deltaform and Slipstream on Snow Dome. The British alpinist, Dick Renshaw said of Super Couloir, "in foul weather it is more dangerous than the Eiger". The first three parties in the gully all had minor epics of their own, all in marginal weather or snow conditions.





Below: Deltaform in Sept of 2007 withdry conditions.







Ken Glover photo



Below: The snowy and wet conditionsofthe 2nd ascent in July '76











Below: James climbing off the snow arete between couloirs.







Below: This photo is crossing over from the lower gully into the upper gully. Lowe and Jones biviedon a flat stance choppedfrom the snow arete here.Gwain and I chopped off the arete as well and had a brew here in 1976 before the rain really started. In thedry conditions of 2007 it wasa mixed traverse.









Below: Ken's photo in the hour glass of the upper gullyin the dry fall of 2007. A dryFall and the effects of global warming.









Below: James in almost the same position as the previous picture of Ken. The same locationI was inafter just having set a screw when the upper rightcornice came thundering off. Iwas covered in snow and shaken but thankfullyprotected by the rock above my head. Same rock directly behind James' red pack in the picture. 30 seconds and 3 steps later and I'd been blown off and dangling fromthat screw. Gwain, thankfully, was belaying on the lower rib just out of the direct line of fire in the gully.













Below: Looking down the upper right hand ice gully from just below the crux chimney/corner system in '80. Perfect hard ice conditions. At this point it started raining....hard...on us.









Below: Ken's more current photo taken from just a bit higher up and in the left hand gullywith drierconditions.









Below: Ken in 2007 on the more typical, modern traverse out left to Carlos', "new" exit pitch, 5.8.











Below: And looking down thelast pitch (Carlos' "new" winter finish) after the traverse left at the top of the ice.







Not pictured for some reason is theoriginal finish start. It is however really obvious. You just continue up the ice until it ends and a rock chimney begins. Easy to identify as there will likely be a huge snow mushroom stuck in it early season. Late season you'll recognise it by the rock fall coming down the funnel. Thisgash in the head wallisbisected by a small ledge and alcove on the left at half height. The first bit of over hanging chimney is fairly tight with good stemming andoffers a small rock stance off to the left. The second bitis thepitch that exits stage right and finally goes through the ridge cornice, shownbelow.



Below: The second short pitch of the original Super Couloir finish, which Lowe/Jones originally rated 5.9. Tim Friesen climbing in what appears to be "dry" conditions.







Dave Cheesemond photo





July 1976



By the time we got to the chimney that forms the first pitch of the head wall it had been raining for some time and we'd been soaked most of the day. The corner was now a full blown water fall. I climbed up into the corner, got even wetter if that is possible, colder and worse yet, pretty darn scared from the continuous rock fall in there and the snow mushroom coming down, nearly knocking me off. (some how I had been able to forget that small detail until now) We were loosing light quickly and it seemed like we were way, wayout there. Even though I had just done the newroute on the N. faceTemple the week before. This seemed really serious and BIG step up from Temple. Avalanches, rock fall (that was increasing with the rain) and now a long, wet, miserable night out. We chopped out a good bivy ledge 14 feet long and 2 feet wide at the base of the rocks, out of the water fall and rain. We are wet and miserable but it was a decent bivy which sorted a lot out. Thinking the water volume would be less in the morning, it was not, Gwain offered to lead. An alcove off to the left, high in the chimney, made a good belay spot. Pins for the anchor, 2 Leppers that should have been tied off and were not. Gwain stemmed his way up the first pitch without crampons through the water fall and then scratched his way up the second with crampons on through some really bad rock, a mixed bowl, some ice and finally bottomless wet snow over and through what was left of the cornice. The second pitch scared me, no pro, tricky, lots of snow. Gwain later lost some skin on his hands to cold injuries from those leads.



We'd been wringing out our Dachsteins at every belay for two days with water running over the ice.



I don't think I have ever been so relieved emotionally to get off a climb before or since.



We had done it all before, just in more controlled circumstances, when getting off Deltaform's north glacier route the year before.



But the rap (leaving our entire rock rack and some screws pounded into rock as the ropes hung up), the 2nd bivy and the long walk (25K) out of Marble canyon, now in heavy rain, was epic for us at the time. When we hit Highway 93 by Mt. Stanley and hitched back into the park I had blood running down my thighs from my wool knickers and we hadn't eaten in 48 hrs. Looking back it was a grand adventure (almost too grand) and a small price to pay.



I had written a story BITD describing the climb, calling it "Trout Fishing in Canada". That should give you an idea of the conditions we had. Felt like we were swimming up stream the entire climb.



Jim Elzinga and Gerry Rogan had been caught in a storm the previous season, (we didn't know, nor were we counting) spent a few extra days out and been forced on a more direct (and much harder) line above the 1st gully to keep from being flushed off the route. They were eventually picked up by helicopter on the descent. Which we were told checking back in, gave us the2nd ascent of the Lowe and Jone line.



A bit more info from my memory and a recent conversation on the Elzinga/Rogan ascent.



"Rogan's and Elzinga's ascent on Deltaform is just one example of the obvious confusion with the early history of these climbs. What did they really climb? 2nd ascent, new route or rescued while rapping off the route? I read about the "rescue" in the local (Lake Louise) news paper. I distinctly remember having something to eat in Lake Louise, looking at Gwain in amazement and saying..."they didn't actually do the climb but were rescued by a helicopter!" But that was only the local (Banff/LK Louise) news paper, like any news paper, the question remained. What did they REALLY climb? Sounded like a new route up and right of the upper gully to me. The article said 'rescued" by the helicopter. While rapping off? What side of the mtn south or north? While still on the climb coming down or after the climb while descending or picked up on the actual ridge? Mtn #48 reported their climb as the 2nd ascent. Park Warden told us after our ascent we did the 2nd, a full year after Elzinga and Rogan had been on the climb. Who do you believe? More importantly what was the real story behind that climb? I'd bet what they actually did was forced a new variation (unrepeated for obvious reasons) of the route off to the right of the upper gully and then slung off the ridge crest by the rescue effort"



The following is from aconversation with Jim Elzinga in . Funny enough Elzinga and Rogan did do a significant variation of the Super Couloir by climbing straight up from the traverse between the upper and lower couloir in 1975. Rating? Typical Rockies 5.9 A2 all done in a 2 day storm over 3 days of climbing. They were pulled off the ridge by the Tim Auger and the Park's helicopter. This climb really started Elzinga's serious alpine career although he had done a bunch of "serious" things in most climber's minds back though the winter of '71/'72. Gerry Rogan had enough after Deltaform and while he continued to climb, Deltaform was the end of the serious stuff by Elzinga's account.



Gwain and I did Deltaform '76, then Liberty Ridge '78 and went to the Eiger together in '78 among other climbs. We climbed a lot of rock together after '78 but no more alpine. Gwain was always a very gifted, solid climber and amazing athlete in any venue.



With this trip down memory lane I've been searching around for my old journals and things I'd written BITD. "Trout Fishing in Canada" was an interesting read last night, some 35 years later. Never trust the comments of youth while they are basking in the simple glory of survival.



Gwain's comments on his recollections via email 12/22/10



"Looking at those pictures made me real nervous again. The hubris of dumb youth. Most of the climb is a blank to me except for a couple real specific moments that I guess are engraved in my memory for whatever reason.



I remember we bivied off to the leftof the chimney, we were going to do the last 2 pitches the next day. It seems like the bivy was a good ledge, wide enough to sleep lying down and it was semi protected. What I remember from the bivy site was watching a dump truck load of rock come tumbling down right through the base of the chimney where we were standing 30 minutes ago. That was unsettling.



The next day we started up because we couldn't go back and were more or less committed. Crummy or no protection, wet Canadian limestone, stemming. Great sense of relief making it to the ledge on the left.



Belay setup wasn't exactly ideal. Fiddled around with stoppers or anything else I thought would work with not much success. I tried several cracks with the Leppers and they kept bottoming out after an inch or two at best and that was that. Clipped in. I debated tying off but I don't think I had any webbing or anything to use.



Hauling the packs was interesting. Didn't even come close to the face. Free swinging the entire way up. The belay anchors were not that good to hold a fall. I did the best I could to keep a really tight rope and was relieved when you got there. The pins would bend when any kind of weight was put on them.



Chouinard made a mini hand axe. (The Chouinard Climax, which I had previously teased Gwain about how worthless it was!) It was about the size of a wall hammer and had an ice axe head in miniature. I bought that just before this climb and glad I did (it is now lost). I think under better conditions (dry, warm) the last pitch wouldn't have been that horrendous. What I remember is verglas and crampons, no protection, clearing ice for my hands and feet with that Chouinard tool, Millar mitts, not having cold fingers and thinking, 'don't make a mistake'. After the verglas then being faced with some clumsy borrowing through the snow band on top. Just like Lowe/Jones, nothing to anchor to for a belay so I dug a pit and plopped my butt into it. You looked relieved when you got to the top."



Relieved? I had tears freely rolling down my face after pulling the cornice. Gwain gave me a fatherlyhug and said, "it's OK". I was shattered just following.

A short bit from "Trout Fishing in Canada" a short story written in the summer of 1976 about our ascent of Deltaform.



"June 1975...half way up the North Glacier route of Deltaform



Gwain, "You will never catch me on that route, it looks more like a bowling alley than an ice climb."



July 1976.. sitting on the Wenkchemna glacier directly under the Super Couloir.



"Gwian, do you remember your comment last year?"



"Ya"



"What am I doing here anyway"



"The upper gully looks pretty steep"



"They say it isn't over 60"



Finally, after four years of waiting, we were committed. I thought the Lowe/Jones route on Deltaform the most beautiful ice climb in Canada. (and I still do)







Memories of my other attempts and the one success on this face brought back butterflies.



Both of us were procrastinating. We were scared. We both know soon we won't be able to go down as easily as we can go up. Problem is Super Couloir gets harder the higher you get.



We cross the first of the avalanche troughs. I slip! I almost fall off! Gwain doesn't notice. Climbing together. I've got to be more careful. I'm still not sure I want to be here.



We make another traverse across a fair size runnel of water. The amount of water coming down is amazing. We can not hear each other because of the amount of running water beside us. This is a strange mixture of elements. It sounds like a bubbling trout stream.



The route forces us back out to the edge of the water. It is cold! Our mittens get wrung out at every belay. It can not be this wet all the way up. Finally, we are off the first section of ice and a couple more rope lengths lead to the snow arete.



The view is incredible! The slope is 55 degrees on either side. We chop platforms, brew up and have lunch. We'll easily be up and off long before it gets dark.



The upper couloir does indeed look steep. Gwain gets the first lead. You have to be joking! The upper couloir is ice with a couple of inches of water running down it. That makes the climbing easy but not too enjoyable. The couloir narrows at half height. I put in a screw. Then it happens! With a ear shattering BOOOOOM, the summit cornice breaks off! I scream and count seconds as I try to tie Gwain off before the avalanche hits. In moments it is over. I am covered in snow, my are hands cramped........



Nothing to do but climb."



I put in a second screw and bring Gwain up. Short pitch. Short on nerves at this point.



Funny reading this now, experiencing those same long buried emotions. Bit and pieces of memory coming back as I write and reread every one's experiences. Better still to have another30 years of climbingand seeing all the obvious rookie mistakes :)



Super Couloir isn't hard by today's standards or even the standards of the 1st ascent party. We found it challenging in less than stellar conditions for our limited abilities. It is however, one of the classic alpine ice climbs in North America.



More from Gregg Cronn about his early ascent of Super Couloir:



Gregg's comments and story:



"I gave a nervous chuckle when you mentioned it being one of the most dangerous climbs in the Rockies. I had one of the most hair raising epics of my life on that climb. Here is the story...



The summer of 1980 was extremely wet. I wet and cold Spring led to a similar June which led to an extremely wet July. I was working for Yamnuska Mountain School at the time and we had 18 days of rain out of a 21 day trip. Not only did it rain, the high peaks got blasted with snow. It didn't stop snowing and raining until the second week of August. Even then there was no long spell of clear weather that summer. I heard somewhere that St. Helen's blowing its' top contributed to the unusual weather that year. After teaching all summer James Blench and I had some time in early September to do a climb together. The two 'merrycans' working for Yam decided on the Super Coulior of Deltaform. After a four day late August storm, and the summer weather, the mountains were just pasted with ice and snow. That may partially account for the fat appearance of the ice in the photos from 1980.



We started up the lower gully at midnight and soloed all the way to the traverse to the upper gully-which we reached in a glorious sun rise. All the mountains were bathed in pink--a blue haired Mary Kay Saleslady's wet dream. The climbing was the best alpine ice I have ever experienced. We both had Axes and north wall tools (Chouinard zero for me) which penetrated solid Styrofoam ice to the hilt with an easy swing. We swung six wonderful leads of ice climbing up to the head wall which we reached at noon. James belayed me to a stubby Chouinard screw and I launched on to the mixed pitch, excited at the prospect of reaching the sun and tagging the summit after the two short pitches remaining. This was also going to be my first big Rockies test piece and I was psyched to have it nearly in the bag. Twelve hours later I rolled over the ridge cornice, in the dark, so tired, hungry and dehydrated that I was hallucinating wildly and talking to my ice hammer ("please Ms. Mjillnar stay in that ice for me"), completely numb to anything but an overpowering urge to sleep.



The fun started when I fell, 70 feet out right at the crux. I don't remember what caused the fall because my mind immediately went blank. Faced with my soon to be demise at the young age of 20, my brain core decided it was best if my conscious part of my being wasn't witness to what was going to happen when I splatted like an overfilled waterballon on the 60 degree ice below the overhanging crux. Poor James had to watch, like a catcher following a foul ball heading to the stands behind him, as I ripped all the protection and sailed over and behind the belay. I came back to life at the end of 140 feet of rope without a scratch on me and all my ripped protection tingling together in front of me. Dwayne Congdon's borrowed friend, lovingly placed in a bomber crack below the crux, is bent and the cams on one side destroyed.. God truly does love the foolhardy.



You build up quite a lot of speed when you travel through the air for 100 plus feet and my brand new Edelrid showes it. The kern sports a 15 foot long melted metal on plastic burn that Jame's dynamic body belay allowed to run through the screw carabiner as I slowed down. Having checked out for the air show I am in surprisingly good spirits. I have lost my glasses in the fall, so I can now add 20/200 vision to my issues but I am confident that we can still get up the thing. James, however, is totally freaked. He wants to start rapping the route. I convince him to give it, the pitch that I just logged some considerable air time off of and for some reason beyond both of our capacities to understand at the time survived, a shot. Now James is a fantastic climber, one of the best I have ever seen move in the mountains, but after fifty feet he wants no part of the iced up, down sloping, hard to protect Rockies shit show that awaits him over the next 30 feet of overhanging hell. He lowers off. Now what?



Not aware of Carlos's easier variant (the willy bastard took one look at the crux on a cold Feb. morning and immediately headed left), climbed during his winter ascent a few years ago, I am pissed and want off the climb so I set off up pitch again with Jame's top rope speeding my climb to the crux. It took me nearly three hours to climb the crux. It was iced up and hard to protect and, not surprisingly, I didn't want to fall. When I get to the belay, 15 feet below the ridge, I place 7 pieces of protection to build a decent belay. Dwayne's friend gets pounded into a crack like a cheap french pin. Jame's climbs carefully and slowly up, not liking the the sound of my "don't fall" and lets me lead over the cornice when he reaches me. I hacked away for an hour before I could flop my sorry ass over the other side at midnight.



The next morning we start down quickly and slurp water at some drips and head down into the valley on the south of Deltaform, easily reached in a few hours. It takes us all day to walk the 12 miles to the road. My calf's are two balls of cramps from standing on my front points so I have to comically walk backwards up any up hills. When we reach the highway, James stands in the middle of the road with his bandanna flying in an outstretched arm and forces the first car by to stop. I didn't wrap my hands around a rope for nine months. I think it is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.



Shows you how bad it gets when it is going so well. If the crux on Deltaform is 5.9 then the crux on Grand Central Coulior is 5.6. Easily the most terrifying piece of ground I ever had to climb in the Rockies!!!



Cheers,



Gregg"



Carlos Buhler on the 2nd winter ascent of GCC.







Gregg Cronn photo



(Gregg did early repeats of the Lowe routes on the North face of Alberta and Kitchener's GCC in winter)



To helpput the current conditions, Carlos' winter finish and modern climbing into some sort of perspective Ken's and Colin's story needs ot be told.



Ken Glover's recollections of his and Colin's climb in 2007:



"Drove with Colin Wooldridge to Moraine Lake parking lot on Sept 15, 2007 at 4am. Reached the bergschrund at dawn, inch of recent snow, minus 3 C. Bergschrund required about 100 meters 4th class scrambling on the left. The main couloir was fortunately silent with no rockfall through the early sunlight hours and the air temperature didn't get above freezing. Great neve conditions eventually gave way to ice as we neared the "cross-over rib" at 2/3 height. We crossed to the lefthand gully over a slabby rock rib, about 5



meters of easy but careful and exposed mixed traversing. The position from this point onwards had great exposure. This upper gully soon split into two and we followed the less-icy more-neve left hand branch, still undecided about whether to attempt the original chimney exit or the easier left-hand finish. At the top of the gully, at the base of the upper headwall, it was obvious that we were too far up and left to get to the base of the original exit without rappelling. This, combined with our anxiety over the nasty reputation of the original exit made us rope up for an exposed leftwards traverse pitch. Colin led this to the base of the first left-facing corner system we encountered. The position was now even more exposed and invigorating. Colin found a decent belay here and I climbed a loose but reasonably well-protected pitch to the ridge, nothing like the stories we'd heard about the original exit. Climbing was on snow-covered incut edges, large enough to climb with hands and thin gloves. I think I took my crampons off for this.



The scramble to the summit was sunny. We spent several hours trying to descend by the 1908 Kaufmann route down the S ridge.to SW bowl, hoping to find a "shortcut" back to Wenkchemna Pass. Ultimately we reascended to the E ridge and down climbed/rappelled to the Deltaform-Tuzo col where it got dark.



Here we turned our backs on the civilisation of Lake Louise and staggered down into the BC wilderness. We trudged for 10 frosty hours through the bush, with many shivering 3 minute naps, curled up in the bush still wearing our packs to stay warmer. Marble Canyon and Hwy 93 was a welcome sight at dawn. After we hitch-hiked back to our car we raced home, I cleaned up and drove into Calgary. I was making mindless comments in a meeting by 11am while Colin slept in his car at a truck stop. We were psyched for a while



after this one, but it was the last alpine route I climbed with Colin before his tragic death in the mountains later that Fall.



Ken



ps. Great shot by Dave Cheesmond of Tim Friesen. It looks great. From the

security of my chair, I kind of wish we'd taken the original exit."



And finally the 1st ascent account by George Lowe



Deltaform North East Face, first ascent account



George Lowe CAJ 57, 1974



“By evening we were under the face.



The face was obviously not in condition. It was plastered with snow and avalanching continuously. Exhaustion and fear kept us from starting in the morning. By midday no big avalanches were coming down so we rationalized our way into starting at 5pm. With winter snow still covering the ice we climbed unroped until the last few pitches before the end of the lower part of the couloir. There we bivouaced, a 5 star site cut into a narrow snow arete flanked by 55 degree slopes.



Morning found us front-pointing up the upper couloir….thin ice over rock, bulges over 60.…always with a good screw or two for protection. Only small chucks of ice came down ass the sun hit the face.



About 12 leads and seven hours later, we were under the top rock band….100 yards below an enormous section of cornice cracked off and disappeared down the couloir where we had been an hour earlier. Another lead and we were under and overhanging chimney seated on a hummock of ice. Off came the summit cornice, crashing out over our heads. Five minutes later down came a large rock fall. Our thoughts could be read in our eyes. Thank God we hadn’t procrastinated another half hour in getting started!



Chris stemmed up loose flakes in the chimney getting bits of manky protection here and there. We had no haul line, so he cut the pitch off at 25 meters. Then I took my turn. The pitch started with some very difficult but good over hanging rock. Then came a groove, not very steep, 65, but with only bits and pieces of protection. Meters of chopping holds, balancing carefully….so carefully….between them. Hours passed in tense concentration until the rope ran out, just as I heaved over the cornice on the ridge. It was the most horrible pitch of my life.



Chris followed on prussik as I anchored the rope with my body, shivering in the wind, wondering if I could hold out until he made it. Then I had to go back down after my pack.



Finally we were (both) on top (of the ridge) at 6:30PM. It had required eight hours to climb two pitches.



By dark we were on the summit.



The next day we raced to get off the mountain before the helicopter came looking for us. We spotted it in the afternoon as we were starting the last rappel off Neptuak. “our bodies are OK” we waved. It is our minds that are bruised. IV (?) F8 or F9. Chris Jones and George Lowe July 8/9 1973 "



as a reference for those interested in such things:

G. Lowe and J. Glidden did Alberta in 1972

G. Lowe and C. Jones did Deltaform in 1973

G. Lowe and C. Jones did North Twin in 1974



Gear Notes:

Gear for steep alpine ice and some moderate rock in boots (5.8 or 5.9) depending on how you decide to finish the gully. A little sketchy for pro via the original rock finish. If you have made it that far it shouldn't be missed IMO. Why bother with second best? Good, cold conditions and weather!



Climb is easily done now in a day...getting off and back to the car may be a good bit longer.



Approach Notes:

A few km up the trail from Moraine lake parking lot.



Descent is complicated and depending on which way you go it can be a really long hike out.



*I know the ice has been soloed several times up and down since 1980 but to date I don't know of anyone soloing the original rock finish.*



Mythanks to Ken Glover, Gregg Cronn and Gwain Oka for the use of their photos and words for this blog piece. Goodto remember guys, thanks!

Large Black Gourd Vase

Bikes Gone Wild?

We saw this in an alleyway in Harvard Square earlier this evening. A fence full of bikes is a surer sign of spring's arrival than crocuses!

Some seemed to be particularly effected by Spring Fever. Are these bikes up to no good?

The old Roadster was bemused, recalling his own wild youth in the '60s.

Of course, our Miles and Marianne were more discreet and only nuzzled affectionately. Happy Spring and happy cycling!

Christmas Parade in Wauchula

Last night we all went to downtown Wauchula, where I sat on Main street in order to watch the Christmas parade. Nathan and Austin were going to be a part of the parade, helping out with the Thousand Trails float. My ankle kept me grounded so I went as a sideline cheerleader.



Since I was going solo for the parade watching, that also meant I got to do much people watching while there. I love to spend time people watching. It is fascinating to me. You can really learn a lot from a place by doing this. And I came away from this parade, which was beautiful, reminded that so often small towns in America offer a view of some of the best and the worst that our society has to offer.



I saw much that told me that racism and preferential treatment is alive and well in our country. No matter how forward we move in these areas, situations like this tell me how far we have to go yet. My heart was heavy in the moments I was witnessing that. It is not something that seemed congruent with a Christmas parade to me.



At the same time, those same people who surrounded me also shared what makes our country beautiful to me. There is something touching about parades that feels almost patriotic to me. People do a great job of pulling together to make the parade happen. People do a great job of coming out to support the parade by bringing their families and enjoying the result of the hard work. I love it when towns pull together in this way.



Parades give people a chance to share what is important to them.





I loved seeing those that were near and dear to me. Nathan holding the banner and Buddy and Diane:







It was a wonderful night and I was really touched to see our "home for now" represented there. The Jammers did a great job! It definitely put me in the Christmas spirit even more.



Living the life in small town Florida!

A day in Zandvoort

This month, June has been such a terrible weather month. It is supposed to be summer now but it’s been raining non-stop for days and weeks already with low temperatures between 10C and 15C by day. It feels like we are stuck in a time warp, like we are still in spring or have fast forwarded to autumn.

At the beach we rented a pair of sunbeds and a wind cover. I am sure this book is great, a bestseller in the Netherlands but I could not finish it. I am not into tear-jerking, overly romantic and sentimental storylines, and that goes as well with music . I honestly thought I could read this to improve my Dutch (book was referred to by a friend) but helaas I am not motivated to read further. I will just stick to reading newspapers and business and travel magazines, in Dutch.

What I would like to share to you is a trip to Zandvoort aan Zee, one of the Netherland’s coastal villages in the North Holland province. We went there on a Monday last month, May. Mondays are always busy days, traffic on the highways, meetings at work, doing the necessary administrative stuff, etcetera but it was such a fine feeling, quite liberating in fact, to be at the beach instead. It kind of gives you that ‘I have finally retired’ or ‘I have won the lotto so I don’t bother with working’ feeling. Well, at least for a day.

The weather was not really that warm but it was warm enough to sit outside in a bikini and drink a glass of chilled rose.

Zandvoort also has a nice little centrum with amusing shops and appealing café terraces. All in all, it is an enjoyable little coastal town and we had a very relaxing Monday.

Not busy on a Monday here at the beach.

Zandvoort beach. There were quite a number of kitesurfers that day.

Nice little centrum of Zandvoort.

Did some people watching while sitting on a cafe terrace.

The Zandvoort aan zee train station is actually pretty. This train station was opened in 3 June 1881 and is connected to Amsterdam via Haarlem.

Residential part of Zandvoort aan Zee.