Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Mountain Conditions Oct. 31, 2012



WASHINGTON:

Road Updates: 
    ALASKA:

    -- Weather --

                Mount McKinley Recreational Forecast

    -- Webcams --

                Denali from Wonder Lake


    SIERRA:

    U-Notch: Out of condition

    Dana Couloir: Out of Condition

    -- Webcams --
    RED ROCK CANYON:

    Red Rock Canyon Campground Is now open for the season. 



    -- Weather --

    -- Webcam --
    -- The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.

    --The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.


    JOSHUA TREE:


    --Weather 
    --Webcam

    ALPS:

    Sunday, October 28, 2012

    October and November Climbing Events, 2012




    It's Reel Rock Season


    Click Here to go to the calendar and find a showing near you. 


    10/27 - 11/4 -- Banff, AB Canada -- Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival

    11/4 -- Seattle, WA -- Northwest Snow and Avalanche Summit

    Now - 11/25 -- Varied locations -- IFSC World, Youth, and Asian Cup Schedule

    11/8 -- Bellingham, WA -- Waren Miller's Flow State at Mount Baker Theatre

    11/9 -- San Francisco, CA -- Stop 1 of Touchstone Bouldering Series :


    11/10 -- St. Louis, MO -- Gateway Bouldering Bash

    11/9 - 11/10 -- Bishop, CA -- Fall Highball Craggin' Classic

    November is Banff Season


    11/27 -- Bellingham, WA -- Banff Mountain Film Festival

    Friday, October 26, 2012

    American Alpine Institute Has a New Website

    We like to keep AAI's blog focused on subject matter that interests climbers in general, but sometimes we just have to toot our own horn.

    After a couple years of effort and a few false starts, we have a new website, published on a new domain that we hope is going to make us easier to find on the web.  Our new site is www.alpineinstitute.com. Come visit us!

    The new site has a number of features that should make it easier and more fun to use:

    • iPhone and mobile-friendly design
    • A top-level navigation menu that breaks down our programs into a logical hierarchy
    • A "Program Finder" to help narrow your searches
    • Facebook and Twitter buttons so you can recommend our programs to your friends

    The new site also features some new and expanded program areas:

    • Skills Expeditions   These expeditions are designed to beef up expedition skills for those with limited climbing experience. While most of these expeditions are based on trips we've been running for years, we've tweaked the curriculum to pack more instruction into the itineraries, guaranteeing a better experience for beginners and a more valuable skill refresher for established climbers.
    • Expanded Technical Rescue Program   For years we've offered technical rescue for independent climbers and guides. Our new offerings include professional-level instruction compliant with National Fire Protection Association standards, appropriate for EMT's, mountain rescue service members, and parks workers.
    • Expanded Programs for Outdoor Educators   In addition to the AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course and Exam, we're now offering the Leave No Trace Trainer program.  Our comprehensive Mountaineering Instructor Program is the most complete course of study available to prepare for the AMGA certification track.

    We went live on Tuesday, October 23, and so far, no glitches!  Our web developers, Mindfly Web Studio in Bellingham, did a great job.  We've worked with them since about 2001, and they have always given us excellent, expert, professional service.  Thanks to Rusty, Heather, and the whole Mindfly team!

    Come see the new site, and if you feel like it ... no pressure ... "like" a program page or two.

    Ratchets for Rescue

    As stated in the past, we love Mike Barter's videos. The Canadian guide is currently doing perhaps the best job at creating instructional videos for climbing...and usually their pretty funny too!

    Recently Mike posted a video on ratchets for rescue. One major component of any hauling system in a crevasse or rock rescue scenario is the ratchet. This is essentially the element of the system that allows the rescuer to retain any advantage that he has gained in the rescue.

    Mike's video discusses four different types of ratchets:

    1) Autoblocking Device:

    Examples of autoblocking devices include the Petzel Reverso, the Black Diamond Guide ATC, the Trango GiGi and the B52. Each of these devices allows one to pull rope up through the device, but won't allow the load line to release without a few shenanigans...more on the shenanigans in a different post.

    2) Garda Hitch

    Also known as the alpine clutch, this quick system is very effective. However, it is extremely important to check that the hitch has been tied properly before using it in a rescue scenario.

    3) Self-Minding Prussik

    If you have taken a basic course from the American Alpine Institute, you know that we don't usually teach a means to create a self-minding prussik hitch. In the system that we teach, we leave the prussik cord a bit longer so that the rescuer can mind it himself. This is not quite as effective as either having a pulley that is designed to mind the prussik or a tube-style belay device that will operate the same way.

    In the video, Mike also quickly demonstrates a way to make this prussik load-releasable by adding a munter-mule into the shelf. A load-releasable system is desirable in all rescue applications.

    4) GriGri

    The Petzl GriGri and the Trango Cinch are both highly underutilized tools for rescue. In part, it's because they are heavy, so a lot of climbers don't take them on long routes or into the alpine, but they are very effective. They work as both a pulley and a ratchet simultaneously and are -- by their very nature -- load releasable.




    It is imperative that anyone going into the mountains has a rudimentary understanding of ratcheting in rescue. If you haven't had the opportunity to take a class, it might be very valuable to watch this video a few times over and to practice each of the skills shown...

    --Jason D. Martin

    Wednesday, October 24, 2012

    Mountain Conditions October 24th, 2012



    WASHINGTON
    :

    Skiing Heliotrope Ridge: Read the TR

    Blueberry Chutes and Artist Point: Read the TR

    Road Updates: 
      ALASKA:

      -- Weather --

                  Mount McKinley Recreational Forecast

      -- Webcams --

                  Denali from Wonder Lake


      SIERRA:

      U-Notch: Out of condition

      Dana Couloir: Out of Condition

      -- Webcams --
      RED ROCK CANYON:

      Red Rock Canyon Campground Is now open for the season. 



      -- Weather --

      -- Webcam --
      -- The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.

      --The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.


      JOSHUA TREE:


      --Weather 
      --Webcam

      ALPS:

      Tuesday, October 23, 2012

      Film Review: 127 Hours

      The news spread through the outdoor adventure community like a wildfire.

      A climber and canyoneer named Aron Ralston was involved in an accident in Bluejohn Canyon near Moab.  But this was no normal accident.  While descending a steep section, Ralston dislodged a boulder which caught his arm and pinned him.  After being stuck in the canyon without food or water for days, the young man was forced to do the unthinkable.

      He amputated his arm with a pocketknife.

      Why did this happen?  Ralston was notorious for gleefully flirting with danger.  Indeed, he was buried up to his neck in an avalanche just a few months before the Bluejohn Canyon incident.  It appeared that he had a record of being careless in the mountains.  He was heavily criticized for soloing when he performed his "self-rescue" in the canyon.  The theory being that if there was somebody there, they could have went for help.  And he was also roundly criticized for not telling anyone where he was going.

      After the incident, many people -- both outdoors people and media talking heads -- attacked Ralston for soloing the canyon.  People said that it was irresponsible or somehow wrong to go into the backcountry without a partner.  I would respectfully disagree.  Solo adventures by experienced backcountry enthusiasts are incredibly common in every type of wilderness travel, from climbing, to backpacking, to skiing, to canyoneering...

      There is some legitimacy, however,  to the second criticism.  A responsible backcountry user should do everything in his or her power to make sure that somebody knows where he or she is.  And while itineraries sometimes change, they often only change a little bit.  One is generally still in the same geographic area, so if you don't come home after a trip, at least SAR has a search grid to work with.


      After things cooled off a bit, Ralston wrote a book about his experience entitled, Between a Rock and a Hard Place.  This book was recently adapted into a feature film entitled 127 Hours directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and staring James Franco.

      For the most part, the film is a tight, artistic and engrossing account of Ralston's ordeal.  The entire piece feels a lot like the film version ofTouching the Void.  In each of the movies, the poor choices that the characters make disappear into harrowing survival stories and we completely forget about them.  It's hard to be too judgmental when a person is in so much pain and enduring so much terror.

      Indeed, the beating heart of 127 Hours is an issue that many outdoor adventurers and enthusiasts have a hard time coming to terms with.  Outdoor adventure sports can be positive experiences that bring people together.  They can cement deep relationships and provide life-altering personal insights.  But we all know that these same sports provide thrills that can be powerful intoxicants and can lead one down a dark path away from the positive aspects of outdoor adventure and into selfishness and obsession.  This is where Ralston (James Franco) was at the beginning of the film, imprisoned by arrogance and self-absorption.  His trapped arm then becomes a metaphor for the trap that he has built around himself out of the negativity in his psyche.  His eventual escape from Bluejohn is then also a metaphor for his escape from his previous life and the shallowness that accompanied it.

      Films are generally constructed in three acts.  There's an introduction where the characters and the story are defined.  The first act is usually capped off by an important event which significantly raises the stakes for the character.  The second act is the meat of the story and it is also finished with a climactic event.  The third act usually includes the film's climax and closes out the story.  

      Though this is a very good film, it is not without flaw.  The weakest part of127 Hours is in the first act.  The problem is twofold.  First, the dialogue and the interaction between the characters is stilted and somewhat unrealistic.  Screenwriters Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, as well as the cast, would have done well to spend some time in the mountains or in the canyons with real outdoors people.  The interaction between Aron Ralston and two attractive young women (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn) that he meets in the desert is weak and Hollywoodish.  They simply don't talk to each other the way that people talk to each other when they meet in the wilderness.  Instead, the characters have an interaction which is sexually charged and completely bereft of realism.

      Most outdoorspeople really like to see women working together in the mountains.  When we see two female partners at the crag, they are usually dialed.  There's something offensive about this sequence where a know-it-all guy drops in to help two damsels in distress and it turns into a flirt fest.  The stereotype of the no-nothing woman in the outdoors is dated and sexist.  All of the parties involved in this production should have known better than to rely on a weak cliché, especially when it comes to portraying individuals who are balanced and intelligent backcountry users.



      Trailer for 127 Hours

      The second problem in the first act revolves around the same interaction.  Ralston and his female companions decide that they are going to drop into a hidden pool deep within a canyon.  Of course the pool is crystal clear and absolutely beautiful.  The reality of such a pool, deep in a recess, is that it would be a scummy and disgusting pond.  Perhaps this was simply added to provide some sex appeal to the weakly written interaction between Ralston and the women.

      Early screenings of the movie at international film festivals brought in rave reviews.  Indeed, this film was put on the list as an Oscar contender long before it made its way to American theaters.  But those film festivals also brought in something else.  There were reports of people who were so disgusted by the amputation scene that they were vomiting and fainting in the aisles. Perhaps I'm jaded and have seen too much violence in film, but I personally found this sequence to be exhilarating.  I found myself rooting for the character and worrying that he would pass out and be unable to finish the task at hand.

      127 Hours is a fantastic survival movie.  James Franco is a master actor and Danny Boyle is one of the best directors currently working in American film.  This small story about one man literally caught between a rock and a hard place, is an inspiring piece about obsession and life.  Every person on the planet has a deep need to stay alive no matter what.  The fact that Ralston severs his own arm isn't that surprising.  Most people (at least those who read this blog) would do the same under such circumstances.  But what is surprising and refreshing about the piece instead, is the depth of the character's thoughts and the transformation that he goes through as the story unfolds.

      --Jason D. Martin

      Monday, October 22, 2012

      The Underappreciated Value of Trekking Poles

      "I've never used 'em, so why should I start now?"

      We hear it at nearly every rendezvous before nearly every trip. Many people pride themselves on being anti-trekking pole. And it's not really clear why.

      Trekking poles can be your best friend. The use of the poles allows you to protect your knees while carrying heavy loads. They also help to preserve your balance on deep snow or in uneven terrain. Indeed, they provide so much support that I often argue that once you let your guard down and use poles, it's hard to go back to not using them...of course a handful of the stubborn will drop the poles for awhile after being "forced" to use them by a guide. But the value of said poles is so high, that even some of the most stubborn will eventually pick them back up again on their own private trips.

      While the advantages of trekking poles are clear, there are two potential drawbacks to them. Both of the drawbacks have more to do with the use of wrist straps than anything else. The first is that if you always use the strap, it is possible to develop tendinitis in the elbow, or tennis elbow. If you only use the wrist-strap when it's possible that you're going drop and lose the pole, then this impact can be limited. Without the strap, people tend to constantly change how they're holding the pole and as such, it doesn't impact the elbow so much.

      In both of the preceding pictures, the hiker could potentially fall and dislocate his thumb.


      The second potential problem is what's referred to as "skier's thumb." This particular issue is also related to the strap. If you put your wrist into it and allow the strap to run behind your thumb as shown in the picture above, it is possible that a fall will dislocate your thumb. It is incredibly important to wear a wrist leash -- while hiking or skiing -- with it running from the top of your wrist.



      Both of the photos above show acceptable ways to hold trekking poles 
      without the possibility of injury.

      The problems with trekking poles are very avoidable...and if you use them regularly, so are the problems that arise when you don't use them...

      --Jason D. Martin

      Sunday, October 21, 2012

      October and November Climbing Events 2012




      It's Reel Rock Season


      Click Here to go to the calendar and find a showing near you. 


      10/27 - 11/4 -- Banff, AB Canada -- Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival

      11/4 -- Seattle, WA -- Northwest Snow and Avalanche Summit

      Now - 11/25 -- Varied locations -- IFSC World, Youth, and Asian Cup Schedule

      11/8 -- Bellingham, WA -- Waren Miller's Flow State at Mount Baker Theatre

      11/9 -- San Francisco, CA -- Stop 1 of Touchstone Bouldering Series :


      11/10 -- St. Louis, MO -- Gateway Bouldering Bash

      11/9 - 11/10 -- Bishop, CA -- Fall Highball Craggin' Classic

      November is Banff Season


      11/27 -- Bellingham, WA -- Banff Mountain Film Festival


      Wednesday, October 17, 2012

      Mountain Conditions Oct. 17, 2012


      WASHINGTON:

      Fires: 

      -8 Mile Road in Icicle Canyon is currently closed due to a fire.

      -Stewart Lake and Colchuck Lake Trailhead is currently closed due to a fire. The Enchantment Lakes Basin is open via Snow Lakes Trailhead.


      Road Updates: 

      -Mt Baker Highway open to Artist Point.
        ALASKA:

        -- Weather --

                    Mount McKinley Recreational Forecast

        -- Webcams --

                    Denali from Wonder Lake


        SIERRA:

        U-Notch: Out of condition

        Dana Couloir: Out of Condition

        -- Webcams --
        RED ROCK CANYON:

        Red Rock Canyon Campground Is now open for the season. 



        -- Weather --

        -- Webcam --
        -- The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.

        --The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.


        JOSHUA TREE:


        --Weather 
        --Webcam

        ALPS:

        Sunday, October 14, 2012

        October & November Climbing Events 2012



        October is Reel Rock Season


        Click Here to go to the calendar and find a showing near you. 


        10/19 -- San Francisco, CA -- Planet Granite Block Party

        10/19 - 10/21 -- Golden, CO -- Rocky Mountain Craggin' Classic

        10/20 -- Olympia, WA -- South Sound Pull Down Bouldering Competition

        10/27 - 11/4 -- Banff, AB Canada -- Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival

        Now - 11/25 -- Varied locations -- IFSC World, Youth, and Asian Cup Schedule

        11/8 -- Bellingham, WA -- Waren Miller's Flow State at Mount Baker Theatre

        11/9 -- San Francisco, CA -- Stop 1 of Touchstone Bouldering Series :


        11/10 -- St. Louis, MO -- Gateway Bouldering Bash

        11/9 - 11/10 -- Bishop, CA -- Fall Highball Craggin' Classic

        November is Banff Season


        11/27 -- Bellingham, WA -- Banff Mountain Film Festival



        Saturday, October 13, 2012

        Weekend Warrior - Videos to get you STOKED!!!

        I know there are more than a few of you out there that are holding on to this summer like the end jug on super slabby face. Fall climbing can be great, the temps start to drop, there is a crispness in the air. You have climbed all summer and hopefully built up your strength and endurance. Now is the time to send that project you tried back in the spring. So with all that in mind, I thought I would start this weekends videos with this little trad gem.



        However, all good things must come to an end, and with that in mind, our summer here in the North Cascades is finally coming to a close. The winds have picked up, and the greyness is starting to settle in a bit. And with all this change, our thoughts start drifting forward to the ski season ahead.



        As the previous video mentioned, with such amazing side-country and back-country access, you need to have an idea of just exactly what you are getting yourself into before you skin through that gate or duck that rope. Last year was a huge year for avalanches at Mt. Baker and throughout the rest of Washington as well. This next clip is from one of the hundreds of smaller slides on the mountain.



        Before you decide to head into the back-country, be sure you have an Avalanche Course under your belt. AAI is starting our courses the first weekend of December and running through the beginning of March, so if you need a course, check the dates here and get signed up.

        Have a great weekend! - James

        Friday, October 12, 2012

        Book Review: Psychovertical


        I became aware of Andy Kirkpatrick some years ago when I was an avid reader of every climbing magazine out there. Kirkpatrick has written for the American magazines Climbing and Alpinist as well as for the UK magazines Climb and Climber. His articles were always engaging, often funny, and even more often, terrifying.

        Recently Kirkpatrick's award winning autobiography, Psychovertical, made it's way across the pond and was reprinted by Mountaineers Books. And like his shorter work Kirkpatrick's stories from the mountains of his life are always entertaining and enlightening.

        I'm well aware that a large percentage of our blog readers are Americans and are far more interested in tales from Alaska and Yosemite than stories from the Alps. And I also know that some of you might already be turned off to this book because it was written by a Brit. But rest assured, Kirkpatrick's sense of humor has a flair that we Americans can appreciate, and he even writes about the Sierra...extensively...

        I don't believe in God, and intelligent design is only for those who know nothing about either, but when I stand beneath El Cap I always have second thoughts. How could nature be so brash and showy? And if there is a God, he must be an American, or the road wouldn't be so close to this glorious wall.

        Kirkpatrick frames the story of his life around a solo climb of the Reticent Wall (VI, 5.9, A5) in Yosemite Valley, an incredibly committing and dangerous climb. The book is written as if from the climb. Kirkpatrick tells us the story of his life and his obsession with high end alpine climbing in a series of vignettes, always returning to the pinnacle of his climbing career on the solo climb of the Reticent.


        Early in my climbing career, I become obsessed with big wall climbing. The idea of vertical backpacking was extremely attractive. And as such, I poured over articles about big wall routes throughout the world and found many of them to be...dull. This is not at all the case with Kirkpatrick's wall adventures. Even as he describes individual moves, which in the hands of a lesser writer would be incredibly boring, we are engaged. And we are never more engaged with this type of climbing than we are when he is relating comic stories from living on the wall:

        For breakfast we had a big tin of fruit to share, and every day he would eat his half, then in the same motion as he passed the tin to me, pull out a paper bag, pull down his pants, and have a dump. It's not surprising that more often than not I would lose my appetite, the sight, smell and sound unconductive to keeping a mouth full of pineapple and grapes. 

        Many of us learn the art of climbing with a little bit of trial by fire. Some of us end up running out of food. Others spend unplanned nights in the mountains. And a few of us even get hurt.  But almost none of us jump out of bed one day and right into high end climbing. Kirkpatrick was one of those who did just such a thing. He learned the art of alpinism as most of us do, by climbing local rocks and then graduating to the mountains. But most our graduation climbs do not include travel to a new range in the winter for our very first alpine climb...

        Early in his life, Kirkpatrick threw himself at his climbing and became totally enamored with winter ascents in the Alps and in Patagonia. Psychovertical chronicles a number of these in his trademark comic, self-deprecating style. The winter ascents are incredibly engaging in part because so many of them turn epic, with dangerous descents in massive storms, rappels off terrible anchors into the unknown and freezing bivys in tiny snow caves...

        After an hour we'd dug a coffin-shaped cave, just big enough as long as we left almost everything outside. I was putting the finishing touches to our temporary home, scraping any irregular lumps in the roof so water wouldn't build up on them and drip onto us, when, as I was leaning against one wall, my hand shot through and I fell onto my shoulder. I rolled away and realized we'd dug through into the side of a crevasse. It was so late that I just filled in the gap and climbed back out into the storm. I said to Aaron that he could sleep on that side, neglecting to tell him why. He was lighter anyway.

        And while the book is chalked full of intermittent intensity and comedy, the heart of the book is in Kirkpatrick's obsession with high end climbing and the guilt he feels when he leaves his family for climbing trips. This is a theme that many climbers deal with. Most of our spouses understand that we need to climb in order to be who we are, but our kids don't understand that. Instead, they just see us as not being there. Kirkpatrick describes significant anguish around his lifestyle and how he feels when he's in the mountains that he should be home with his family; and conversely that when he's at home with his family, he wants to be in the mountains.

        Late in the book, he makes this point more eloquently than any other climbing writer ever has, and by doing so places himself in the top tier of mountaineering authors:

        I thought about talking to Ella, imagined her voice, what she would say.

        She would ask when I was coming home.

        I often wondered about writing her a letter, to tell her who I was, why I climbed, and why I left her, even though she was the greatest gift I had ever been given. But every time I started, my words sounded like the excuses they were. The only thing I had to give were the photos I had taken of her, boxes full. Through them you could see my love for her. And her love for me.

        One day, I would write a book and hope she would then understand that fathers are only children too.

        --Jason D. Martin