Loppet Training

I just went out for an easy 45 minute ski on the campus trails. Later today 2-3 laps on the "Ladies Five." The enclosed picture is from yesterday, when half of my nordic team, heading out for practice. My Lucy - the littlest - had her first ski tour of the "Ladies Five," while Kyle the furthest to the right is getting ready to break the 1984 school record (1:49) for the 25K loppet ... no small feat with its 1800' of climbing. (Of course, the hardest part of the possible record breaking will be to get the chaperone - me - to go fast enough.)

Inca Mummies

The book I am reading (The Ice Maiden) is fascinating. In 1995 this well preserved 500 year-old girl was found on the summit of Nevado Amapato (20,702'). Click on this link to watch a National Geographic video that talks about the wide range of research into Inca mummies.

Lake Placid Loppet

One of the premier distance events in America. Climbing over 3000' in the 50K course. We have superb snow conditions, come on up and stay at the cabin and ski the race next Saturday. (Click on the picture to enlarge the course map.)

Nordic Ski Racing

The Lake Placid Loppet is fast approaching. Gary is definitely coming up ... Brian? Mark? The painting is a historic one, of an artist rendition of the original birkebeiner skiers taking the baby prince to safety a 1000 years ago in Norway.

NCS Crag ... icing up

As I skinned up and over the top of the NCS ski hill this afternoon, I was amazed at how much ice the crag has collected. The photograph shows full winter conditions on "Hock's Blessing" a summer 5.6 that may get its first winter ascent tomorrow.

Africa: fossil friends

Tori and Greg exploring the Drakensburg mountains in South Africa, as they wait for their apartment to be ready in Maputo. A different part of the continent but is this really "Out of Africa" redux? Is this Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) and Denys Finch Hatton as played by Tori and Greg?

Telemark Tips

Today I was working on tip #74 in Allen and Mike's Really Cool
Telemark Tips. Keep those hands pointed down the fall line during the turn ... thanks to John D for the reminder. (Click on the phorogaph to enlarge the picture and read the informative text.)

NCS ski hill

The enclosed diagram is our tail map; click on the photograph to enlarge it.

Tele-turns

Gorgeous day. My first turns of the season at Whiteface ... Somebody
has to look after the students! (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Video: Pathfinder

I am getting ready to show this film to my nordic racers as much of the action takes place a 1000 years ago on skis. This film, based on an ancient Sami legend, is a coming-of-age story about a boy who witnesses his family's murder by a brutal gang of thieves. How he deals with these murderers, while protecting the rest of his tribe, makes up the principal plot. The movie is simple--simple plot, simple dialogue, simple (but stunning) visuals, and this simplicity lends a great deal of strength to this work. Everything unnecessary has been cut away, much like the lives of the Sami people, a tribal group closely tied to an unforgiving landscape and climate (Lappland).
Although most of the film is action, there is a wonderful relationship that develops between the boy and the tribe's shaman, or "pathfinder." They have only a couple of conversations before fate separates them, but in those brief exchanges the pathfinder imparts all the knowledge the boy needs to take up the mantle of pathfinder himself.

This film is beautifully crafted, well-paced, and provides a wonderful portrait of a culture which has much to teach.Click on this link to see a two minute video clip.

The Mountain Library

I have logged about about half of the mountain library into the blog. FYI ... You may use the search function on the blog to find the books you need. This new title is the story of an extreme archaeologist whose career revolves around finding mummies and buried artifacts on the top of 6000 meter peaks in the Andes.

A Banner Year

On the drive back from four days in Manhattan - working with trustees - it was great to see all the ice dripping off of the Chapel Pond Crags. Pictured below are Chouinard's Gully, and Power Play, but know that everything else is in.

Chessler's 100 Best Books

Click here to access Michael Chessler's list of the 100 best and most important mountaineering books. (How many do you own or have you read?)

Video: Nordic Pre-Olympics

Click here to watch video coverage of the 1.6 K classical sprints at Whistler. Andy Newhall finishes in the top ten and several other Americans earn world cup points.

Video: Outside magazine's profile of Messner

Click here to watch a 45 minute profile of the alpine god, the focus of the film is his exploits on the Himalayan giants.

Video: The Nose speed record

Click here to watch this 90 second video about the Huber brothers.

Video: American Alpine Club Trailer

Click here to watch this short video ... guaranteed to get you motivated and off the couch.

C

Dean of Students

Or, maybe we should call him the NCS Dean of Skiing. Click here and watch a 15 second video of Nick taking time out from discipline and parent phone calls to rip it, on a slope near school. The conditions are great and so many staff and students have the tele-gear out. Lucy gets her first pair of tele-boards tomorrow.

More Humor

Another PenMen cartoon ... you can find them on Climbing magazine's website. (Click on the cartoon to enlarge it.)

Video: UIAA gear testing

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VIEW A SOBERING 90 SECOND VIDEO.

Feb 8 ... Best of Banff Film Festival ... Shikashika

Coming to Lake Placid Center for the Arts ... In 2008 Huaraz Satyricon Cinema produced a documentary film about a Shikashika business in the Andean Highlands. Filmed in Peru, the documentary reveals the process of making a colorful shave ice called Shikashika. To make it one family must journey afoot into the Andes mountains where they cut enormous blocks of ice with an axe and bare hands. On the return journey they strap the ice blocks atop mules and lead them down steep granite canyons. The following day Shikashika is sold at the steps of a cathedral in the valley far below. The film offers a rare and focused glimpse into life and work in the Peruvian highlands

Out for Another Ski

This time a 7.5 k tour with Lucy on the biathlon trails.

-20 Last Night

The temperatures have risen thirty degrees as I return from my noon ski to warm up in the cabin.

Who Is Coming?

So far I have just heard from Gary? Brian is waffling a bit as he is still recovering from nordic skiing over New Year's. (Is he a whimp or what?)

30 Years Ago: still on the agenda?

The Cassin Ridge, like Ahab and the White Whale, has consumed much of my psychic energy in the mountains. One of the most beautiful hard alpine routes in the world ... I still dream about it.

Le Beatnik: a video

Gary Hemming lead a mythical alpine life until his suicide in the Tetons. Robert Redford always wanted to make this film and play this part. Now an English production company has produced a conceptual piece on their way to raising money for a full length film version of this enigmatic climber. Click here to watch the video.)

Video Trailer

UPDATE - 12/04/08: Andy Parkin documentary wins Special Jury Prize at Kendal!
We are delighted to announce that Andy Parkin: A Life in Adaptation has just been awarded the Special Jury Prize at Kendal Mountain Film Festival, where it premiered over the weekend. (Click here to see a video clip.)

A Little Humor

PENMEN® was created by 12 year old artist Gary Blehm in 1977 in a one room school house near Aspen, Colorado. The first official poster was published in 1989 entitled, “Find the Two Identical PENMEN®” with 1,039 characters doing everything from floating in a raft, to playing Frisbee, guitar, drums, sports, backpacking, etc.. 100,000 posters were sold, which led to a book published through Harcourt Brace. Then in 1995, the wordless comic strip was syndicated nationally through Creators Syndicate, inc. In 2006, keeping warm by a wood stove in a Lake George, Colorado cabin, Gary animated 6 episodes of a short PENMEN adventure series for European television through JETIX, a Disney owned company.

Amazing Alpine Feat

Steck Solos Grandes Jorasses in 2:21
By Dougald MacDonald / The Mountain World

Enlarge
The Colton-Macintyre Route (1,100m, ED2 WI6 M6) on the 3,600-foot north face of the Grandes Jorasses, first climbed by Britons Nick Colton and Alex MacIntyre in 1976. Ueli Steck deviated from this route for two steep ice pitches on the 1993 Alexis route in the middle of the climb. Courtesy of Ueli Steck.
Ueli Steck has soloed the Colton-MacIntyre Route on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses in 2 hours 21 minutes, the fastest time for any route on the premier north wall of the Mont Blanc massif. The Swiss climber had never been on this route. Steck carried a 50-meter 5mm rope, two ice screws, two pitons, and four carabiners; however, he completed the 3,600-foot route, including difficult dry-tooling, without using the rope or pro. He stopped his watch atop Pointe Walker, the highest point of the Grandes Jorasses.

Last February, Steck broke his own record for speed-climbing the north face of the Eiger, climbing the classic 1938 route in 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds. In March 2006, he climbed the Bonatti Route on the north face of the Matterhorn in 25 hours, a record for that route but not the face; Walter Bonatti took five days on his first ascent of the route in 1965.

Date of Ascent: December 28, 2008

Pinnacle Gully

Click on this link to read Guy Waterman's account of the ice climbing history of this important climb in New Hampshire ... see pages 86-93.

Evening Chores

Selden feeding Birch, after giving hay to the sheep, and milking Katika.

A Card From Santa

Now that holidays have past, and I have eaten too much, I can reflect
on how special the time was. Of course, this card from Santa in my
stocking really made my day on Christmas.

Larry Gearing Up

Moderately thin conditions, much harder than listed, and Larry just
flew up Cascade Ice Dance. The first pitch was delicate and
technical, the second pitch had a very steep column with some stems on
thin icicles.

Cascade Ice Dance

As Don Mellor says the best line at the Cascade Lakes, although often
not in shape. Today it was in thin but manageable conditions.

Michael Franklin: 30 years ago

Some of you may ask, what does a one pound hunk of fruitcake (a Christmas present from my sister) have to do with Michael? Well almost 30 years ago to the day, Michael had finished visiting his family in Boston and so headed out for a week of ice climbing in New Hampshire with Hock and Mike Brochu. Given the rudimentary gear their totals were pretty good: soloed Cinema Gully twice, Pinnacle and Damnation Gullies in Huntington Ravine, Dracula-Chia-Pegasus at Frankenstein Cliff, and the Black Dike on Cannon.

The latter climb, completed after dark was a relatively early repeat, of the now classic climb. Done in good style - Hock wielding a piolet and carrying his Chouinard alpine hammer as a third tool - still was a stretch for the boys. Freezing cold, topping out without having food or drink all day, we broke out the water bottles (frozen shut) and the food. Michael Franklin grabbed the Claxton fruitcake, took a huge bite, and I said "the wrappers are still on," and he said, "I know that you A-hole but its too F-ing cold too peel it off, and I am starved."

Instead of the customary rap back to the sacs, the evening concluded with a bushwhack to the car, only to find that the keys were in the sac at the base of the route ... it was a long day (and night).

Happy New Year

Lucy and her friend Teresa in the loft of the Fossil Cabin. Meanwhile 10-15 people were crammed below munching on Selden's homemade pigs in a blanket and various dessert items. (Notice the prayer flags which came from Lewie's basecamp on the West Ridge of the 23,500' Pumori.)

Yoga

Click here to access the New York Times article on the humorous side of yoga.