New babies in the barn

BLAST FROM THE PAST ... the Chamonix Climber’s Camp

This short essay captures the experience brilliantly!

CBD ... placebo or wonder drug?

https://www.outsideonline.com/2296261/athletes-ditching-ibuprofen-cbd-marijuana?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=tweet&utm_medium=social

Mental toughness ... the secret to most success in the mountains, business, and life

A short article with links to other good resources.  

https://trailrunnermag.com/training/build-your-mental-toughness.html

Build Your Mental Toughness

Dirtbags dress up ... Honnold and Chin at the Oscars

Well I did not watch it, but Free Solo (our Friday night feature film) won the award for Best Documentary. 

Great Range FKT

I just read an interesting article in Outside online, about rising interest among women in different FKTs around the country.  Maybe this summer is the time to do another circuit of this great mountain route ... see if there is a FKT for 60 year-olds.  Back in the day though my fastest time was in the neighborhood of 7:45.

Weekend in the mountains with college buddies

Alex Honnold critiquing Hollywood climbing films

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R7qSiEKntQA&feature=youtu.be

Kilian Jornet ... trail runner and randonee racer extraordinaire as well as extreme skier!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LIfhbMVN3fY

Another semi-rad post that is spot on!

New York Times ... reports on a recent study using pushups as a predictor for heart health

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/well/move/how-many-push-ups-can-you-do-it-may-be-a-good-predictor-of-heart-health.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage

New England Ski Museum

A visit is on my retirement bucket list; until then I am going to peruse their history of Nordic skiing.

http://newenglandskimuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/nordic_timeline.pdf

Climate Change: its time to ramp up political action

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/opinion/sunday/fear-panic-climate-change-warming.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

What would Ed Abbey be doing today?

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/07/is-there-anything-left-to-be-learned-from-ed-abbey/

Nice tour on the Jackrabbit Trail

Expose on Swiss Glaciers

From the New York Times, an interactive missive, about how climate change may impact Swiss hydro-production and how a tiny alpine country is adapting. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/13/climate/switzerland-glaciers-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Memories of Royal Robbins, Jeff Lowe, and Warren Harding

Another shoutout to the awesome website - FOOTLESS CROW -  covering all things in the British Mountains. These memories span almost two decades, and talk of the first visit to the UK of each of these famous American climbers. 

http://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2019/02/big-in-uk-royal-robbins-jeff-lowe-and.html

A big retirement goal ... get back on a strength training program

https://www.uphillathlete.com/strength-mobility-aging-mountain-athlete/

Kilian Jornet sets a new 24 hour uphill record ... ski mountaineering

He averaged 3,200 vertical feet of climbing per hour, or about 77,000' vertical in 24 hours, beating the old record by almost 11,000'.  Strava is a wonderful thing!

Nordic Race Tailgating

The scene is a little different than a booze infused football game! Often the weather requires a belay parka, and balaclava, and food runs to soups, stews, muffins rather than BBQ. However, on this day, the sun came out, the temperature was balmy in the low 20s, and there were great cupcakes.

Winter Carnival Nordic Races

The Dartmouth races, signal the second half of the collegiate ski season has begun. Two more carnivals to go ... Middlebury next week and Bates the week after. Ten days after that is the NCAA Championships, which this year are at Trapp Family Lodge.

This weekend's solid performances, mirrored Lucy's other carnival races, consistently good, but no results that pop out. The championship selection, is based on scores from just a handful of season performances, which means Lucy will probably be on the bubble but not hearing "The Sound Of Music." If you have two great skate races, and all your classic races are on the second page of the results you're in, but consistent top twenty five leaves you an on-looker.

The other point to make is, that this Eastern Conference is incredibly deep in talent. A bunch of skiers having just returned from the World Junior Championships. A couple are on the US Development Team. Another 8% of the racers are older, faster, Scandinavians on scholarship. Which is all by way of saying ... these are amazing races to watch!

Pictured below are Lucy warming up for the 3x5k relay race. The two following pictures are from the mass start, as Lucy had the opening scramble leg. It was a blue klister sort of day, the tracks were hard and fast, and the downhills technical.

Algonquin peaking above the ridge ...

A nice chilly (4°F) morning jog.

Dartmouth Winter Carnival ...

I went to a great little Nepalese restaurant - Basecamp - in Hanover with Matt Salinger (NCS '74) and Brandy Zhang (NCS '14 and Dartmouth '22).  There was a small painting of Machapuchare (Fishtail Mountain) on the wall, behind our table.  With two cancelled expeditions to the Himalayas (Dunagiri and Kalanka), and one I declined (Gasherbrum II) to get my masters at Columbia, I am thinking that a climbing trip over there is off the table. 

Great Wildlife/Nature Art ... Mountain Journal

https://mountainjournal.org/nature-and-wildlife-explored-through-art

Heading to the 209th Dartmouth Winter Carnival

Heading out to drive over a Middlebury Gap, on a mixture of business and fun ... watching my daughter in the nordic races. This is the 109th edition of this venerable tradition, connected to the Dartmouth Outing Club.

Himalayan Glaciers Disappearing from climate change

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/02/05/world/asia/ap-as-nepal-climate-change.html

My aerobic year in review

One of the many cool things about Strava is the end of the year movie it makes with your data. So, complements of Strava, here is my year in review ... of course Strava does not log my yoga, ergometer, treadmills or other gym workouts while on the road, rock or ice climbing, nor hiking.  That said, it's pretty cool ... 

https://2018.strava.com/en-us/video/3c14e6d5134c71153b7d0d30212af1cce90ba0f5/

The race for the three poles

Well written, well documented, but with perhaps more minutiae than anyone but me or an academician could want. Also, unfortunately in this book the third pole - big mountains - get short shift. Still, Shackleton, Peary, and the Duke of Abruzzi are interesting characters to read about, and the age of exploration, with all its faults is fascinating.

Protect Our Winters ... an important Op-Ed

Lots of reasons to protect our winters: good economic sense, love of winter sports, snow is a critical water resource and the snowpack is the storage facility, health of the planet, the birthright of future generations. A MUST READ. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/winter-snow-ski-climate.html

College Carnival Ski Races

The eastern D-1 circuit is fiercely competitive, with some skiers back from the World Juniors, some on the U.S. Development Team, and dozens of medalists from previous Junior Nationals. The courses at Trapp Family Lodge, the site for this year's NCAA Championship, are always stout. The Mass Start on a significant sweeping downhill 180° turn, always guarantees some pileups.

The Dartmouth women were dominant, while the UVM men reigned supreme. Lucy had a two solid races in the 5k interval start skate and 15k mass start classic, and avoided all the various crack ups.

UVM CARNIVAL

The start of the Women's 15k.

Nice twilight run