Have a Great Labor Day

We continue to have spectacular weather, and I just finished some laps on the Trouble Slab. The picture is a view from the top, with the campus and Algonguin peak in the background. (Click to enlarge the photo.)

Hock Weekly Totals:

Seven short moderate pitches (two at the sharp end), two bouldering sessions, three moderate aerobic sessions, one long aerobic session, and one yoga session.

Avalanche Update

Pictures and more details of the avalanche site on Mount Tacul from the Alpinist website. (Click on this link)

Frederic Church: andean paintings

From the Hudson River School of painting but some of his best work was from his trips to the Andes. (Click here to find out more about him and his work.)

Hello from a fossil friend

Greg is in Huaraz - working - however he still manages to get out in the Cordillera Blanca.

Fall is coming!

The leaves are starting to change, and despite the glorious weather we are having, it was 33 degrees this morning.

The Oxford Mountaineering Essays

Almost a century old, these stories are classic - edited by Arnold Lunn - this volume contains the famous piece "Roof Climbing in Oxford." (Click here to read this tome.)

Climbing fiction

Bernard Amy's short-story is one of my favorites ... I just re-read it last night in the anthology "Games Climber's Play." (Click here to read it on line.)

The Chamonix List

Day 1: fly and catch the last tram up Midi
Day 2: Cosmique arete ... Alpine AD (snow climbing with bits of 5.4 rock in crampons, and two rappels)
Day 3: Chere and Perroux couloirs ... Alpine TD- (70 degree ice, NEI 3+)
Day 4: Traverse Point Lachenal ... Alpine AD (snow climbing with some 5.4 rock in crampons)
Day 5: rest
Day 6: Aiguille de L'M ... Alpine D (5.8 rock)
Day 7: rest
Day 8: Eperon Cosmique ... Alpine D+ (5.8 A0)
Day 9: After 75 minute approach bailed on Jager Couloir and hoofed gear over to midi
Day 10: rest
Day 11: Aiguille de L'Index ... Alpine D (5.7 rock)
Day 12: tram to bivy, stash gear and do Traverse of Aiguille de Crochuses ... Alpine PD+ (5.2 rock)
Day 13: South ridge Aiguille de Gliere ... Alpine D+ (5.9 A0)
Day 14: Cragging at Les Gaillands ... 4 routes from 5.7-5.10a
Day 15: fly home
(CLICK TO ENLARGE THE PHOTO.)

Recent Avalanche in the News

This picture taken from the Cosmique Hut during our recent Chamonix trip, shows the thin Chere ice gully, as well as the seracs to the right which avalanched off and killed eight people over the weekend. (Click on the picture to enlarge the photo.)

Another blast from the past!

Setting off for Washington Column in the late 1970s. Notice the hi-tech haulbag, the state-of-the-art EBs, and of course, the vintage hair styles!

Hock Weekly Totals:

A busy time with 150+ alumni here for Friends' Weekend. I climbed 8 moderate short pitches, one of which was on the sharp end. I had two moderate aerobic sessions on the rowing machine, and one big - seven hour - day in the mountains: Dial and Nippletop (4,000').

Cleaning the crag

Larry belayed a few pitches after he rapped down an scrubbed "Two for
you two for me."

Steaks, ice cream, and raw milk in your coffee

As the summer ends, and the leaves turn colors in the Adirondacks, it is a perfect time to book a night in the rustic fossil cabin ... Do some hiking, rock climbing, canoeing or mountain biking ... Treat yourself to some of Selden’s home-made heath bar crunch compliments of Katiyka, or some thick juicy free-range steaks from her sons!

Come for a visit.

The hay loft

Lucy and Selden looking at the spectacular view of Cascade from the
recently completed barn.

Mark Turns 60 in December

El Presidente - looking as young as ever - at Sunnyside during our
recent trip. How to celebrate? A week in the valley? Eastern ice?
Peru? The alps?

Gas

I eventually saw gas at $5.50 a gallon in California, but this was the
first five dollar sign I saw out west ... just before I entered Yosemite.

Selden Finishes the Barn

For those of you that have put off a visit to the Fossil Cabin because you feared being mauled by the sheep, have no fear, after several summers the barn is now complete. Of course, if Mark or Danny want to sleep with the sheep when the come East they are welcome to snuggle with them in the barn.

Good to be home

After the red - eye and a day of work ... Sunset on the lake hill sure
looked good.

Bay Area

With housing prices dropping through the floor, and his stock
portfolio going south as well, Hock looks to invest some pocket change
in a rare lithograph by Joan Miro.

Best beginner route in America?

School Rock on Donner Summit, with the practice slab and Kindergarten
Cracks in full view. Hock bouldered here for 40 minutes before heading
to the Bay.

Fossil Buddies

No peaks bagged but good to reconnect, and we even saw Damny at
Sunnyside.

Tori, Greg, and Mark

Meeting Hock at Third Lake at 8:35 am on Saturday, August 9, 2008.

Mother and Daughter

Short on routes long on ...

Mountain air and fellowship. The fossils did not get up any of the
"celestial aretes" on Mount Temple. We need to set a bit more time
aside to nail this 13,000' peak.

Yoga guru

She skis, she climbs, she does capoeira, and she helps fossils with
their asanas.

Needless to say ...

There were no trout for dinner, however both Mark and Liz report "lots
of bites."

Call 911

Is that Tori doing first aid on her dad? No ... Tucked in the shadow
of the Palisade Glacier Tori is giving a "remedial fossil yoga" class.

Must do stop!

The Travertine Hot Springs outside of Bridgeport are the perfect thing
for washing away the trail dirt and grime.

No Sierra trip is complete w/o ...

A stop at this amazing bakery. After the two hour hike out from Fourth
Lake I had an apple strudel and a chocolate croissant.

Sierra Arrival

I still have two hours to get to the trailhead, however I could not
resist a photo of the north face of Fairview which I climbed in 2004.
The chicken jambalaya at the Mobil in Lee Vining was awesome.

Jon: cub reporter

Testing rental carts for his newspaper article.

Thirty Years Ago

A much younger version of the dynamic duo on Stormpoint in the Tetons.

Leading on the Crag

Hock leading a short 5.6 route out behind the NCS ski hill.

Fossil Cabin Lawn

Take comfort in the nicely grazed and manicured lawn that surrounds
the cabin and mountaineering library ... Compliments of Selden's flock.

Heading West

I leave for the three days in the Sierras on this coming Friday morning. Albert Bierstadt paintings (click to enlarge) were my inspiration this week as I tried to re-tune the body from Chamonix. The weekly totals: 8 short pitches (two on the sharp end), a bouldering session, two bits of yoga, and six short aerobic sessions. Just enough to get rid of the cobwebs that have grown up in the last several weeks.

The Last Time Fossils Saw Him Was ...

About 15 years ago several Fossils remember Matt struggling on the "Football Field" of Denali. Now armed with a PhD in molecular biology and a bow he has turned into the "Great White Hunter." (We have roped up recently, so I can still vouch for him as a climber though.) He writes in a recent email:

I arrowed this Mouflon sheep at about 30 meters in the Pyrenees about a week ago on a spot and stalk hunt (very humane, the arrow went straight through the heart and lungs, death was instantaneous). The Mouflon are very quick, very wary with German optics for eyes, so getting this close took some skill indeed. They are a real prize for European hunters. I took the meat back to Ana's family and put it on the grill. Suffice it to say that it all disappeared in less than 30 minutes. The Spaniards have a saying about eating meat, "...de la nariz hasta la cola," meaning, "from the tip on the nose to the tip of the tail," nothing goes to waste. I think that her macriobiotic uncle ate more than anyone else (OK, I kept putting more on his plate), it was very tasty indeed...washed down with cold Sangria of course.

Lucy Riding Dandi

Lucy during a riding lesson at Treetops.

Just a Month Ago

The enclosed picture is from the Aiguille de L’Index. The peak just to the left of me is the North Face of the Dru, to my right is the Walker Spur heavily snowed up, and what looks like a pot-belly is really just the document and money pouch I have hanging around my neck underneath my shirt.

The Next Generation

Charlie is the 3 year-old son of Guillaume, a fossil friend. Working out the moves in his backyard training facility.

Lacrosse Tournament

Needless to say, being fit for the alps and running up and down the
lacrosse field are two different things. The joints and muscles are
sore and the feet are blistered.

The Razor Pitch

On the 11th pitch of the Gliere you are confronted with a spectacularly exposed hand traverse. The pitch is graded 5a, or roughly 5.7, and the setting as you can see is fantastic. (If you click on the picture and enlarge it you can also make out a parapente gliding around in the background.

Dix Range: Nine hours and 4000+ vertical

The view from our first peak - Macomb - with Elk Lake in the background. We also climbed South Dix, Hough, and East Dix.

Sunset from Owl's Head

Just out for a short hike and some bouldering.

1970s Climbing Cartoon

How accurately it depicted my time in Chamonix duing the 1970s AND how different my trip with Larry last month was! (Click on the cartoon to enlarge it for a better view.)

Cassin Ridge Topo

Are the fossils too over the hill to climb it? (Click on the topo to enlarge it.)

Pictures from Greg ...

The often seen but rarely climbed huge Wickersham Wall. Believe it or not, glacial ice at the snout, not some backcountry crag!

Greg's Back

Greg just returned from two weeks of work in Alaska, and he is all fired up about the Cassin Ridge. Here is a picture from our ill-fated attempt 30+ years ago.

Thanks to Larry!

The fossil cabin has two new commerative glasses for your next post-
climb libation.

Back at the Crag

As Chamonix memories start to fade it is time to get back into a
regular routine of practice at the school's crag.