Pictures from the second pitch

A great second pitch, made more exciting by the large number of dinner plates we dropped on Mark and Brian. Our rappel was a little comical as we debated whether to rap on the fat rope and pull on the thin rope (safer) or rap on the thin rope and pull on the fat rope (easier). Mark and Brian - way under dressed - froze their buns off! (Click on the photographs to enlarge them.)

Multiplication Gully

Another bluebird day! Although since the gully is always in deep shade, the ice was boilerplate hard. The approach was desperate, verglased rock and frozen mud! Gary did a fine job leading. (Click on the photographs to enlarge them.)

Cascade Lakes (Spring) Ice Climbing

The fossils had a great day, and they are still awesome studs! The evidence, quite simple look at Mark just dancing up this ice pillar. The modest route we did multiple laps on was called Roadside Gullies (NEI 3-). Notice the keen-eyed alert look of Gary the belayer, or the exhuberance of Brian celebrating the warm weather and removal of his balaclava. The words of wisdom are, "Any day you go out is a victory."

Single Digits

It was cold this morning despite the lack of snow in the pasture due to the recent thaw. The fossils are coming and so I came over this morning before work to split some wood for the cabin. Cold nights and relatively warm days are predicted for the fossil end-of-season ice bash. (The rest of the family left at 3:45 AM for the Spring break drive to Florida.)

Hock's Mountain Collection: skiing

The edge of never ... Two Planks and a Passion ... Pushing The Limits ... The Medal of Honor ... The Snow Gods ... The Mountains of Youth ... Cross Country Skiing Today ... Teach Yourself to Ski ... A Coach's Field Guide to Cross Country Skiing Technique ... Citizen Racing ... Training for Nordic Skiing ... The Simple Secrets of Skating ... Swix: Nordic ski preparation manual 2009 and 2007 and 2005 ... Good Glide ... Really Cool Telemark Tips ... Really Cool Backcountry Tips ... Uphill With The Ski Troops ... Surfing the Himalayas ... Free-Heel Skiing ... Ski Mountaineering ... Nansen ... Pioneers on Skis ... The Summits of Samivel ... Green Cognac ... Ski: 50 years In North America ... Ski Faster, Easier ... Come Winter ... Skiing in Utah ... Wild Snow ... Downhill Skiing ... The Race of the Birkeneiners ... The Art of Skiing ... Snowshoe Thompson ... Mount Tremblant ... Ski Games ... The Skiing Life ... Ski the World ... 25 Ski Tours in the White Mountains ... The Best Ski Touring in America ... Alpine Circus ... Frozen in Time ... Nothing Gold Can Stay ... The Snowy Torrents ... Avalanche Handbook ... Avalanche Safety for Skiers and Climbers ... Momentum ... Endless Winter ... Biathlon Handbook ... Cross Country Ski Conditioning ... Toko Wax Manual ... The White Death ... One Stride Ahead ... The Centered Skier ... Wilderness Skiing ... Pathfinder ... 1932 Winter Olympics ... Fundamentals of Cross Country Skiing Technique ... Haute Route ... Loppet 1990 ... Legends of American Skiing ... Fire on the Mountain ... Avalanche Awareness ... White Winter Heat ... The Simple Secrets of Skating ... World Cup 1988 ... The Great Race ... TV Coverage of 2006 Olympics ... Ski Tours of the Wasatch (volume II)

PENMAN again

PENMEN® was created by 12 year old artist Gary Blehm in 1977 in a one room school house near Aspen, Colorado. He offers a humorous look at all things related to climbing, mountaineering, and the alpine world.

Riveting Book

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ A CHAPTER FROM THE BOOK.


Three stories in one: the story of cutting edge ski mountaineering; the story of the movie that was never made about a 15-year old and his deceased dad; as well as the story of Chamonix and capital of world class alpinism and off-piste extreme skiing. A quick read.

(CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO MADE FROM THE FOOTAGE LEFT ON THE EDITING ROOM FLOOR.)

We Still Have Great Ice

This short 70 second video, doing a short mixed climb in the Cascade Lakes section last week. Pitchoff Right is a ell known top-roping area, well here you see a few guys leading out the overhanging curtain ... no figure-fours though! (Click on this link to play the video.)

Backcountry Season Is Open!

NCS students heading into Avalanche Lake, one of the premier ski tours in the Adirondacks. Lots of trips do to this Spring: ski descents of Mount Marcy, ice climbs up the North Face of Gothics or the Trap Dike on Colden, maybe even a ski descent of the slides on Giant.

Porter Mountain Loop

Lucy's first tour of this most demanding 7.5 K section of the 1980 Olympic trails. She cruised it on a beautiful sunny day. Pitchoff is in the background, and if you want to enlarge the photo just click on it.

Thinking of Peru

Well these pictures of Jon from four years ago are getting me psyched. Jon however, needs to do another journalism internship for college credit this summer. Mark is out of work. Larry has a new addition to the family, Reggie has gained too much weight, and Brian worries about acclimatization ... Gary where are you? Is there anyone available for some Andean alpinism?(Click on the pictures to enlarge the photographs.)

Out for another ski

Of course, this time traditional skiing on the Porter Mountain Loop I got caught in the late afternoon rain storm ... Not as much fun as this morning's skating workout.

Tory and Greg in South Africa

Hola,

Just drinking a coffee here in old Lorenzo Marques and been going through the photos from our trip to South Africa.

The climbing was amazing and beautiful and we got like 25ish routes in over a bunch of days. Nice re-introduction to sandstone for us!!! They climbed at Table Mountain, Cederberg, and Montagu. All wonderous places but by far the Cederberg is king. Long routes in a beautiful wilderness setting. We only got a little spanked... mostly by weather...


Anyway... Mt Kenya this spring if anyone is interested. The normal route is like 25 pitches of cool climbing to the top of one of the best in Africa!

All the Best,

Greg

Outward Bound Conference

Late last night I returned from presenting a workshop at the national Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound conference. It was the first time I have attended and the first real contact I have had with the Outward Bound organization since I worked for COBS in the 1970s. It was very refreshing, to see the organizational movement into mainstream education and urban settings is a good one. Once again I am pleased to reflect on their motto - To Serve, To Strive, and Not To Yield - which is a take-off the last line of Tennyson's poem. Click on this link to read the full poem (Ulysses) which has particular meaning for aging and graying fossil climbers.

Powder Hounds

Yesterday some staff and students were searching the north slopes of campus and found some wonderful open hardwoods to ski through. Enclosed is a picture of Nick - NCS Dean of Students - shredding it.

The ski quiver

This is not the full arsenal, but it is the cache of skis that I personally have used thus far this winter. It includes a pair of stone-ground Madshus, the grand pooh-ba of classic skis tucked in the ski bag. Conditions are still good, so come on up for a backcountry ski or an ice climb.

February: off the couch

Heading to Chicago on school business, but it has been a great month with no travel ... Yahoo! I logged 22 days on snow, over 5,000 vertical climbing, and 22 hours of skiing. Feels like the most
activity in quite a while.

Trap Dike on Mount Colden

The photo is from last week's 20K tour - reconnaissance - it is in great shape. This is one of the best moderate winter mountaineering outings in the Adirondacks. If we want something stiffer (NEI 3+) right next door is the climb called The "Adirondike," at 4 pitches it is also in great shape. Brian? Gary? Dave? Larry?

Fossil Gear!

Ski mountaineering 1970s style ... Getting ready to rip the hide, and point 'em downhill. My 202 cm Rossi Strato 102, with first generation Ramer randonee bindings, adjusted for my ice climbing boots! I spent two hours touring the newly cut logging trails at NCS which weave their way through open stands of sugar maples ... fantastic skiing, and great views of Pitchoff, Cascade, Wright, and Algonguin

Skiing bibliography

Click on this link to access an extensive bibliography of the subject including fiction and non-fiction, guidebooks, films and video, photograph collections, poetry, and assorted artifacts. (Over 7,000 items catalogued in this database.)

NCS Skimeister

Lucy participating in the nordic 1K event, then it was on to the 1K air rifle biathlon, and finally then to the ski hill for the slalom and jumping events. It was a picture perfect day. (Click on the picture to enlarge the photograph.)

NCS Ski Hill

It was a beautiful day, and I was out skating our nordic trails, including a trip up the lower portion of our ski hill. Tomorrow is our annual skimeister - nordic, slalom, aerials, and biathlon - so the kids are getting pretty excited! (Click on the photograph to enlarge it.)

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival

Lucy skated a good race against stiff competition on a 1.8K course. Her time of 8:41 averaged 4:48 per kilometer. (Click on the photograph to enlarge it.) On a totally different note, tonight we are having "Hugh stew" ... one of our bulls - Hugh Grant - is being taken out of the freezer. For those that are interested, Selden names all our young bulls after movie stars because they get lots of female attention in the barnyard but all come to an untimely end.

Fantastic Tour

A superb day! Ted and I toured 10k to the end of Avalanche Lake. The
conditions were hard and fast, with lots of side slipping and
snowplowing to get safely down "misery mile." We did the full 20k and
1500' tour in just under four hours.

Loppet finish

Hock striding it out in the last 100 meters. I had superb wax ... purple covered by layers of blue and extra blue.

Maputo

Fossil friends -Tori and Greg - have moved into their apartment in Maputo. Maputo, formerly Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique.

Tioga Pass Resort

A decade ago I did some phenomenal skiing in Tuolumne with Ben. I would go back in a heartbeat ... any interest this Spring or some other Spring. (I enclosed the chute, not because I have designs on skiing it but because Lewy told me he had skied the Ellery Bowl chutes.)

Last Loppet update

The enclosed picture shows "Team NCS" just before the start of the big race. Our team was composed of four staff, four current students, a recent graduate, and a former NCS mom. The times for this rugged 25K classic (1800') ranged from 1:57 to 3:10, with Hock skiing a relatively casual 2:10. (You may notice that his travel schedule and cultivation dinners seem to have thickened his middle a bit!)

Blast from the Past!

A picture of Yvon, piolet and ice dagger in hand, working out the secrets of the ice climbing revolution in the sixties. The other picture is from my library and is of the classic - and highly collectible - gear catalog with Doug Robinson's article on clean climbing. Two key alpine artifacts!

Taking Home Hardware

One of our 9th graders - Meg - won the 13-17 age group in the 25k.
Betsy and Liz on the NCS staff also won medals. Kyle just missed
breaking the NCS with a 1:57 in the 25k classical.

Kudos to Gary

The fossil outhouse has a special new Finnish seat that is warm on the
butt in sub-zero weather. Thanks Gary.

Gary at the start

It is 9:00 am and the gun is about to go off. Gary skied a snappy 3:56
for third in his 50k age group. Of course, little does he know that
his top layer of blue wax (which I changed on my own skis shortly
after this picture) is going to be too slick to get him up the Porter
Hills.

Course profile

As you can see from the course profile enclosed with our race packet, we are going to do a lot of climbing tomorrow ... 1800'. Snow conditions are perfect, and it seems that the very warm temperatures are going to hold off until tomorrow afternoon when we are done! (Click on the photograph to enlarge the course profile.)

Tuning Skis

The NCS nordic team getting ready for the 25K loppet. We glide waxed with CH-8, and tomorrow we are going to check out a variety of kick wax combinations including grip tape, as the temperatures may change dramatically on Saturday.

Another blast from the past!

Hock competing in the 1986 Biathlon World Team Trials. Later in the following season he would qualify for the Olympic Trials. He passed up on that opportunity to help coach the US Disabled Ski Team in Seefeld, Austria where he guided a blind skier to 4th place in the World Championship 10K.

Stowe Derby

After I finish the Lake Placid loppet 25K, there is one more race to do on February 22nd with the NCS students ... the Stowe Derby ... 3000' descent from the summit of Mount Mansfield and then a 7.5K skate into the center of town. Can we put together a fossil team? (Click here to see the details about the Stowe Derby