Pioneering women skiers

On the retirement bucket list

ONLY IN SWITZERLAND DO YOU SEE GRAPHIC NOVELS ABOUT SKI MOUNTAINEERING!  

The Patrouille des Glaciers (PDG) is a ski mountaineering race organised every two years by the Swiss Armed Forces, in which military and civilian teams compete. It takes place once every two years at the end of April, in the south part of the canton of Valais below the summits of the Pennine Alps.

You must be able to complete the races in the following times, given normal conditions: Zermatt – Schönbiel within 3h; Zermatt – Arolla within 8h 30min; Arolla – Riedmatten within 1h 45 min; Arolla – Verbier within 8h 30 min.

BLAST FROM THE PAST ... 1991 RMNP

Well our Fossil Club numbers are dwindling, and over the next few months I will try and post some memories of our time together with Lewie, Michael, and Brian.  So, 27 years ago in the summer of 1991, we had this wonderful trip to Rocky Mountain National Park which included Brian and Michael.

BLAST FROM THE PAST ... 2013 Tahoe Trip

Winter isn’t that far off ...

It was thirty degrees this morning and they have fired up the snow factory to get it ready for the upcoming season. Stash and I ran a lap of the Ladies 5k trail.

7th grade overnight in natural shelters

Stash and I ran on the Olympic trails to a wooded spot on Dave Steckler's property where the students teamed up to build a variety of structures, out of deadfall and brush he had cleared on his land.

Mountain paintings ... an eclectic history

http://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2016/11/mountain-painters-and-shan-shui.html

History of the ice axe

https://americanalpineclub.org/library-blog/2018/3/27/the-ice-axe

Bridger-Teton National Forest

A spectacularly beautiful little video.

https://vimeo.com/289341363

A haute route disaster

A good and well balanced article; it is particularly good in reminding us how to be safe vis a vis heuristic mental traps.  

https://www.outsideonline.com/2329041/chamonix-zermatt-alps-haute-route-disaster?utm_content=buffer74594&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=tweet

Great hike ...

Stash and I got out and about before it was too hot. We hiked from our back pasture over to the Ladies 5k and to the summit of Mount Van Hoevenberg and back. On the way down from the summit I bumped into the NCS hiking group, just above the start of the bob run ... 15.5k and 1500' vertical.

Quote of the week ... Leslie Stephens

Thinking of climbing ice this winter drove me to read four chapters in the definitive northeastern climbing history - YANKEE ROCK & ICE - by the Watermans. In reading the chapter entitled, "The First Ice Age: before 1927" I was entranced by the 1905 epic on the Great Gulf Cirque. In Whipple's account in APPALACHIA he quoted a passage by the Victorian alpinist-author Leslie Stephens writing about the Eiger:

"The result of a slip would in all probability have been that the rest of our lives would have been spent in sliding down a snow slope, and that the employment would not have lasted long enough to become monotonous"

Spectacular Mountain Website ... Footless Crow

A wonderful, and quite literate, British blog about all things connected to the mountains ... adventure, history, art, literature, and the environment.  Excellent guest authors.  This new, about to be released, anthology of women's adventure writing seems like a must read. 

http://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2018/09/waymaking-review.html

Understanding the UTMB

https://www.outsideonline.com/2342051/how-i-learned-to-care-about-ultrarunning-utmb?utm_content=buffer0f3d0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=tweet

Young children’s book about climbing ...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7VIirVTLz9g&time_continue=93

How dangerous are mountain sports?

Well at 66, I think the bigger dangers are strokes, heart attacks, cancer and turning into a couch potato!  

Great trail run ...

Next week I will start from our farm, which will make it an even 15k and 1500' vertical. The route is: biathlon trails to the stadium, flatland to nordic stadium, Ladies Five to the snowshoe trail, and on to the Mount Van Hoevenberg summit. All but 3-4K will be runnable. As you can see the view is outstanding.

A review of Free Solo

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/review-free-solo-is-a-dizzying-fascinating-rock-climbing-documentary/amp?__twitter_impression=true

The history of skate skiing

He did not really start it, or invent it, but Bill Koch played a big part in it. Here he is, wearing his lucky hat from the 1976 Olympic silver medal race. 

https://www.skiinghistory.org/history/cross-country-skating-how-it-started

Our 34th anniversary ...

Of course it's possible we could have another 34 years together, after all, I would only be a 100 years old. But however many more years we have, we do know things keep getting better and better, and Selden gets more awesome every day.

Bierstadt ... painting our western mountains

An article which reviews a new exhibit of Bierstadt paintings, which portrays the changing of the American West.  He is one of the key artists who influenced our government to set aside land for national parks, and he is one who helped the mountain landscape of the West to enter the public consciousness. Standing in front of this enormous canvas in Manhattan is a sublime experience. 

http://mountainjournal.org/bierstadt-show-at-buffalo-bill-is-spellbinding

What Honnold did on the way to the world premiere ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/alex-honnold-climbs-halfway-up-a-new-jersey-skyscraper/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Quote of the Week ... H.W. Tilman

I am reading a great article in Alpinist 62, by Peter Takeda, about the history of exploration and climbing on Nanda Devi. In his account of the climb Tilman made this observation which was spot on, but which was also sprinkled with some of his dry sense of humor.

"We live in an age of mechanization and, in recent years, it has become apparent that even mountaineering is in danger of become mechanized. It is therefore pleasing to record that in climbing Nanda Devi no mechanical aids were used — apart that is, from the Apricot Brandy."

Spectacular sunset

Matterhorn speed record from Zermatt

From the church to the summit and back in just under four hours!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnt2kKMsGw

Snowshoe trail to 1932 bobrun

I did not go to the summit - due at a BBQ - but I got above the new bobrun, on the nordic trail that cuts off the Ladies 5K.

Training For Ice Or Mixed Climbing

Training is not randomized exercise, nor is "just going climbing" going to allow you to improve ... Training is a strategic process.  

I absolutely believe this Steve House quote, his ideas and concepts are spot on, but maybe I am just too darn old, or too uncommitted to sign on to this regimen. Nevertheless it is a good read ...

https://www.uphillathlete.com/training-ice-mixed-climbing/

Ode to Chamonix

Zermatt is my favorite mountain town: it's history, it's charm, it's iconic peak, and because it was the first, and only, alpine town I was exposed to in my term abroad in college.

However, Chamonix is a very close second. In many ways for a climber, ski mountaineer, and trail runner, Chamonix is the world capital of those sports. I am excited and delighted to be heading back next summer for my fifth visit.

Take five minutes and read this short ode to Chamonix and it's special vibe, written during UTMB week and the big mountain ultra-marathons. 

https://www.irunfar.com/2018/08/jaybird-daily-dispatch-chamonix-in-motion.html/amp

Of course, there are other ways to view this town; Jon Krakauer quotes alpinist Mark Twight who calls Chamonix, "The Death Sport Capital Of The World."  The link below has an excerpt from that essay.

https://explorepartsunknown.com/french-alps/eiger-dreams/

Mount Van Hoevenberg

A good week of hiking and running at MVH. It appears they may be digging trenching around the Ladies 5K, possibly for snowmaking pipes. Sometime this week I am going to check out the new hiking trail to the summit of Mount Van Hoevenberg from the nordic trails.

Cosmiques Arete Rockfall

I have climbed this route three times (Summer and winter) over the last 40 years, and from pictures, it looks like the rockfall originated from the area around the Grand Gendarme.  Larry and I also climbed the Eperon de Cosmiques to the left of the rockfall in 2008.

Yoga for lower back pain

https://www.outsideonline.com/2336626/lower-back-pain-stretches?utm_content=buffer8a867&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=tweet