We’re back from the Pacific Crest Trail, having succesfully hiked from Onion Valley to the Cottonwood Pass trailhead at Horseshoe Meadows—roughly 60 miles through the hidden interior of the Sierra Nevada.

I’ve got a TON of stuff to post on this hike, including hundreds of photos, a gaggle of new gear reviews, and many, many lessons learned from tackling my first 60 mile thru-hike.

For a little teaser, here’s a Google Map showing the “OK” pings from my Spot Satellite Messenger, which I took along as a way to say hi to folks back home and let them know all was going well.

Spot lists messages in reverse order, so Message 1 is the most recent, marking the exit of the hike.

Much more to come on this fantastic hike over the coming weeks…

ARS Technica is reporting that Nike found comments made by an anonymous poster on the Yahoo Message boards so egregious the company has allegedly asked the Chinese Government to track down the source.

The story begins when Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang (a Nike-sponsored athlete) pulled out of preliminary heats in the Olympics claiming he’d suffered an injury. Nike found a silver lining in this by running the usual ‘love Sport even when it breaks your heart’ ad campaign featuring Xiang. Then some internet rumor-mongerer posted a bit claiming he had inside information that Nike asked Xiang to withdraw because he had no chance to win, and the injury story would allow Nike to continue running successful Ad campaigns.

The mature official response, presumably, would be to ignore nonsense posted in a chat room. But instead Nike turned to “the relevant Government departments” to identify the source of the posting.

China is well known to be one of the world’s most aggressive monitors of internet usage, heavily restricting what pages Chinese citizens are allowed to see, and diligently tracking their every online move. That Nike would turn to such a notorious government and ask them to use methods illegal in the USA to round up one measly internet lone wolf is surely one of the biggest potential PR blunders in the company’s history.

How does this fit with Nike’s painstakingly-crafted corporate image of individual freedom and expression? It doesn’t. Says ARS Technica, “Nike to China on fingering anonymous blogger: Just Do it.”

More info on this story at Cnet

Sorry — things will be quiet here for the next week. I’m going to try to hike about a 60 mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail through the Southern Sierra. Should be a big adventure…I’ve never attempted a hike of this duration. The logistics (esp. food) have been driving me crazy. I’ll let you know how it goes when I get back next Sat. Have a great week!

Andrew McLean has a new blog online: straightchuter.com, filled with an abundance of McLean’s ski mountaineering tips and techniques.

As content goes, Straightchuter is lean and focused: you get tips and gear and more gear from McLean (author of The Chuting Gallery). Much of McLean’s skiing and mountaineering adventures take place at a level well beyond the mere enthusiast, but you’ll find invaluable information regardless of how hardcore your outdoor aspirations are. Check it out!

See Also:

SierraDescents Interview: Andrew McLean

When I’m not fretting about the rise of totalitarian super powers, I like to kick back and relax in my comfy-cozy Smartwool socks.

Believe it or not, I was a dedicated cotton socks hiker for a long time.

I liked the extra texture of cotton, which kept my foot from slipping and sliding inside my shoes (compared to synthetic socks), and of course I loved the comfort of cotton.

Then I got a pair of Smartwool socks as a gift.

By that time in my life I was a bona-fide wool skeptic, convinced the stuff would always be hot, itchy, and uncomfortable.

Wow, how times have changed! Nowadays whether you catch me on trail or off, you’ll likely find me wearing not only Smartwool socks but also a Smartwool crew top and bottoms.

The comfort of Smartwool products really is superb: close enough to soft cotton as to make no difference. And the advantages of wool over cotton in the backcountry, as everybody knows, are huge (I wear a cotton shirt only for desert hikes, or hot-weather ascents in the mountains). Just switching to Smartwool socks from cotton can cure a lot of blister problems.

Smartwool’s newest sock is the Adrenaline, which features a very crafty blend of wool, nylon, and spandex in varying padding levels for a stunning fit and equally impressive performance. I always thought the one liability of Smartwool’s Light Hiker sock was its tendency to thin out in the heel and other high-wear areas. The Adrenaline erases that issue, and adds swanky looks and excellent breathability to keep you feeling frisky.

If you haven’t tried a pair of Smartwool socks, now is a perfect time to grab a pair of Adrenalins and hit the trail. Your feet will thank you!

Could any other city in the world have staged an Olympics opening ceremony to match the scale and spectacle of Beijing’s debut Friday?

I doubt it. My jaw kept dropping as I watched what will surely be remembered as one of the most awe-inspiring opening ceremonies in Olympics history.

Any one of the many set pieces would have been the centerpiece of any other games. But ceremony director Zhang Yimou (China’s celebrated film director) delivered one ground-breaking moment after another, flowing easily from symbolic imagery to sublime artistry on a scale that Olympic audiences have never before seen (more…)

Perhaps by now you’ve heard the radio spot on KFI AM 640:

A concerned female voice warns consumers: ‘Soon, many common everyday products could disappear from grocery store shelves all across California’.

What’s the threat, you ask?

Those dastardly Sacramento Politicians are trying to ban BPA—a chemical that has been safely used for 50 years (the ad assures) in plastic products like reusable water and baby bottles (more…)

On August 1, 2008, Hermosa Beach climber Nicholas Rice awoke after a freezing night at Camp IV and made his way to just below the “Bottleneck”.

Rice, 23, was attempting to climb K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, widely considered one of the world’s most difficult summit (and one of the most deadly).

The Bottleneck, as the name implies, was an exposed section of the climbing route where climbers were dependent on fixed ropes set by other climbers and Sherpas for passage up and down. In this way, the Bottleneck is similar to Mount Everest’s Hillary Step. Unlike the Hilary Step, however, the Bottleneck lay beneath a system of ice seracs—towering and unstable blocks of ice.

That morning at camp, Nick had spilled water on his socks, getting them wet. Consequently he got a late start that day. After about an hour of climbing, Nick (who was climbing without oxygen) still wasn’t warming up. He decided the prudent course of action was to turn back, and he did so, returning to Camp IV. After resting at camp for several hours, Nick decided to continue descending. Other climbers continued upward.

Soon after that, Nick learned that the ice blocks overhanging the Bottleneck had broken loose in an avalanche, killing three climbers and stranding others above by destroying the fixed ropes.

Like the events described in John Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, the K2 avalanche has a ghoulish quality that lingers in the imagination. Discovering that the ropes—their lifeline—had been cut, the trapped climbers’ options were extremely limited. I expect we’ll see a great deal of coverage on this tragedy as more details emerge.

Nick has posted regular dispatches of his climb, including the avalanche and rescue efforts, on his website.