Half Dome w/Daughter
No, they didn’t go up the cables, they went up the Regular Northwest Face. First thought: this can’t possibly be real. Second thought: hey, if she can do that, maybe I can too. Third thought (after reading full trip): uh, no, I can’t do that. Final thought: can we all get together and agree to not let our 12-year-old daughters do things that completely undermine my ability to think of myself as ‘rad’ ?? Just saying…
via SuperTopo
Posted in Climbing | 2 Comments
Slings ‘n Physics
If climbing’s your bag you might want to check out this sling drop-test video by DMM, in which they conduct a head-to-head comparison of Dynema and nylon slings in Factor 1 and 2 falls. The test is intended to replicate a scenario in which a climber, at a belay station, clips directly to an anchor using a short sling and then falls (more…)
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This is Your Brain on Altitude
The New Yorker recently ran a disturbing article on brain injuries in football. Just about the same time, Outside magazine wrote about an alarming study of the effects of moderately-high altitude on climbers’ brains.
It has been known for some time that Everest climbers often show symptoms such as memory loss and poor coordination when they get home. And studies have found irregularities in the brain scans of 8000-meter climbers. The presumption has always been, however, that these effects lie exclusively within the domain of high altitude climbing (roughly defined as involving elevations of 22,000 feet or higher). The Outside article makes it clear this presumption may be dead wrong (more…)
Posted in Climbing | 8 Comments
Mt. Whitney’s East Face
When I close my eyes I see granite. Gray-white blocks angle sharply beneath my feet, plunging downward past my rubber-tipped toes. I press my back against a wall of rock as if I could somehow dissolve myself into the mountain. Everything feels like it’s moving—the rock, the ground, the air—all conspiring together, pushing me toward that void (more…)
Posted in Climbing | 5 Comments
Off to Whitney…
Off to Whitney to try to redo a climb that got canceled last June when a surprise snowstorm blew in over the Sierra. This time looks like a go. I’ll be carrying a record number of cameras for the trip, including two HD video cams (three if you count my new D5000), so I hope to be able to put together the most media-rich trip report ever when I get back. If all goes well. 
No updates ’till next week, so have a great weekend.
Posted in Climbing | 2 Comments
Whitney Fatality
A female climber was killed Saturday night or early Sunday morning while descending the Mountaineer’s Route with a group of several others on Mount Whitney. At this time there seems to be an almost total lack of confirmed information about the incident. Sketchy reports from persons in the area were briefly available on the Whitney Portal Store message board. Unfortunately, due to the forum owner’s policy regarding fatal accidents, that thread has been deleted (more…)
Posted in Climbing | 5 Comments
Idiot’s Guide to Lone Pine Peak
Well, with a title like this, how can you resist? If I’m reading this correctly, these guys were attempting a winter ascent of Lone Pine Peak’s Northeast Ridge—a Big Route, by any standard. The interesting thing is that nowadays with forums and digital cameras, you get to read first person accounts not just when people successfully summit, but also when things go awry and SAR is called. Also don’t miss this: a bonus Trip Report addendum posted by the climber’s girlfriend.
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Axes, Crampons, and Ice Cliffs
I was reading Andrew McLean’s latest article in Backcountry Magazine, in which he hawks the advantages of using Black Diamond Whippets instead of an ice axe for ski mountaineering.
Noting an axe and crampons can allow you to climb nearly anything, McLean makes the interesting observation that Whippets can serve as a Voice-of-Reason for overly ambitious ski mountaineers:
If it’s too hard to climb with Whippets, says Andrew, maybe you should come back with a rope. Or ski something else that day.
Reading that made me immediately recall my first-ever experience climbing with an axe and crampons, which happened to be solo on Core Ridge’s north face in the San Francisco Peaks’ Inner Basin. Did I get in over my head that day? You betcha! Amusingly enough, I wrote about the experience for SierraDescents, but that feature got lost when I migrated to the new Word Press system, so I’ve reincarnated it here: (more…)
Posted in Climbing, Skiing | 2 Comments
LA Climber Among K2 Survivors
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) (more…)
Posted in 8000m Peaks, Avy News, Climbing | 0 Comments
EXUM Guide Dies While Soloing
The SierraJournal (formerly Sierra-Alpinist.com) has a short write-up on the death of Exum Mountain Guides employee George Gardner, 58, who died Saturday, July 19, while free soloing the Grand Teton’s Lower Exum Ridge (more…)
