Tip of that hat to Rob Dillon for this quote on the thankless job of writing a guidebook, snatched from a Mountain Project post: "I once met Don Reid, author of the Yosemite guide. The poor guy. Immediately upon letting on that he was in fact THAT Donny Reid, he issued what was obviously a much-practiced statement: 'Whatever happened, I'm sorry.'"
Dillon was commenting on a climb in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a place notorious for vague and confusing route descriptions. Sometimes, the route descriptions for the Black are confusing even if all the facts are correct. I once wrote a "Classic" story describing the über-classic Scenic Cruise route for Rock & Ice, and I worked hard to make sure my description was as clear and accurate as possible. (I've climbed the route twice, and I looked at every topo and description I could find before crafting my own.) When the article was prepared for layout, then-publisher and editor-in-chief George Bracksieck wrote a photo caption suggesting a high traverse well above the Scenic Cruise's notorious Pegmatite Traverse. "But George," I argued, "I don't even know if it will go that way! I've never heard of anyone going that way." But he insisted, and that's the way it was printed. As it turns out, there is in fact a high traverse, but it's harder than the Pegmatite Traverse and at least as scary. Whatever happened, I'm sorry.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Don't Believe Everything You Read
Friday, May 11, 2007
Andy's Reminder
Flagstaff climber Albert Newman writes: "My buddy Andy Morrow took a real nasty traversing fall out at the Overlook about six years ago, and unfortunately the rope was also behind his leg, causing him to flip into a 40-foot swan dive. Anyway, his titanium (skull) insert became infected in January and had to be taken out for 4 months. Nine days ago, they put his skull back together in Phoenix. He was home the next evening. When I took this photo, he said he wanted to remind all those climbers out there to wear a helmet."
Noted.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tunnel Vision, Round 3
Jack Roberts and I tried for Tunnel Vision one more time, leaving the car earlier this time, hoping to beat the sun to the ice. We had about four days of cold rain and snow last week, followed by some nice freeze-thaw, and I was so excited I could barely sleep until my 3 a.m. alarm, anticipating the ice we'd find. But after the two-hour ski we found....nada. Much less snow and ice on Tunnel Vision than there had been two and a half weeks ago. We skied up and down the drainage to check out other climbs. Vanquished: nope. That strand above Necrophelia: too short to justify the approach pitches. The south-facing gullies on Mt. Otis: too warm by the time we saw them.
So, as a fall-back, I proposed bagging the Sharkstooth, the 12,630-foot tower that lords over the south side of the Andrews Glacier drainage. It was a good call. 
After an exhausting snow slog up to the Gash, the col east of Sharkstooth, we climbed three long pitches to the best summit in Rocky Mountain National Park. (The Petit Grepon, Wowie, and other spires may be more vertiginous, but they're just pointy buttresses.
Sharkstooth is a real mountain, and one that only climbers can reach.) I love climbs like this in the spring. The route we followed is trivial in summer (5.5 or so), but in spring conditions, with wet snow on the ledges and verglas on some of the holds, it provided some modest challenge, and with all that alpine ambience it was easy to overlook the loose rock. And the views were simply stunning.
After rebuilding some crappy rappel anchors for the descent, we plunge-stepped and glissaded back to the skis, where we clicked in for a 2,000-vertical-foot slide back to the car. At the Loch, the ice was unsettlingly wet and open water lapped at either end, so we skirted the lake via a snowbank and the log jam at its north end, and soon, with only a wee bit of postholing at the end of the trail, we were 
back at the car after a gorgeous 12-hour day. As for Tunnel Vision: It will have to wait until next spring.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Wildest Ice Climbs Ever
Where will ice climbers go if climate change destroys the world’s classic ice routes? Canadian Will Gadd and Swede Andreas Spak explored one possible answer in Sweden, where they rappelled 500 feet into abandoned iron mines to check out underground ice formations. You can read about it today in my story at Climbing.com.
I wish I could show you photos of this strange and wonderful adventure, but they are embargoed for other (read: paying) uses. There's one photo, courtesy of Christian Pondella, at Climbing.com, and you can see some film production stills and climbing outtakes at HotAches.com and Andreas Spak's blog. The film of these bizarre climbs will air in July on NBC's "Jeep World of Adventure Sports." Trust me: This is one you don't want to miss.
Monday, May 07, 2007
North Face, Anyone?
Longs Peak's coveted North Face ski descent looks like it's in condition this week.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tunnel Vision, Round 2
One week after Jack Roberts and I walked in to check out the climbs Womb With a View and Tunnel Vision in Rocky Mountain National Park, Greg Sievers and I returned to the Loch, hoping for more ice. There was more ice, but not nearly enough. Worse, the day was much warmer than forecast. We third-classed a short pitch and then climbed a long, challenging pitch before the ice and snow just got too slushy to proceed safely. (Well, it already had been unsafe. It just was too slushy to move at all.) I jacked my shoulder lurching onto my right arm when some snow collapsed under me in the chimney, and my heels got chewed up by skiing in mountain boots. But the climbing to our high point was great, and now I'm more psyched than ever to complete this long route. It's supposed to snow a lot over the next few days. Then all we need is some cold nights and a cloudy morning. If not, there's always next year.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wind Sledding
The big spring storm in New England this week has caused some hardship at the Mt. Washington Observatory, the manned weather station on top of the Northeast's highest peak. Winds gusted to 156 mph on Monday, 73 years and 4 days after the observatory documented the highest wind speed ever recorded: 231 mph. This week's storm is particularly damaging because the winds are out of the east and the buildings on top of Mt. Washington are hardened against the prevailing northwest winds. But the residents of this outpost are used to severe weather—they even know how to have a good time with it. Hence, the following Stupid Human Tricks video.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Guessing Game
It's April and that means the annual search for spring ice in Rocky Mountain National Park has begun. This is my favorite time of year in the Park, even though it's also the most frustrating time of year. Yesterday Jack Roberts and I walked and snowshoed up to the Loch, hoping the long mixed climbs on Cathedral Wall might be in shape. That's Cathedral Wall in the upper left of this photo; two 1,000-foot chimney systems sometimes fill with ice in the spring, when the snow above them melts and the running water freezes overnight. Sometimes. Every time I do one of these spring missions, half the talk during the approach is about previous searches for ice—which climbs each of us has done, and how many tries it took to find them in condition. There's a climb called Vanquished just up the valley from Cathedral Wall that is at the top of the hit list for every longtime alpine ice climber in eastern Colorado. Nearly everyone has walked in to try to catch it in shape. Practically no one I know has ever seen it formed. And yet, almost every year it gets climbed, sometimes in the spring, sometimes in the fall. It must exist: There are pictures! Vanquished is said to be a great route, but it wouldn't be half the climb if it formed reliably every season. Guessing is part of the game, and the low odds make winning that much sweeter.
Yesterday there was no ice at all in the Cathedral Wall chimneys, and so, after a two-hour walk with 30-pound packs, we turned around and walked back out. At least it was a beautiful day—warm with no wind. And we weren't the only ones guessing these climbs might be in. Fifteen minutes down the trail, we ran into two other climbers. As soon as one of them saw us carrying big packs, he said, "Uh-oh, which climb didn't you do?" They turned around and walked out with us.
But the season is far from over. The photo above was taken in mid-March 2004, and it shows less snow and ice on the face than we saw yesterday. By the end of April 2004, however, both of the climbs on Cathedral Wall had come into superb condition. And so we faithful watch the weather, hoping for a big dump of wet spring snow that doesn't immediately blow off the cliffs, followed by a day or two of warm sun and icy nights. And then the guessing game will begin again.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Buns of Steel
Mountain athletes! Have your sponsors been pestering you with “what have you done for me lately” questions? Maybe you could be the first Westerner to climb in Honk Kong’s two-century-old bun-scrambling contest. This ritual is held on the island of Cheung Chau to commemorate the death of islanders in the 18th century from bubonic plague. Competitors race up the bun-covered tower, sntaching as many rolls as they can from designated areas within the time limit. Legend has it the sweet buns were supposed to cure illness, but they weren’t too healthy for competitors in 1978, when a bamboo tower collapsed and injured 100 participants and spectators. The contest was banned by the British authorities in Hong Kong for the next 26 years. But with Hong Kong back in Chinese hands, bun climbing is back, baby!
The contest is May 24, and applications are being accepted now. It’s not clear if non-natives are welcome. On the other hand, foreigners were banned from Nepal’s mountains until 1950, so don’t let that discourage you. Hillary bagged Everest—who will be the first Westerner atop Mt. Sticky Roll?
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