By Justin Harkins, on December 10th, 2009 It got cold in Bozeman.
The temps haven’t risen above 3 degrees F since Wednesday of last week, and they haven’t reached positive digits since Friday. The high on Tuesday was 5 degrees below 0 F.
There are benefits to the recent cold snap – most notably, any ice routes that were still holding out should be fully frozen by now – but it sure is hard to really enjoy being out there when it’s impossible to ignore the cold. Ideally, the weather will be something like water in a fishbowl: it allows me to do what I’m here to do, but it’s not something I have to think about. Warmer temps appear to be on the way, and it should be in the twenties and sunny for this weekend’s ice festival. Until then, I’ll just suffer through frigid belays or, worse, warm time indoors.
Rubber ducky, you're the one…
I will say that life in the cold climate requires all sorts of adaptations that I had never considered. People love to rip on the hot, sticky summers in the South, and they often validate the criticism with the popular truism: “You can always put on more clothes [Read More]
By Jennifer Pharr Davis, on December 8th, 2009 Warren and me – AT 08
This past weekend I traveled to Mountain City, Tennessee to help Warren Doyle with his Appalachian Trail Institute. Warren Doyle is an Appalachian Trail legend. This upcoming year he will finish his 16th thru-hike of the AT; that’s basically 35,000 miles of Appalachian mountain walking. To put it into perspective, the circumference of the earth is measured at 24,900 miles; it is as if Warren has taken a healthy jaunt around the equator and then some.
ALL this to say Warren knows his stuff; he is a living guidebook on the Appalachian Trail. However, despite all his miles Warren does not like to take much time talking about the gear and logistics of the trail, instead he prefers to help prepare people mentally and emotionally for the 2,175-mile journey. And that is what the ATI, or Appalachian Trail Institute, is all about; it is a four-day intensive workshop that helps people train their hearts and mind for the challenges of the trail, and here and there with much less frequency he make some suggestions on physical preparations.
Warren gearing up to go
At this winter’s ATI there were 15 workshop [Read More]
By Francisco Tharp, on December 7th, 2009 Knee droppers, knuckle draggers, sit skiers and two-plankers are carving where the snow is soft, sliding where it’s icy, and smiling in the lift line. [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on December 3rd, 2009 Justin enjoys moonlit walks in the mountains, margaritas on the rocks, and the occasional Peter Cetera love song. He wants you to know that he'll be the hero you're dreamin' of.
After a week or so of deliberation, we finally pulled the trigger on a trip back to the Sphinx. Several intervening factors led to the decision: Jason wanted to lead the first pitch, I wanted to find my crampons, and we were able to talk Ryan, one of Jason’s old climbing buddies, into coming along to further split up the weight and trail-breaking duties. Instead of sleeping in the parking lot and tagging the climb in one 17-hour push like last time, we decided to leave early on Monday afternoon and camp at the saddle; we’d succeed in shaving five miles off our climbing day, and we’d be able to sleep an extra three hours.
That’s what we like to call a “win-win situation.”
It didn’t make a difference in the end.
We hiked in by moonlight and set up shop in a protected grove just beneath the saddle. A storm blew in during the night. By the time we woke up, the snowfall was so [Read More]
By Jennifer Pharr Davis, on December 1st, 2009 Our Thanksgiving Table
I LOVE Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite holidays. Oddly enough, I don’t like Christmas, but I am sure we will deal with that issue in another few weeks. But, Thanksgiving… ahh, yes, how could you not like a day dedicated to food family, food, and football?
The problem is, every year when Thanksgiving comes around I get stressed out. This year the holiday was celebrated at my house and that didn’t help. I spent all Wednesday cleaning and running errands to make sure we had all the essentials. I went to bed late and then by Thursday mid-morning, I had my two parents, my two brothers, their wives and an added dog or two roaming our small house.
Turkey Trot Trail
Luckily, right before everyone arrived, my husband and I stole away to a nearby trail for a quick 5-mile, two-person, Turkey Trot.
Thanksgiving morning, all across the country, Turkey Trots encourage people to get out and start the day with a run or walk. Or if you’d rather, you can start your morning by performing the original Turkey Trot, a popular dance in the 1920’s.
I think Turkey Trots should [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 25th, 2009 The climbing world, like any subculture, operates with a unique vocabulary, and it’s important that prospective climbers gain a firm grasp of this language before they embarrass themselves (or worse) at the crag. Words like “pitch,” “draw,” and “deck,” after all, will conjure up entirely different images at Camp 4 than they will in an architecture class. Of course, the aforementioned terms at least have some sort of meaning to the population at large; the aspiring climber will eventually have to distinguish between a number of otherwise incomprehensible labels (the Seussian pink point, red point, head point, and dead point come quickly to mind).
Jason enjoys leashless freedom on Genesis II — Hyalite Canyon
The climber’s apprenticeship period will cover such subjects as Mallory’s highest position and the benefits of swinging leads, and advanced pupils might be able to show you which finger, hand, or fist size corresponds to which color of their preferred cams. Finally, once fluency is achieved, the enterprising youngster will be marked as a real member of the climbing community, free to enter into age-old debates about bolt-chopping and hold-chipping, the merits of the multi-pitch GriGri, and whether or not “crusty old sport climber” [Read More]
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