Cuba?

We went high up on a mountain, saw trees, and signs. A Cuba sign? Where are we any way. Actually this Cuba is a tiny town in northwestern New Mexico but there are better ways to get there thanthis road which ment about 50 miles on a dirt road full of mud and ruts. We turned around at the sign and headed back to Jemez Springs.

Dream States

My first cycling dreams were vague and atmospheric. When I rode along the Danube in the Austrian countryside, I would re-experience these rides in my sleep constantly. It was mostly the scenery and the light I would dream of. That backlit look as the day fades into evening, the shimmering water, the aspens and the wild flowers swaying in the breeze. The rides themselves resembled dream states, with their improbably long sunsets and no clear end or beginning to the winding Danube trail. Fading peals of laughter from party boats, the clanking of dishes in the back yards of houses I would cycle past. The sounds trailed off, almost ghostly. It would slowly grow dark as I pedaled and pedaled and pedaled. When I remember one of these rides now, I cannot be sure whether it is the actual ride or the dream I am remembering.




Riding for transportation in Boston, cycling disappeared from my dreams for some time. The few I remember are short, anxiety-filled re-enactments of close calls - I'd wake up with a sinking feeling in my stomach from a car having cut me off or passed too closely. In waking life I experienced no fear or nervousness when riding in traffic, but it must have been there on some level - what I would not acknowledge in my conscious state surfacing in dreams.




Later it was roadcycling that populated my dreamworld. Like an animal moving its paws in its sleep, I would pedal with my legs and shift gears with my fingers. The novel sensations of ergo levers played a starring role for some time. My fingers just wanted to keep using them even after the ride was over and I was fast asleep. Tap-tap-tap... spin-spin-spin... thumb press, thumb press!... spin-spin-spin! It was mostly just the motions and the speed I remember dreaming about, the anticipation of downhills. There was also a magical effortlessness to it that did not exist in real life. In my dreams, my legs never hurt and I cornered elegantly. Tap-tap-tap, spin-spin-spin! It could go on forever, just like that.




A late winter ride to Lost Lake led to a bicycling dream of cinematic proportions. In a small group we had ridden through the snow covered landscape of central Massachusetts, a route that culminated in a dramatic course of rolling hills. The combination of the stunning winter scenery and the sensation of the ride itself must have overwhelmed my impressionable mind. That night I dreamt of Pamela Blalock standing atop an icy mountain, her long platinum braid fluttering in the brutal wind. She pointed at something in the distance, and when I looked in that direction suddenly it was I who was there, along with Dina, Emily and Pamela herself. We were riding what I first thought were horses but turned out to be huge bicycles made of a rusty, coppery material. Later I recognised them to be life-sized versions of some of the wire sculptures I'd seen at Pamela's house, but in the dream this was not apparent. Weightlessly we pedaled up a steep, narrow road in a blizzard, and just as we crested the hill we saw that the pavement ahead had turned to ice. No longer in a procession, we were now side by side and our bicycles tied together with rope. With incredible speed, we slid down the endless winding hill like some giant 8-wheeled chariot. I let out an excited scream, but it was so cold that I made no sound.




Other dreams of cycling followed - rehashing the day's events, playing out fantastical narratives, expressing anxieties. Before embarking on an overnight ride to Maine, I dreamt that my dynamo light was not working and that I couldn't shift gears uphill. After the ride, I dreamt of cycling endlessly along the coastal saltwater marshes in the dark. I had a handlebar bag full of tiny fresh bagels. I took out a notepad and wrote a letter to a friend on the side of the road, then dropped it in a mailbox and kept riding. I do not remember what I wrote or to whom. The night was warm and dark, only the outlines of trees discernible in the distance. Morning never came. When I reached the Canadian border, the guard was expecting me and gave me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I kept pedaling. That was the last bicycling dream I remember.

Labor Day Weekend and Beyond...

I swear summer just arrived in the park about a month or so ago and now it already feels like fall. Sure, it isn't fall YET, as the equinox isn't until Sept. 22, but those folks who have spent a day or two up on the mountain recently may argue that fall is in full effect. A quick check of telemetry up at Camp Muir over the past few days shows below average temperatures this week. In fact, the thermometer didn't go above 50 degrees and in addition to the cold, the wind speeds have steadily averaged 30-40 mph, with spikes reaching 63, 66 and 71. Brrr...

Average high and low temperatures for the month of August at Paradise are generally 63 and and 43 degrees respectively. These days, however, visitors on Rainier are donning fleece jackets, wool hats and even a scarf or two - one doesn’t need a thermometer to guess that the temperatures have been closer to our average lows than highs. With Labor Day Weekend ahead, let’s hope this trend doesn’t extend much longer. A look at the extended forecast provides some hope, but we'll see... Perhaps next week will be different?

Speaking of next week...The public shelter up at Camp Muir will be closed from Tuesday, September 2 thru September 9th. The closure is to complete historic renovations and repairs to the buildings. Therefore, all climbers should be prepared to camp - all parties will need to bring their own shelter. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Some pros and cons to this colder and also wetter weather:

Pros: There is new snow on the mountain, so things are looking beautiful with the fresh coat of snow. The DC is still in great shape (check out the new conditions report), unlike last year (check out our archived 2007 DC fall route reports). Remember that climbers had to veer way out onto the Emmons Shoulder and descend below the Cleaver to climb back to Ingraham Flats.

Cons: Alpine Ascent International (AAI) guides reported that it snowed over a foot on the mountain last Tuesday and Wednesday. The drifts were as high as 3 feet too! Fresh snow on the route meant that climbers will once again have to be cautious of avalanches. AAI kicked off a small slab on their descent through Cathedral Gap BUT it wasn't large enough to wipe out a person... Still, we have concern and want you to know.

So everyone, be prepared for cooler temps, rain at lower elevations and snow on the upper mountain. This shouldn't be a problem for those Pacific Northwest souls accustom to this sort of climate, but those visiting from other places (that actually still enjoy summer temps well into September) should be prepared for the wintry conditions.

The 6th of the 6th

Randy's latest bit of Saturday Night Fun is to "go to your My Pictures folder (or the equivalent) and pick out the 6th item in that folder. Then pick out the 6th item in that folder, and so forth, until you get to an actual picture." Then, "post that picture to your blog with an explanation of what the picture depicts, including place and date."

The sixth photo in the sixth folder of the sixth folder of my "Image Files" folder was taken at my grandpa's house in December 1954 and my sister Terry was just learning to walk. Mom has always said "It was her first step" but who knows. A rather appropriate picture though, seeing as how today (January 31st) is her birthday. . .

Good-Bye to Dining "Au Velo"

I am not a summer person and will take the cooler temperatures of autumn and spring any time. But one thing I will miss about the warm days, is being able to eat outdoors with our bicycles. Remarkably, this has been possible to orchestrate at most of our favourite restaurants and cafes. But considering how quickly the temperatures are dropping, the days of dining "au velo" are numbered.

Here Marianne and Miles stand in the alleyway of a Harvard Square cafe, right behind our table. No doubt this is one of their last outdoor dining experiences of .

Petzl Nomic Review..Old vs New

Colin Haley photo of Bjørn-Eivind Årtun on their new route, Dracula, Mt Foraker, June .



"The old Nomic and a pair of C-T hammers"

















Up front...the old Nomic is every bit the equal for climbing difficult ground as the new Nomic.



No need to panic.



Major change on the new Nomic? It is the new pommel that has a serrated stainless blade. It will add some stability on hard ice and can be used to give the pommel some stability as a cane on easy terrain. Better yet just use the top of the Astro or Dry pick while reversing the tool in that same easy terrain. Not suggested by Petzl but the new pommel can be retro fitted to the old Nomic. Just bolt it on...no issues what so ever.



Biggest over all improvement? New pommel fits bigger hands and thicker gloves much, much better. But it can be bolted right on no fuss, no muss to the older tools if that is something you want to try. The new Pommel offers a tiny bit more support and more coverage and hand protection on the upward curve towards the ice. Maybe the most important improvement is a metal to metal interface where they mate up on the end of the shaft. BUT...the metal to metal female/male fittings have some slop in the mating surfaces so they move backwards and forwards a bit even when cranked down tight . That is not an improvement. You won't get every advantage of the size improvements for big hands using the new pommel on the old tools but a good bit of it. Worth buying that piece of kit and trying it on your old tools. It is an option now.



I don't like the serrated blade in some places on hard technical climbing...it gets in the way during extreme rotation. I put the old pommel on my new Ergos because of it. But I do like having the option.



Hammer and adze? Yes you can add either the hammer or the adze designed for the new Quark to the Nomic. A small bit of round file or Dremel work to the tool head will allow you to fit the new Petzl hammer to the old style Nomic head. (see the detail photos below) But why would you? Needing a hammer is one thing, using the one Petzl made for the Quark is another. There is a better answer that is about to get even better shortly. That would be the Cold Thistle, 4mm, Nomic hammer. If it was not a LOT better than Petzl's offering I wouldn't bother making it. C-T hammers will also be much, much easier to change in the field using the newest Petzl picks or older style picks we cut for you. And the C-T hammer will fit the old and the new Nomic head with NO changes. Having it difficult to fit the hammer or change picks with the required spacer is a down side to the newest Petzl pick/hammer design. The new pick and spacer is truly a bitch to change in the field if the pair of Nomics I have here is any example.



C-T hammer info and pricing can be found in this link:



http://coldthistletools.blogspot.com//08/ice-climbing-gear.html





The new umbilical attachment? Good move on Petzl's part but if you want it to hold more than TOOL weight on your umbilicals you need to do a small mod on the newest Nomic's pommel. There isn't enough clearance between plastic and aluminum to get even 3mm cord through which you'll need to opened up for 4mm + cord. The hole Petzl drilled in my samples are 5.9mm. But these samples had some threads showing internally which will need to be taken out if you want to use 4 or 5mm cord there. The edges of the hole are well chambered on these but I would check that as well and do it if there is a sharp edge on either side of the shaft. Easy enough to drill out and chamfer the hole. I like 5mm cord there because you always know what the knot will do and it is easy to inspect cord for wear. Again easy to modify the older Nomic and now even easy enough to modify the new Nomic as well.



After cutting up the pommels on my first new set of Nomics I might modify these a bit different the next time around and cut up the grip a bit instead of going under the pommel. Looks like to me that you could now easily run a cord from the full strength hole in the handle and go behind the new smaller pommel. Done right it might be a better answer. I'm undecided at the moment. But the new tools are easy to cut with a Dremel or a round file where I used a vertical milling machine on the original Nomic's pommel. The best answer on the new tools is still a work in progress. What ever the answer the factory version isn't it for me.



New picks...DRY and ICE? Same materials, same heat treat, slightly different designs from the Astro and the Cascade. Still great picks...all still 3mm tips. Now rated as T picks instead of B picks. Little or no change in strength more likely just the label. Truly awesome picks, old or new!

Old picks fit new tools, new picks fit old tools. New picks require a spacer...which is a major PAIN to replace in the field. Buy the old Astro or Cascade if you need to carry spares and think you'll break or bend a pick or need to replace them on a climb. I like the original Cascade pick design on pure ice better FWIW. Either way buy the old picks because they are easier to replace and no spacer required if you aren't using a hammer.



Is it worth selling your old Nomic to get the new one? Obviously not....no way in fact. Worth making a few mods on either tool to suit your own climbing...you bet.





My old Nomic and umibilical about to pull a bulge on Curtain Call





































Here are the details:





Tool weights:



old shaft 366g (+4g)

new shaft 362g





pommel old 20g (-4g)

pommel new 24g





old Cascade pick w/weight 188g (+8g)

new Cascade pick w/weight 180g





Old Nomic is 8g heavier with the old pick design. Old Nomic is the same weight with the new "ICE" pick design.



8g = 1.4 oz. Dbl click the pictures for the details where required.









































































































































My undying, loyalty, respect and appreciation to Daniel Harro for loaning me his new Nomics for this review :) But..... you'll need to get in line for the hammers!





The link below is worth a read as well.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/947206/Re_New_Nomic

Frozen Fog

3 mornings this week we woke to find a strange world of frozen fog. We couldn't see any farther than our own yard. It was as if the world didn't exist anymore beyond our place. It gave a odd, fantasy-like feel to everything. I took some photos but they don't have the true feel that I was getting as I wondered about. Within a few hours the fog was mostly gone but it was still dark, dreary days. It made me want to hybernate instead of getting out to finish my Christmas shopping.