Tuesday, June 26, 2007
fishing
I did a good-ole-boy thing Monday and went fishing with my 5 year old cousing, Derick. We caught 3 of the smallest fish I've ever seen on a hook. DMan is convinced that we caught 2 fish - one twice. It was a pretty good fishing trip all things considered. At first we couldnt find bait and ended up going to a fish market in China Town - which is always an experience. And, we had a great time watching the tri athlete swimmers, the pirate ship, and wondering togeter about Alcatraz.
Monday, June 18, 2007
new smoking spot
Some of my best thinking is done while pipe smoking.
The DeYoung garden is beautiful at night and I've found a great bench over there that's out of the wind in the children's garden - this is not all pipe smoke and I do try to avoid blowing it on children.
This is my new favorite spot:
I'm really delighted to say that I've completed another little journal - filled the bugger up. I just wish the moleskine journals weren't so expensive.
The DeYoung garden is beautiful at night and I've found a great bench over there that's out of the wind in the children's garden - this is not all pipe smoke and I do try to avoid blowing it on children.
This is my new favorite spot:
I'm really delighted to say that I've completed another little journal - filled the bugger up. I just wish the moleskine journals weren't so expensive.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Steel Rock
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| From steel rock |
one of my favorite sculptures at the De Young. read about the artist, Zhan Wang , here.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
New Blog
I've been away from blogging regularly for over a year and... I'm back. This summer Chris and I have some free 3 day weekends, so there should be some trip reports. And, I want to post up some occasional thoughts about life, updates on books I'm reading and little updates here and there. Thanks for dropping in and please leave comments!
Shasta Climb Slideshow
Peter Russo and I had a great climb up the West Face of Mount Shasta in early May.
photos
Here's a quick rundown from Peter. "We got to Bunny Flat on Friday a little past midnight and camped below the road. Saturday morning 9am we snowshoed in to Hidden Valley via Horse Camp where we cooked a little water. Route finding past Horse Camp was tough and the snow was soft, so the approach took ~6hrs. Set up high camp in Hidden Valley around 4:00, and got to sleep ~7pm which was a little later than we'd planned.
We woke up ~2am Sunday, and started the climb ~3am. It was a good Alpine Start, but we should have packed our summit packs at 7 in the light when we were fully awake. Again, route finding was difficult -- this time because of dense fog -- but we eventually found our way to the West Face Gully. On the way down we could see our misguided path in the fog go up a few hundred feet over the route and then hairpin back down. It was funny later. The snow was soft for the first couple hours out of the valley, but it firmed up as we got higher. We were plunging to knees and sometimes thighs in those early hours. We saw two larger groups w/ 6+ climbers on Casaval, which later traversed around the catwalk to the upper part of the west face. I don't recall seeing any other parties on the lower west face. Winds were ~30mph at the top of the gully, and temps were in the 20's. We summited at 11:30am, ~ 8.5hrs out of high camp. There were 10-15 people at the upper plateau & summit area... mostly skiiers who came up Avy Gulch.
We glissaded down most of the climbing route, but had to plunge step the last 1,000 vertical ft or so because the snow was too soft. Total descent time was ~2-2.5 hrs. We got out of high camp at 4:30, and back down to the trailhead at 7pm. Route finding on the way out was aided by GPS waypoints set on the way in, as well as a faint climber's trail that we found between the valley and Horse Camp. Most of the hike out involved alternating soft snow and scree. Yay.
photos
Here's a quick rundown from Peter. "We got to Bunny Flat on Friday a little past midnight and camped below the road. Saturday morning 9am we snowshoed in to Hidden Valley via Horse Camp where we cooked a little water. Route finding past Horse Camp was tough and the snow was soft, so the approach took ~6hrs. Set up high camp in Hidden Valley around 4:00, and got to sleep ~7pm which was a little later than we'd planned.
We woke up ~2am Sunday, and started the climb ~3am. It was a good Alpine Start, but we should have packed our summit packs at 7 in the light when we were fully awake. Again, route finding was difficult -- this time because of dense fog -- but we eventually found our way to the West Face Gully. On the way down we could see our misguided path in the fog go up a few hundred feet over the route and then hairpin back down. It was funny later. The snow was soft for the first couple hours out of the valley, but it firmed up as we got higher. We were plunging to knees and sometimes thighs in those early hours. We saw two larger groups w/ 6+ climbers on Casaval, which later traversed around the catwalk to the upper part of the west face. I don't recall seeing any other parties on the lower west face. Winds were ~30mph at the top of the gully, and temps were in the 20's. We summited at 11:30am, ~ 8.5hrs out of high camp. There were 10-15 people at the upper plateau & summit area... mostly skiiers who came up Avy Gulch.
We glissaded down most of the climbing route, but had to plunge step the last 1,000 vertical ft or so because the snow was too soft. Total descent time was ~2-2.5 hrs. We got out of high camp at 4:30, and back down to the trailhead at 7pm. Route finding on the way out was aided by GPS waypoints set on the way in, as well as a faint climber's trail that we found between the valley and Horse Camp. Most of the hike out involved alternating soft snow and scree. Yay.
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