Over the years, I've always said that I'm at least 40% stronger than any mortal. And it has been proven by 1) the massive loads I can carry at altitude 2) my mercurial speed at altitude 3) my perfected technique of crampon dancing (i.e. little pressure on front points. plus wearing pink tights also helps). Going up mountains fast can be fun, sometimes. Going fast up Elbrus, probably not so much. But if you're game, here you go.
The speed climbing path follows the classical route: Azau clearing – Bochki – Pastukhov’s Rocks – Sedlo – Western Elbrus. During the high days of the Soviet climbing school, the alumnae of which still get the world astonished by their high results in climbing, Elbrus speed climbing competitions were held very frequently and were the elimination competitions for those who wanted to take part in serious expeditions to the Himalayas. In the post-Soviet era Elbrus is visited by a great number of groups of climbers and tourists, both independent and supervised by professional guides, but its opportunities as a mountain for serious sports events are used insufficiently. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world the highlands become more and more popular as a place for speed climbing, but with the routes with smaller altitude change, and thousands of sportsmen take part in the competitions (for example, climbing to Nonblank, , Mount Rainer, Ungfrau etc.).
I've been away for a while now, I'm sure you realize. My girlfriend was getting her bush lased so I had to spend a good solid month persuing gigs of naked ladies to find the exact configuration I desired. After much deliberation, I went back to an old standby - Hungary. Enough about me. There are not very many public outdoor companies, but lately they have been involved in some unusual trading activity. Our whipping boy CROX, earlier in the month had serious option action, the July 7 calls activity was extremely unusual, after further review, the reason, they were in the money already, duh. Take your money and run. Amazing that a 70 dollar company was at 7, but hey, doesn't mean you can't make money off of it. Today, CROX got bludgeoned on soft Q2 guidance, 3-7 cents from 42 to 47? Can't blame that on the economy. Stock trades at less than 5 in after hours. Luckily your July calls closed this past Friday. VF Corp, VFC has been the darling of many porfolios. The holding company for The North Face has not traded off completely, there has been no complete erosion of market cap like CROX, the stock has remained solidly in the middle of its 52 week high/lows (that supposed to be good news). Jarden, JAH on the other hand, a collection of companies like Marmot, K2, Coleman, and ... Oester has been halved, trading 50% off it's high and now currently rolling around at its lows. The whole scattergun approach of holding many small units may work, there's usually one driver, but it doesn't seem to be working right now when all units are suffering. Strange, with the economy the way it is, you'd think more people would turn to the outdoors, after all, there is no gas to hike and no electricity in your tent.
That's right, after months of speculation, GoBlog has exclusively
learned that the new Therm-a-Rest NeoAir is just a big giant Ruffle.
And an expensive one at that, with commodity prices at record highs.
What else has your crack team of bloggers found out for you gear heads?
Well, good that you asked:
Packs to the size of a one liter bottle
Regular size weighs 14 oz. (compare to 20 oz. for ProLite 3 regular)
3 times warmer than other un-insulated mattresses due to a "reflective barrier" that reflect heat back to the body
Triangular Core Matrix adds insulation characteristics and stabilizes the mattress for more support
2.5 inches thick compared to 1 inch thick ProLite 3
Inflate it like a balloon
Expected release date of April 2009 and priced between $120 and $170
Cascade have been busy little beavers lately. Fitted sheets. Tech Blankets. Who says you have to be uncomfortable outside.
Interesting application of defense technology. First developed for the military, the Heatgear Heatstick fits snugly into your Nalgene bottle (non-BPA of course) and heats from the inside out, making it immune to wind. The flameless heating technology transmits 70% of the energy by infrared radiation and the rest by thermal convection, heating your water to 194 °F without a flame:
The HEATSTICK’s built-in pressure regulator automatically adjusts the
gas flow for optimal heat output at all temperatures, elevations, and
fuel levels, requiring no adjustment by the user. The built-in thermal
valve automatically shuts off the gas flow when the water reaches
approximately 90 °C (194 °F). These are two very cutting edge features
when you are using the HEATSTICK on the move to reduce the downtime for
heating water.
Specs:
½ liter version: 329 grams (11.61 oz) Including container/bottle: 404 grams (14.25 oz)
This morning, they left their bivouac at around 7000m, but
soon faced bad weather and poor visibility. From another bivouac at around
6600m, they called rescue coordinators in base camp. "We don't see
anything. It is to dangerous to continue," Nones and Kerher said. "We
used our skis on some parts of the descent, but the fact that we only have two
ice screws and two crampons left makes it difficult to cross the
crevasses."
Silvio Mondinelli, one of the rescuers in base camp, and two
Pakistani high-altitude porters went up this morning to check glacier
conditions. According to the Italian website montagna.org, Mondinelli indicated
that the glacier looked very dangerous with many crevasses. "I don't want
to be in those places," the Italian climber, who has summited all fourteen
8000m peaks, said.
How many times have you crawled into bed only to have you
significant other put their cold feet on you. How many times was that
significant other a male? For eBomb probably often, but for everyone else, most likely not too often. Even the experts will say that women sleep colder due to a slower metabolism and a strange need to snuggle. That's why a heatable sleeping bag makes perfect sense. Though, honestly, how often do you hear complaints from your SO, if she has a down sleeping back? But who are we to impede progress. File this under, electric gear, I think. According to Salewa, their new Hot Flex Donna is, um, smoking:
The Therm-ic® heating system is a heating element made of fabric! At the push of a button the heat comes on for 30 minutes, pre-warming the sleeping bag in a similar way to a
car’s park heating system. Of course the wearer can continue to draw
heat from the system if she wishes, for up to three hours at a time. An
automatic timer ends the heating procedure. The energy is supplied by
Therm-ic® Supermax or Max rechargeable packs, known to many winter
sports enthusiasts from ski boot heating systems.
With this, I think we've got pretty much every piece of gear heated at this point. Except maybe a hat.
Can you hear that GoreTex? That's eVent knocking on your door. Tick, tock, tick tock. So, today I get to use apropos for the second time in two weeks, which I like. Apropos of my post on notes from the field, here's a real world test of one of REI's new eVent jackets. If you're still clinging to your GorTex loyalty (hi every major gear company in the U.S), best be rethinking your strategy. As I wrote, 2009 will be the year of eVent, and you'll either be on the bus heading to cash in, or running behind waving your little black GoreTex tags.
You can ignore the U.S. Army when they say eVent is the superior fabric. You can most definitely ignore me because what do I know. But there is no way you're going to ignore WildSnow, the final say in things outdoors. After Goblog, of course. It may not be Lou doing the testing, but I'm going to come out and say that Lou doesn't let hacks write on his site (unlike, um, some blogs I know), so the guest review by Craig Dostie is most likely solid. Here's an excerpt:
For years I’ve been hearing about how much more breathable
eVent™ is compared to Goretex™. As luck would have it, back during my magazine
publishing days the samples that floated through the office always ended up covering
another editors’ body. Frankly I was perfectly satisfied with my Schoeller™
jacket for most days since it was clearly more breathable than Gore, and in the
sunny Sierra the necessity of allowing sweat to escape is more common than
preventing moisture coming in. By virtue of its comparison with Goretex™ I
assumed that even if eVent™ were more breathable, it would be a marginal
improvement.
You can drop that myth in the round file.
Read the whole enthusiastic review on WildSnow. Even when pressed to find something critical, he had none to say. Still not convinced? Ultraformat, you still out there? Hats off to REI for making the eVent push.
Kind of a long title, but the lunacy of this idea had to be captured in one sentence. Most people probably don't imagine you can ski in the Middle East. Which is generally true, if you actually skied some place like BC or CO. If, however, the only snow you've ever seen in your life was in you freezer, skiing on Mt. Hermon (Northern Israel) is probably like having a bush talk to you, except colder. And sure you can ski in other countries in the Middle East like Turkey, Iraq, Iran but lets not get too excited. Why would you? For various geo-political reasons that I won't go into here, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not many people will be in a hurry to book their next ski vacation to the Middle East. Even to ski that ridiculous indoor ski resort in Dubai. Which begs the question, why on earth given the state of global warming and the increasingly dire water situation in the Middle East, would you ever contemplate such a stupid idea as this:
In the wake of the success of Ski Dubai, planners in Israel are preparing for the Middle East's second indoor ski and snowboard resort.
Visitors to Israel will soon be able to ski at the Sha'ar HaGilboa Center, located atop Mt. Gilboa in northern Israel, an hour and a half from Tel Aviv. The $20 million USD project, approved by the Israeli Ministry of Interior in June, will feature a 375-acre indoor skiing resort atop the 1,500 meter-high Mt. Gilboa ridge that will include night skiing, gondolas, and a ski school as well as a dining and entertainment center. The 1,050 linear feet of slope at Sha'ar HaGilboa Ski Resort is expected to open in 2009 and will be open year-round.
“It will be a unique and leading attraction in Israel,” Gilboa Regional Council Head Danny Atar said. “We believe that it will give a big push to tourism in the area.”
*Sigh. Yet another example of an idea that should have never made it past the concept stage. Via First Tracks.
Already, Britain have laid virtual claim to a significant
share of the 10 track golds on offer. Traditional track rivals Australia, and
to a lesser extent France, were left in the Brits' wake at the last two world
championships in 2007 and 2008. At Manchester in March, the hosts claimed a
stunning 11 of the 54 total medals, including nine golds.
The days of any country dominating events w/o some artificial means are long gone. Not to mention the fact that I question the British dominating anything except maybe bangers and mash. I kid my droogs. I love Britain. I even have a passport to prove it. But seriously, the whole statistical probability in this is immediately suspect. We're talking about a tiny little country here, with tiny little people who like to drink a lot. No way. I call bullshit. You read it here first. EPO for all my friends!
Oh, and by the way, who else should I be suspicious about. Obviously the whole U.S. Track and Field team. Anyone else? Chinese, definitely. Australian swimmers? Totally. Dara Torres? Good chance. I'm thinking the only clean country is Canada. Because Canadians are honest. And a bit slow, so cheating and getting away with it seems a bit out of their reach. Woooo. I kid. I lived in Canada once so I can say these things. Scotch is catching up again with me tonight. Note to self. One glass per night.
off of it. Today, 
vs. 
Kind of a long title, but the lunacy of this idea had to be captured in one sentence. Most people probably don't imagine you can ski in the Middle East. Which is generally true, if you actually skied some place like BC or CO. If, however, the only snow you've ever seen in your life was in you freezer, skiing on Mt. Hermon (Northern Israel) is probably like having a bush talk to you, except colder. And sure you can ski in other countries in the Middle East like Turkey, Iraq, Iran but lets not get too excited. Why would you? For various geo-political reasons that I won't go into here, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not many people will be in a hurry to book their next ski vacation to the Middle East. Even to ski that ridiculous indoor ski resort in Dubai. Which begs the question, why on earth given the state of global warming and the 
My cynical self reads an