Potential for 700-foot falls exists pretty much everywhere on this via ferrata in Spain. The government apparently closed the entrances to the trail after four people died in two years, but that didn't stop this guy with his camera and a handful of other tourists in the video. Check out the giant holes at 1:25 and 2:25.
It's getting tougher and tougher for hipsters to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Everyone has a fixie, biner key chain, trucker hat, Chrome bag, tight jeans, slip-on Vans. So what's a hipster to do? How about this limited edition green Brooks Swallow saddle made exclusively for the Eight Annual Bicycle Film Festival? Only 100 are being made. Think of that? Only 99 other people will have one. In the whole world. It's a hipster's wet dream. No more cold sweaty nights worrying that your Masi fixie will just blend into the crowd. Sweet baby Jesus, the god's have answered our prayers. Buy for $245 on the Brooks site while supplies last.
Found this video on The Mountain Culture. True, Salt Lake's airport is smaller, and the city is closer to skiing, so yes, your first day, you can ski more. I'm not even going to waste my time extolling the countless virtues of our fair Mile High City over the 3.2 beer and all the other crap that keeps people from moving to SLC, but if you want to pick a side, be my guest.
Osprey says this pack and its 28-liter and 52-liter counterparts will replace their Exposure Series when it comes out for fall, and it was designed using feedback from "mountain guides, professional alpinists, and weekend craggers," which makes sense, because I couldn't find much wrong with it over a couple weekends. And I'm not just saying that because they sent me one to test out and see if I liked it. I like it.
Wow, seems like ages since I've had time to blog. You guys even know I was gone? Of course you did. You've had to suffer through eBomb's juvenile banter. And for that, I am sorry. So lets move it up a notch to the high school level and chat a bit about running companies into the ground. Suffice it to say, I know one or two things on the subject. And it seems NAU management and investors do as well.
Some day soon, in business schools around the country, young little capitalists will be eagerly studying the HBS Case Study for NAU. It will outline how some really "passionate" people with no business sense, but ample self regard because they worked at NIKE and Patagonia, persuaded some wealthy schmucks with equally questionable business acumen to pony up $20M to fund a beautiful exercise in futility. Because not only did these trendsetters have a dream to create a socially responsible business that gave back to the community and sourced product that didn't take from the community, but they also wanted to start not 1, but 3 businesses: a clothing company, a retail brand, AND an online store. And, gee, if it hadn't been for the "bad economy" they'd have been just fine. I tell you what, there's something to be said about going quietly, because once you start explaining yourself, it just gets embarrassing for everyone involved.
Now, granted, I know nothing about the details. I'll wait for the case study to come out. But on the surface, it's a perfect example of where lack of focus will get you. Bankrupt. And in my mind, it's yet another example of Milton Friedman's famous axiom; "the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits." Because if you're an investor reading the farewell on the front page of NAU and see stuff like, "in the current highly risk averse capital market, we simply could not raise the money to move forward" and then a few lines later you see, "hey we gave away $223,000" to the community, you gotta just bang your fist into your head and say, "I'm dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. Stupid. Stupid." Whether it was straight from the bottom line or some kind of reverse tax on products or even just donations from customers doesn't matter. Point is, you were a start-up, and instead of focusing on the business, which in ANY environment is a tough task, you were focusing on stupid shit.
Again, who knows what the details are, but I doubt there will be many companies rushing to mimic the business model. Nor investors. But whoever buys up the assets, if they're smart, could have a solid chance (given the demand for anything remotely "green") of creating a real company, that's good to the environment, good to their employees, and good to the investors. If they remember Uncle Milt's words, that is. Shed a business or two and focus on making money, not saving the world. The latter you can do all you want when you become as big as Patagonia..
The Year of The Bike continues to move ahead in full force. Everyone's doing it. Even bimbos. Bush. Now Pamela Anderson. Just goes to show, biking is for EVERYONE. No intelligence needed. Egalitarian, it is.
BEIJING - An Olympic flame reached the top of the world Thursday.
Live television footage showed a Chinese mountaineering team holding up a specially designed torch — separate from the main Olympic flame — along with Chinese and Olympic flags on the peak of Mount Everest.
"One World, One Dream," one of the climbers said on the approach to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Olympics. "We have lit the torch on top of the world," another climber said.
When he unveiled the idea for Mellow Johnny's, Lance said he hoped Austin could someday be like Portland, the awesomest place to be a bike commuter in America, and wants his shop to promote bike commuting. The shop will have showers and locker rooms, and once gas hits $6 a gallon, won't have to work too hard to promote bikes as a mode of transportation.
The shop opens at 7 am, and Grand Opening day will feature special guests, book signings, giveaways, and more. Come and discover a shop for people who ride bikes, want to ride bikes, or just think about bikes. You should really see this place.
Don't quote me, but I'm betting Lance Armstrong might be one of the "special guests."
Want to help research Acute Mountain Sickness? The Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine is looking for some guinea pigs. If you're 18 to 40 years old and have no current medical problems, you could have a new gig. Test subjects will be compensated. The only catch? You can't go above 7,500 feet for two months.
Truly amazing what is happening on Everest. The south side is basically closed, there are soliders in base, not just Nepalese, but
Chi-knees. A soldier is at camp 2, with a gun. I cannot believe this is happening for the torch on Everest sham. Truly imperial behaviour by China, as always. Boycott now. Read more here via K2climb.net.
It is extortion to pay for your own persecutors," leader Guy Cutter told Stuff (NZ). Radio restrictions were enforced between BC and high camps. “The Army alleges security reasons we can’t really understand; what we do know for sure is that our Sherpas are far from safe, risking their lives without contact with BC,” said Gnaro.
I found out about this web site last summer when I was planning my first trip to Alaska, but I didn't want to blog about it until I was sure it was going to be around for a while. Now that their first show is up for this year, I'm pretty sure it's a go. Scott Slone, who hosts all the short Alaska HDTV videos, has put together a bunch of Hike Of The Week videos -- all pretty much dayhikes within a couple hours of major Alaska towns, and they're well put together. A good way to kill a couple hours, whether or not you're planning a visit this summer. Here's a link to the latest Hike of the Week, Archangel Valley.
Found this slide show on Wired: Survival Gear That's Just Crazy Enough to Work. Feel free to disagree with me, but I think there's only two or three things I'd put on the list of "Stuff I'd Ever Use." The first item on the list is the Hanging Cocoon that Rocky was taking jabs at seven months ago. I like the Grundig Eton Survival Radio, the Life Saver Bottle and the personal locator beacon (which isn't exactly a new idea), but a lot of this stuff is destined for the Armageddon Edition of that SkyMall catalog you find in the backs of airline seats. Especially the Urban Skiff.
Well, it was Earth month, Earth week, hug a tree day, but this past weekend was the GoGreen Expo in NYC. I passed by it and apart from a lot of volunteer types signing up people for various eco-petitions, it seemed to be a fizzle. It was in Midtown at the Hilton, so there was a lot of passerby traffic - but mainly tourists as evidenced by their numerous A&F, Victoria's Secret, Gap, and BR bags. Dood, there's a line to get into the A&F on 5th, focking ridiculous. Sigh* The weak dollar, what can you do? Kinda sad, flying out of JFK on Sunday, all these Europeans with those expandable chi-knees type shipping/garments bags taking back the booty. By the way, for a stellar ETF, EWP has been an outstanding pick for me. While this article has it being risky, and I see it as currently overvalued by 25%, wtf, it's only money. Once the Macedonia of European economies, Spain is amazingly the leading economy and crushing perennials France and Germany. What has happened? Mainly La Marcha has stopped being indicative of Spanish culture. Unfortunately the suburbanization of Madrid, Sevilla, Barcelona, and Valencia has led to major industrial parks outside of the usual 'business' city centers. In short, culture has completely changed from old school city focused to 'get in your car and drive to the movies in a Korean minivan' type crap. Still, Spanish chix are amazingly easy. More here about the GoGreen Expo via Outside mag and then the actual link.
The Big Apple turned green this past weekend as the inaugural Go Green Expo invaded Manhattan.
Speakers, exhibitors, business leaders, and members of the media spent the weekend listening to panel discussions, participating in a business summit, even attending a Friday night gala featuring an eco-conscious fashion show at the New York Hilton.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of curious people attended the event, one of the largest green product expos in the country, all checking out the latest innovations in green living. Two hundred and fifty booths lined three floors of the Hilton, with exhibitors hawking everything from chemical-free paint to organic-cotton mattresses to hemp jeans.
At the last OR show, I wondered where Jetboil was. I asked their PR folks, who were attending the show, and the answer was- getting ready to launch Helios, their new cooking system. As always, I am intrigued by all things that make fire and are shiny. My Helios, which arrived in the mail yesterday, is both. Initial impressions- this is not a backcountry system- at 28oz, it’s a beefy car camper. But, it makes an even cooler sound and has a better looking flame than the PCS, and gets MUCH hotter much quicker. I had to take the damn thing outside to let it cool off!
Back in 2006, they launched a nine-part initiative intended to make them America's No. 1 bicycling city. Apparently it worked -- the only other LABC Platinum-level city is Davis, Calif. (pop. 63,000) Here's the master list if you're wondering how your hometown ranks.
In Denver, where they keep talking all this crap about making the Democratic National Convention in August the greenest convention ever, it pretty much takes about seven years to get a bike lane put in. We're roughly the same size as Portland, but a ho-hum Bronze.
In the old man's Ford behind the bushes till I'm screamin' for more Down the basement lock the cellar door And baby Talk dirty to me
It was just a matter of time. climb_ca's favourite group, yes Poison. Anyway, some pretty amazing things going on at Everest. Yes, we all know about the Chi-knees and their antics, but apparently banners, obviously Tibetan, and including national flags are not to be flown and that's just the beginning. More here via K2Climb.net.
The flag affair Silvio Mondinelli reported that his team was instructed to avoid hanging (Italian) flags on top of their tents.
Doesn't stop there my friends.
First Everest climber down for Tibet A young, unguided American climber was kicked off the peak last week after police searched his backpack and found a Tibetan banner in it. The climber had little funds and bicycled around the area. He will now probably also lose the ten thousand US dollars in Nepali royalty fee he paid for the ascent.
And of course, military airspace.
China controlling Nepal’s air space? An increasing number of climbers report sketchy air flight situations. One who tried to rent a helicopter said that the Chinese are now in control of all of Nepali air space and only officially Chinese sanctioned flights are permitted. Another team reported, “we were supposed to fly to [Makalu] BC today, but we can’t get green light from Nepal’s government. Apparently, the Chinese are pressuring to avoid helicopters to charter foreigners to and from Everest and Makalu, located just 22 km, away.”
While I don't believe in mixing politics and ... well anything, a boycott of sorts for Beijing 2008 should be considered. Perhaps a day of media protest, i.e. no Bob Costas for a day, NBC pulling its coverage, dunno. The gross and blatant actions of the Chinese government shouldn't be tolerated, but they will be, as it is just a matter of time before the 1.6b person market opens up to worldwide corporate development; the Olympics, a few dead monks here and there, and squat toilets will be overlooked.
Yuji is my kind of guy. I mean, this is the kind of climber who spent years training in order to onsight El Cap. How’s that for a goal? I’ve got goals like- maybe one day I’ll aid my way up The Nose. Yuji wakes up and tries to decide which El Cap route he’ll onsight this year. While he’s never accomplished this goal, he came damn close several times. So, at 39, what’s Yuji up to these days? Oh, nothing much, just firing off a pair of V14s within a week of each other. Yeah, he’s really slowed down!
The Adventure Blog pointed out this Messner interview video and we managed to sit through it. Barely. But we're glad we did, for a few reasons. First, Messner mentions that the best climber in the world right now is Steve House, but then almost as an afterthought, kind of mumbles something about Humar, but its clear he's just being polite. He then goes on to talk about his various mountain preservation efforts, capping it with a bizarre metaphorical description of mountains:
"Mountain are something religious. Divine. They show there is a possibility to go from earth to heaven. We will never reach heaven. But there is a possibility to go high up and see everything from above."
The whole interview is actually very Admiral James Stockdalesque. Remember him? Ross Perot's running mate. Who am I? Why am I here?
We're a couple days late on this, but our crack reporters were out for the weekend. Before we present you with the latest in media hysteria, let us remind you that you have a better chance of winning the lottery than being eaten by a shark. Though, perhaps swimming in the same general vicinity where this poor guy was chomped, might not be the best idea. Continuing with the lottery analogy, guy was just unlucky to win the wrong one. Read about the fatal shark atack in San Diego last Friday.
It's getting tougher and tougher for hipsters to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Everyone has a fixie, biner key chain, trucker hat, Chrome bag, tight jeans, slip-on Vans. So what's a hipster to do? How about this limited edition green Brooks Swallow saddle made exclusively for the 
Osprey
When he unveiled the idea for 
Found this slide show on Wired: 
dollar, what can you do? Kinda sad, flying out of JFK on Sunday, all these Europeans with those expandable chi-knees type shipping/garments bags taking back the booty. By the way, for a stellar ETF, 
At the last OR show, I wondered where Jetboil was. I asked their PR folks, who were attending the show, and the answer was- getting ready to launch 
Yuji is my kind of guy. I mean, this is the kind of climber who spent years training in order to onsight El Cap. How’s that for a goal? I’ve got goals like- maybe one day I’ll aid my way up The Nose. Yuji wakes up and tries to decide which El Cap route he’ll onsight this year. While he’s never accomplished this goal, he came damn close several times. So, at 39, what’s Yuji up to these days? Oh, nothing much, 
We're a couple days late on this, but our crack reporters were out for the weekend. Before we present you with the latest in media hysteria, let us remind you that you have a better chance of winning the lottery than being eaten by a shark. Though, perhaps swimming in the same general vicinity where this poor guy was chomped, might not be the best idea. Continuing with the lottery analogy, guy was just unlucky to win the wrong one. Read about the 
