As the resident gear whore at Smackpacker, I decided that I needed to lower my gear worn/carried weight a few months ago and started to procure lighter clothing, a new iPod, a new camera, etc. When Backpacking Light offered their 2009 STIX carbon fiber poles at an incredibly cheap price of $53.99, I couldn't resist trying out these 8.2 oz poles (pair). I bought the 115cm length due to the fact that this pairs well with my Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape.

Upon receiving these poles, I couldn't help but notice the interesting design of the pole tips: instead of offering a replaceable tip, the poles tapered all the way to an integrated tip. While this is clearly the lightest option, it is certainly not the most durable. People on the interwebz have been covering the carbon fiber tip with heat shrink as a lightweight protective solution.


Stock tips do not offer much protection to the carbon fiber pole that is joined to the tip--once the carbon fiber is damaged, the pole is done

Another solution is to remove the basket and overlay an aftermarket Leki tip over these poles for an increased length of ~4.3cm. I will show how to do this in picture format!

The first step of this is to place the basket on the basket collar. This provides some leverage to remove the collar from the poles and create the length necessary for sliding on an aftermarket tip.


Poles ready for modification

The second step is to grab the pole handle in your left hand (if right-handed), and use the basket to loosen the collar, removing it from the pole. This is very easy to do as you can see from the photo below as there's only a small amount of glue on the pole to secure the collar to the pole.


Pole without basket collar

Once this is done, simply place some leki replacement tips over the end of the poles, pounding them into the ground, tip first, several times. 


Fully-modified poles, ripe for some hiking!

Note: this modification adds just over 4cm of length to the poles. This created a slightly longer pole than I'd prefer, but that's a trade-off that I gladly made due to the length required to erect my cape. After this modification, I've used the poles on several hikes and they worked flawlessly! It's really surprising how much easier it is to use a featherweight pole. While they certainly aren't bombproof or as stowable as an adjustable pole, these poles fully meet my needs and divided my pole weight in half!

I was very surprised yesterday to get a call from McLovin regarding a hike! While not the entire Wildwood trail, he actually wanted to get out there and hit the trail. At 5:30am, we descended on the starting point of the WLT at the Washington Park Zoo. Our destination: the stone building at Macleay Park.

Abandoning our packs for this the journey, we set a brisk pace on our 11 mile roundtrip. Our total trip time would be ~3 hours 15 minutes. As such we rocked a ~3.38 mile per hour pace, including a few minutes of rest at the building and a few stops for McLovin to catch his breath. This pace bodes well for hiking the entire trail. If this could be maintained, one could complete the entire trip in less than 9 hours, which is plenty fast. While certainly not a difficult hike due to the well-maintained trails, there was some good elevation gained especially on the approaches to the Pittock Mansion.

All-in-all, McLovin rocked it, although his cardiovascular training must be improved before our hike in less than 2.5 months. I hereby challenge McL to lay off the G&Ts and hit the trail hard for the time remaining before we go to the Olympics (mountains of course)!


The rendez-vous location @ Washington Park: Croissant, Souffle, Escargot, and Chocolat Mousse.


And where are they now? The little people of Stonehenge.


Our tax dollars at work--a new sign at the Pittock Mansion!


The Stone Building @ 7:15am. One of the few times when it's not flooded by Trogs!

Sometimes you're of dutch ancestry; sometimes you're on the lefthand side; sometimes when buying group camping gear it's easier for everyone to pay their own way; and sometimes, whatevah eet ees owt dayah keeled Hah pah.

One thing's for sure and that's that my man Dutch came armed to the teeth. Overkill? Probably not, considering that dat ugly madda effa went nuclear on his ass. That said, as previously noted here now that firearms are permitted in National Parks short of dealing with alien trophy hunter guy, Dutch was clearly armed and ready for most things a "camping" trip would throw at you.

Sadly as I read on CNN.com regarding an incident I had forgotten about today, in the real world that's not always the case:

(CNN) -- Campers Steven Haugen and Jeanette Bauman headed out with their Labrador retriever, Caesar, for an overnight camping trip in the Willamette National Forest on June 30, 2005. The Oregon day was bright and sunny, perfect for hiking and camping. Haugen, 54, Bauman, 56, and Caesar were found shot to death at the couple's campsite the following day. Four years later, the killer continues to elude sheriff's detectives. The case is similar to the double slaying of a mother and daughter a year later in neighboring Washington state. Both sets of victims were slain in rural settings on public lands, and in both cases the victims' vehicles were left at the scene, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said. ... Police believe that Bauman and Haugen were randomly selected, possibly by someone angry the campers were in "his woods." It's also possible that someone spotted them and saw them as prey. Smith said authorities are seeing more territorial disputes in the woods, although they are still rare. ... Police say they are not naming any suspects at this time but are watching a group of individuals who fit the profile developed by investigators and who may have been in the area at the time of the slayings. Police are asking for help from the public. Anyone with more information leading to the arrest or conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths of Jeanette Bauman and Steven Haugen is asked to call the Lane County Sheriff's Office tip line at 541-682-4167. A $5,000 reward is offered.

The Washington State case in July 2006 was equally disturbing:

EVERETT -- A mother and daughter slain this week while hiking a popular trail in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest were shot, a Snohomish County Sheriff's spokesman said Thursday.     Family Photo   Mary Cooper, right, and Susanna Stodden were found dead on a trail off the Mountain Loop Highway. Deputy Rich Niebusch provided few other details about the killings of Mary Cooper, 56, a librarian at Decatur AEII Elementary School, and her daughter, Susanna Cooper Stodden, 27, both of Seattle. They were killed while hiking on the Pinnacle Lake Trail, about 20 miles east of Granite Falls. Neibusch said authorities had closed the rural Pinnacle Lake Road as part of the investigation. He also said police had ruled out murder-suicide. The trail where the women was killed is one of four in the popular Mount Pilchuck area, about six miles from the Mountain Loop Highway. The women had planned to go for a day hike, authorities and friends of the family said. Authorities say the proximity of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie forest to the growing Seattle area seems to correlate with an increase in forest visitors and, perhaps, with the rate of crime. About 5.4 million people visited the forest in 2004, making it the fourth-most-visited site in the National Forest System. The number of visitors increased nearly 15 percent from 2000. National forest and park rangers handle the majority of incidents in their jurisdictions but have cooperative agreements with local law enforcement agencies, sometimes for routine coverage but especially for violent crimes.

Another similar case occured in 2005:

"As I stir this Mac and Cheese," Allen, 26, penned afterward, "I think to myself what a wonderful life. I've just spent two awesome days with my fiance Lindsay. Can life ever be so perfect." The unabashed love expressed in those words, written one year ago today, stands in painful contrast to the violence that occurred later, perhaps that same night, after the pair bundled themselves in separate sleeping bags and went to sleep. Someone shot Allen and Cutshall once each in the head at close range with a rifle, killing them both and ending their dreams of getting married soon after returning home to Ohio. The case remains unsolved. But new information released by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, including the notebook entries, and interviews with people who say they saw the couple the weekend they died, open the door a little wider onto an investigation that appears to have stalled and grows colder with each passing day. "The tips are dying down," said sheriff's Detective Dave Thompson, the lead investigator on the case.

The close physical proximity of these three otherwise seemingly random violent deaths along the greater NW I-5 corridor poses yet other disturbing questions. I cite these morbid tales not just because I read about the first case online today, but as a counterpoint postscript to the earlier smackpackin' heat discussion. The fact remains that in the wilderness you are often 100% responsible for your own safety and protection, and though these few sad events are clearly extremely rare, an ounce of prevention remains worth a pound of cure and to paraphrase Blain I ain't got time to bleed. It's far from UL, but there may be occasions where I'd at least reconsider adding a particular safety tool back into my kit.

I'm planning, hopefully with a "partner," to hike the entire Wildwood Trail on Friday, July 3rd. Wanted to share a link to some comprehensive maps to the trail for potential mid-hike bailout options for McL.

Here's a link to the Art of Geography. They have some killer maps of the trail here complete with mileage and exit locations.

Franken, our resident mountaineer, has had his sights fixed on the summit of a glaciated peak for many, many months. He spent the first four months or so of the year in a brutal Mazama training regimen to prepare him to ascend Mount Hood. As chronicled on this blog, I joined him on several preparatory hikes, including Ruckel Creek, Kings Mountain, and the famous post-holing trek to Twin Lakes. This goal led him to Mount Hood, only to be turned back a few hundred feet from the summit. How would I tell him to respond after having his hopes dashed due to the whims of Mother Nature? "You get your ass out there and you find that f**kin' summit!"

Over the course of the year, our collective mountaineering goals have waned. The three of us originally had our sights on Mount Adams, the 12,281 ft behemoth in Southern Washington, as a celebratory statement for our 40th birthday year. Instead, my "mountaineering" coin went to ultralight backpacking gear and McL's plans became assigned to the Olympic Peninsula. McL went as far as to assign a likelihood of "probably not" to the ascent. I must say that my desire to bag a bunch of peaks went from excitement to ambivalence as I didn't want to risk our annual backpacking trip with an injury suffered mountaineering.


Probability of McL ascending Mount Adams--not probable!

There were many obstacles in our way of summiting Mount Adams. The first was a complete lack of mountaineering gear in my possession. The second was Frank's desire to bring his black lab, Rudy. The third was an extremely narrow summit window of Father's Day weekend (or Father's Day weekend). The fourth was typically heinous weather in June. The fifth was the fact that the road to Cold Springs Campground, the starting point of the South Route (trail #183) was buried in snow, and would require an addition 3-5 mile hike to reach the trailhead from the closed access road.

These obstacles gradually were overcome. Happy Gurl loaned me an ice axe and Frank loaned me his aluminum crampons; Frank eventually had a break in his cloud of confusion and decided that it would be a poor idea to bring his dog with us; the weather forecast, the most important factor in any summit attempt, provided one sunny day on Saturday, forcing us to move our ascent up by one day and allowing me to attend the annual golf outing with my father; and the road to Cold Springs opened up two days before our climb! Over the week preceding the summit bid, my excitement returned as my first summit became a tangible and achievable goal!

On a dreary Friday, June 19th, we left Portland for Trout Lake, Washington. Located approximately 2 hours from Portland, Trout Lake is a small town located at the foot of Mt. Adams. Upon our arrival, we found the ranger station and purchased two climbing permits @ $15 apiece and received a couple of pack tags and poo bags in return for our coin. From there, we drove ~25 minutes up a gravel road to the Cold Springs Campground where there were, surprisingly, a bazillion cars. Franken and my outfits were juxtaposed against one another with Franklin donning an ultralight poncho and my shell consisting of heavy, triple-layer gore-tex.

   
Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy (ultralight goodness)


Hefty, Hefty, Hefty (non-ultralight shell)

From trailhead #183, we departed @ ~10:30am. The trail was mostly covered in snow even from the starting elevation of ~5,600 ft and we trudged our way up the old road to the timberline. We encountered many dejected climbers on the trail. A couple of dudes carrying a slider that said they had to turnaround due to a blizzard at 10,000 ft. We ran into a couple of jokers who, although they didn't reach the summit, stated that it was 75 degrees at lunch counter and there was an espresso stand! While I typically appreciate some well-timed sarcasm, this was a bit lame in the face of two eager climbers who were looking for a bit of good news! It didn't help that there was an additional forlorn gentleman who looked as if he had been through a laundry spin cycle. As far as we knew, none of the people who had attempted the summit had succeeded on the 19th, yet still we trudged along.

We followed the cairns through pounding rain for several miles and finally the weather cleared enough for us to reset our attitudes. It was tough mentally to hike with base camp pack weights up the trail to lunch counter in driving rain. Although the pleasant weather only lasted for a half-hour or so, it was welcomed and recharged our batteries.


Perhaps the weather for this climb will not be so git?

Unfortunately this all changed for the thousand remaining feet leading up to Lunch Counter. The sun was replaced by windy conditions and driving rain and snow out of the west. I was often in my pack grabbing different gear to confront the varied conditions of the mountain, be it my shell, gloves, goggles, bandanna, etc. Fortunately I carried everything that I needed, but didn't have any place very handy to store it during the ascent. At approximately 4pm, we reached Lunch Counter (elevation: 9,300 ft where we camped), a rocky portion of the mountain with many campsites consisting of sandy ground shielded from the west with windbreaks constructed of rock piles.

Rather than camp in a designated campsite, Frank elected to choose a snow patch for erecting the North Face mealy grub (tm) tent. We had split the weight of the tent in two for the ascent with Frank carrying the rain fly and poles and I carried the tent. Instead of bringing 5 one-ounce snow stakes, Frank brought five bags and some string to fill with snow and bury to secure the tent. This is a good idea for saving weight, provided that you don't bury the bags three feet in the snow! Frank used his shovel to create a bumpy platform for the tent. After a half-hour and several unsuccessful attempts at securing the luffa sponge attachment, we had a base camp!


The photo: (1) makes the weather look good and (2) makes it look as if the luffa is actually attached to the tent

At base camp, our activities consisted of (1) jamming to tunes on my iPhone, (2) melting snow on Frank's sno-peak stove, and (3) fantasizing that the weather would support our climb on Saturday. My meal consisted of a 500 calorie Mountain House Grilled Chicken Breasts and Mashed Potatoes meal for two one. Frank's meal consisted of a 1000 calorie Backpacker's Pantry Chicken Saigon Noodle dish. It didn't help that he wasn't feeling very well due to the altitude, but he suffered a 1,000 calorie intestinal pounding as well. My meal's grilled chicken was curious as the instructions stated that you should hydrate the chicken first and take it out of the package, then add the potatoes and once cooked, return the chicken to the pouch. WTF? Do you think I brought a freaking ultralight kitchen to prepare my meal? I skipped this step and once the chicken was cooked, dumped all of the potatoes in. Still it was quite a good meal!

I used my Z-lite pad for my insulation layer with a NeoAir for comfort. This setup worked really well and was very warm even with my 20-degree Nunatak quilt. Frank, conversely had a single pad that leached moisture into the bottom of his sleeping bag throughout the night. The entire bottom of his bag became soaked during the night. I had a fitful "sleep" and probably got about four to five hours in total. This was, perhaps, due to the altitude. I woke Frank up around 4am for our preparation. He suffered a bit to get ready and was almost in a McL-like state as he tried to pull together his gear. This is atypical for Franklin and he was clearly suffering a bit  from the altitude. He complained of a head and stomach ache at around 9,000 ft onwards, but desired to forge ahead as planned. This didn't, however, have an effect on his ability to drop a morning load from his evening meal. Frank made short work of a poo bag in the morning in preparation for the summit!

We donned light pack loads for the summit bid and wore crampons, making a "charge" for the false summit @ Pikers Peak around 5:30am. From Lunch Counter, one cannot actually see the true summit of Mount Adams and is led to believe that Pikers Peak is the final destination. The temperature dropped below freezing overnight and the snow had a hard ice shell. This section of the climb was extremely steep and I felt very uneasy on this section of the hike. My boots didn't seem to enjoy the crampons very much and the front portion of the crampons slid to the side, making me feel as if I could easily fall! I continuously had to adjust them to prevent a crampon FAIL. It was this feeling that accompanied me as we duck-walked up to Pikers Peak, planting our ice axes directly in front of us and taking two angled steps up the mountain.
 
At this point of the climb, we were passed by 2 mountaineers (AKA zealots) from Colorado who passed us as if we were standing still on the mountain. We passed a couple of dudes from Seattle who started their hike around 11pm on Friday. They were clearly bonking on this section of the ascent and complained that the pitch here was steeper than anything that they experienced on Rainier on Memorial Day weekend! Although I have no basis for comparison, I will agree that the pitch was extremely steep!


^#$*#^$*^$# False Summit @ Pikers Peak


Grim pitch leading up to Pikers Peak


Although I'm smiling, I'd like to be the F off of this mountain!

Reaching Pikers Peak (11,600 ft), we could finally see the true summit some 700 vertical feet away. At this point, I was feeling really tired and had to commit, hard, to make the push onward. The snow, due to the sun, became a thick powder and it became tough to use crampons. I nixed them as a result. The Colorado dudes passed us a second time on their descent as we ascended the summit. They were on a weekend trip and planned to summit both Adams and Hood on the weekend. I guess it makes a big difference to be acclimated when you live near so many 14ers! One dude spoke of how he made a killer Goo (seemingly like the killer eggnog made with lighter fluid) that he was going to give to the bonking mountaineers below us! It's pretty cool how everyone looks out for one another on the mountain and was encouraging for me as but a learner!


First glimpse of the true summit from Pikers Peak and a corresponding dip in my mental attitude

At around 9:40am, we reached the summit of Mt. Adams and stood on the historic fire lookout that was built in 1921. Apparently the site was used as a sulfur mine back in the 1930s. We became the third group to summit the mountain on June 20, 2009!


The buried fire lookout


Summit from atop the fire lookout (note: not the actual summit according to topo maps)

It's important to note that the fire lookout isn't the actual summit, so we hiked the 30-40 yards to the officially recognized summit! The glaciated peak that had eluded Frank for so many months was conquered and this would make him eligible to finally join the Mazamas. We met two other groups after about 20 minutes and shared some wasabi peas, gorp, and chocolate that Frank brought for the peak! Thanks Franklin! One group was from Tennessee and traveled to Seattle to summit Adams, Hood, Shasta and Rainier. They only had Rainier left on their itinerary by this point!!!

From here, we plunge-stepped down to Pikers peak and began the descent down the steep pitch to our basecamp. We had figured it was still too icy for glissading, but after I saw the dudes from Tennessee doing it, I followed shortly behind. Instead of using the glissader (tm) that Frank built and that I carried on this entire trip, I slid on my ass down the mountain for about 2,000 ft. It was pretty difficult at first and due to the incline I felt pretty exposed to a wipeout. Frank's glissader/sleep pad failed on his descent and ended up neither functioning well as a sleeping pad nor a glissader. This was freaking awesome and well worth the price of admission!


Glissading . . .. Takes me away to where I've always . . .


Frank employing the Ploss method!

We descended to Lunch Counter to disassemble the tent, boil some water for Frank, and load our packs for the descent to 5,600 ft. As noted previously, the bag filled with snow method is killer as long as you don't bury the bags under 3 feet of snow. This common sense, I'll note, eluded Franken. Given that the weather was very sunny all day and that the sun shone directly on our camp for several hours, this created a packed slush and we literally had to excavate the bags to leave no trace of our visit. This required his snow shovel and the picks of our ice axes to complete the job and was like working a full day walking the beat and then having to mine coal. Anyway, I performed the majority of this duty while Frank tended to his water needs/modified his glissader and we packed up all of our gear for going down the mountain.

The hardest decision for Frank was where to locate his bag of excrement. He planned to attach it to the outside of his pack, but I pleaded with him to put it inside, stating that I didn't want to stare at his shite all the way down the mountain. After thinking this through fully, he obliged.

From lunch counter, there were still some amazing sections for glissading, probably about 2,000 more feet or so in total. We saw multiple people ascending the mountain, ski mountaineering or traveling with snow boards. Saturday really brought out the trogs to the mountain and we were happy to be going the other way. I'm happy to say that my shell pants made it without any rips or tears after protecting my gluteus maximus for ~4,000 vertical feet.

We finally reached the Cold Springs Campground about 2:30pm on Saturday and were greeted by a parking lot full of hikers who were traveling to various portions of the mountain. Frank parted ways with me to go deposit his bag of feces near the toilets and I returned to the car to chat with a couple of dudes who were preparing to camp at the timberline and ski down the mountain on Sunday. We really got to chatting with a bunch of peeps on the mountain and versus backpacking, the people climbing the mountain really bond together. Perhaps it's the danger or moxie involved in ascending glaciated peaks, but we and the people we met were very willing to share a tale or two about how we "tamed" the mountain if for only a brief span of time. The end definitely justified the means and while I'm certainly not in a hurry to climb another peak, I will gladly accompany Frank on his next peak of choice. We had a great time on the mountain and leveraged the skills acquired over many, many seasons of backpacking to their fullest extent!

All-in-all, the south climb approach of Mount Adams was accessible and challenging at the same. I must say that building base camp at the Lunch Counter was a wise call and provided us with the opportunity to lighten our loads, escape from the grim weather, and acclimatize a bit. Hiking it in June, while providing a challenge in the weather window, allowed us to avoid the hassle of dealing with mixed terrain and make the entire hike in snow. This, of course, made the climb more challenging due to the extra energy expenditure required to climb in deep snow.

Observations:

• My Six Moon Designs Starlite pack was perfect for winter backpacking. The aluminum stays and large pack volume (4200 ci) were well suited for this adventure, weighing only 30 ounces with stays (not including the z-lite pad)! There was ample room for all of my gear and the large side pocket could fit my glissader upright.
• The NeoAir worked very perfectly. I disagree with many reviewers who have dogged it due to complaints of a narrow width and loud, crinkly material. It fully met my "lofty" expectations.
• My Nunatak Arc Alpinist quilt was also perfect for this pursuit, keeping me warm and dry during the night.
• Melting snow with a gas canister stove takes a long time. The GSI kettle worked very well for pouring out melted water, but the volume for winter camping is a bit low. The crown jewel, apparently, is a white gas stove for pumping out serious BTUs required to melt snow. I'd recommend a two liter titanium pot for serious winter camping!
• From a clothing perspective, everything worked really well, although I could have used a lighter shell. A wind shirt probably would have met my needs for the most part, although it would have likely leaked on Friday. Combined with a wool base layer, a level of dampness would not have mattered.
• An ultralight CAMP Corsa ice axe would have met my needs, but I can't complain about the Black Diamond Raven Pro. Fortunately I didn't need to self-arrest on this trip as I have no experience doing it! If I'm going to do more climbing, I will probably stay away from an aluminum ice axe head as it is nowhere near as functional on ice as it is for snow. As such, I'll probably be picking up a Raven Pro as it's the lightest ice axe that works well in icy conditions.
• I'm not the biggest fan of the CAMP Crampons. Perhaps my displeasure was a result of Frank using larger boots with them or perhaps I was doing something wrong. They did the trick though and saved a lot of weight, but I didn't really feel comfortable in them.
• For glissading, I think my Snow Claw Guide Snow Shovel would have worked very well. Although I didn't need anything under my butt, it's small and sturdy enough to make a future trip!

Adams elevation profile


Mount Adams South Climb GPS Route

Tomorrow is National Trails Day, described as: "American Hiking Society's signature trail awareness program, National Trails Day® (NTD), inspires the public and trail enthusiasts nationwide to seek out their favorite trails to discover, learn about, and celebrate trails while participating in educational exhibits, trail dedications, gear demonstrations, instructional workshops and trail work projects." While the obvious way to celebrate NTD would be on the trail, for those of you not burdened by family plans (like the ever-excuse offering McLovin) there are even better local ways to participate and give back to the local hiking community:

 

EVENT DETAILS
	Host Organization: Forest Park Conservancy Phone: 503-223-5449 Email: stewardship@forestparkconservancy.org Url: http://www.forestparkconservancy.org Event Name: National Trails Day Event City: Portland Event State: Oregon Event Date: 06-Jun-2009 Event Time: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Event Direction: Forest Park has many trailheads and access points. Exact location of the project, along with driving directions, will be posted on our website. Event Sponsored:  • Other Federal, State or Local Agency; Events Planned:  • Trail Maintenance/Construction: 3 mile(s) • Volunteer Appreciation Party Pre Registration: Yes Event Description: Join the Forest Park Conservancy for our annual National Trails Day event. We will be working on trail projects along the Wildwood Trail, a 30.2 mile National Recreation Trail. Volunteers should bring work gloves and a full water bottle. We will provide all tools and light refreshments. Please come prepared for the elements, as we work in all conditions. There is no such thing as bad weather - only inappropriate clothing!

Given our intent to through-hike the Wildwood ASAFP this would have been an excellent smackpacker group event, provided there had been a little more time for planning. But all is not lost: in celebration GoLite is offering up to 40% off an entire order - which would make an unnecessary new Jam2 a little easier to explain to the wife/girlfriend/Commander. As this isn't an online-advertised discount I won't include the codes here, but if y'all are in the market for some killer UL gear let me know and we can do a group purchase before next Friday 6/12.

Ploss correctly points out that our Gossamer Gear hipbelt pockets eliminate much of the need for a second Jam2 but I can highly recommend the 3.2 oz. Wisp Wind Shirt as well as the 5.5 oz. breathable waterproof Reed Pants which with discount can be had for $36 and $42 respectively.

Once upon a time, there was a smackpacker named Ensign McLovin. Ensign McLovin was a red shirted, red state, rootinest, shootinest 35 lb. pack totin' gun enthusiast ready willing and able to head into the Olympic National Park armed to the teeth w/his Taurus PT111, a belt holster and a couple of clips worth of hollow point rounds ready for action!

Because you never know when a difficult to dispatch Klingon will eff up your LNT strategy

Clearly, Ensign McLovin had been watching too much LOST, and fortunately he came to realize that when not under imminent Other abduction threat not only is a 9mm effing heavy (19 oz. unloaded / 33 oz. kit), but it's a really stupid thing to pack into a national park - particularly because it was illegal! That fortuitous bit of law did as much to help educate Ensign McLovin about trail firearm reality as an unfortunate misfire might have, and suffice to say this redshirt feels perfectly safe in the wild these days sans jammie.

Regrettably, things change and in an even-for-Washington (D.C.) unbelievable non-sequitor, the recent credit card reform legislation will also provide a measure allowing concealed, loaded firearms to be carried in national parks:

Under the measure, any person with a state permit to carry a concealed weapon would be able to bring that weapon into parks and wildlife refuges unless a state law specifies otherwise. The firearms language is now expected to be included in the final version of the credit card legislation, which lawmakers want to deliver to President Obama's desk by Memorial Day.

The primary advocate of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009's "miscellaneous provision," Senator Tom Coburn  (R-Oklahoma) had this to add:

“The Federal laws should make it clear that the second amendment rights of an individual at a unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System should not be infringed,” states Sen. Coburn’s amendment.

Roger that Tom, but what good are my second amendment rights if I can't find tinder for my heat?

An ammunition shortage in the U.S. is affecting police and sheriffs' departments all over the country, as well as gun dealers, from big retailers like Wal-Mart to smaller family-run businesses and online operations. Ammunition suppliers say the shortage is due to several factors, including the sheer volume of ammunition heading overseas to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they also say the shortage — as well as a sharp rise in gun sales — coincided with the election of President Obama, fueled by fears his administration would usher in more restrictive gun laws. "It started the day that Obama got elected," Johnny Dury, who owns Dury's Gun Shop in San Antonio, tells NPR's Michele Norris. "It is when everything just went crazy in the gun business." Dury says people are buying guns as well as ammunition, creating a shortage of both. He says people are buying the guns to protect themselves because they perceive Obama's policies as socialist and rewarding those "people who are not working hard." They are also afraid, he says, of more restrictive gun laws. "Everybody was scared he was going to take the ammo away or he was going to tax it out of sight on the prices," Dury says. "So people started stocking up, buying half a lifetime to a lifetime supply of ammo all at one time." He calls business on Tuesday "an average post-Obama day." "This time of year with Obama stuff still going, we're probably 15 percent over what a normal April day would be," Dury says.

This, despite the fact that Comrade Obama is expected to sign the Credit Cardholder bill without objection.

Ensign McLovin experienced a frighteningly, ridiculously easy path to expressing his second amendment rights three-dimensionally via an interwebs auction, 48 hrs. of time in transit, a third-party gun dealer receivership, and a 10 minute background check. That's right: YOU are ~$300 and less than 72 hrs - tops! - from expressing your own second amendment rights in a national park, assuming YOU can track down a box of rounds, have a few hours for a concealed weapon permit class, and are either felony-free or able to circumvent said restrictions by proxy.

Ultimately individual states will be able to express some authority over how this provision will be interpreted within their own national parks, but for now this would seem to be the new law of the land and as someone who once in his own ignorance thought packin' park heat was a good idea, I'm fairly certain the NRA isn't MENSA and the likelihood of encountering weekend warrior on the trail just increased significantly.

I've been thinking deeply lately about why I need to escape to the woods. Is it a profound respect for the wild flora and fauna? Is it a need to get away from the structure of everyday life in the future? I have finally found a video that accurately depicts the reasons in old-skizool style.


Check in with the home port on your space-beam communicator!

This weekend, I joined a Mazama group that included my class leader and 4 of us students from the class.  Christine had a bad week at work and bailed at the last minute.  We left from Longmire early Saturday morning and hiked up to the 5000 ft level to pitch base camp in between Chutla and Wappanayo peaks.  After some lunch, we climbed Wappanayo.  This was fairly non technical, but traversing un-roped on really steep snow slopes with a cliff at the bottom was a little hairy.  We tied into our ice axes and used those as anchors every time we were kicking steps in a lot of places.  Awesome views of Rainier from the top.  Brought back a lot of memories of this summer on the wonderland.  From here, you could see the entire valley, all of the way from Paradise, to Longmire.

After that, we returned to camp, made some grub, melted some snow for water, watched the sunset over Rainier, and went to bed.

The next day, we were up at 5:00, ate, broke camp, and headed over to the saddle that is formed between Chutla and Eagle peaks.  Here we ditched our packs for the climb.  We tagged Chutla first, which again was a hairy scramble to the top.  One slip would have been really bad in a few spots.  We came back down and ate at the saddle.  There were some killer lenticular clouds that had formed downwind at the top of Rainier (See below).  Next, it was up eagle peak, this was the most technically challenging because it involved a 30 ft rock climb straight up at one point.  We chilled at the top there for a while, and then headed back down.  The rappel back down the face was a little hairy, because off to the right was a sheer drop off of about 1000 ft.

This is a beautiful area and would be worth a weekend hike in the summer when the snow is gone,  You don't need to climb the stuff we did to get killer views of the entire northwest.

Lenticular clouds on the downwind side of Rainier

Eagle peak from below.  The vertical bulge about 3/4 of the way up was the rock climb.

Roped up, climbing the last pitch.

On the summit of Eagle peak with Rainier in the background.

The countdown has officially begun: we have three full months until our Olympics trip. Haven't heard much about old 96'ers progress towards his goal of being a lean, mean hiking machine. Franken and I have been ascending slopes and taking advantage of the killer weather to be active. Through June, I've been patiently waiting for a call to go on a hike . . ..

Hopefully McL is doing everything possible to avoid being a redshirt casualty on our ascent of Mt. Hopper!


Poor McLovin: he could have been a contenda