The Butterfly Effect
Thanks to Portland Parks & Recreation's Outdoor Program, I can tick another item off my to-do list for this year, as Dan has finally summited Mount Hood.
Thanks to a week of 80 degree temperatures that were followed by two days of rain in Portland, there was a rather large assumption by local climbers that the conditions on Hood this weekend would be utter crap. Surprisingly, that was not the case. The temperatures dropped after the storms and the constant clouds (and thick fog) still hanging around the mountain disappeared just above Timberline. Once we got out of the snowcat near Silcox Hut, the snow was so solid we were able to immediately put on our crampons for the climb. Half an hour in we also turned off our headlamps thanks to the nearly full moon that had risen behind us, and we continued on using just the moon's light for the rest of the climb. Rather excellent conditions all the way up to the Hogsback for a June climb.
And then, well, the Old Chute was full of, what I like to call, crystal or feather snow/ice. It essentially does not stick to the mountain and breaks up with every step, causing you to slide a bit. You really have to insure your crampons are sticking into something solid for every single step. Can make for a difficult climb in a roped group, so we were belayed up and down the last 50 feet. The summit was sunny and beautiful and not too full of people. Our snowcat left at 3am from Timberline Lodge and there were two groups ahead of us in the chute, so we were not up in time for sunrise, alas. The clouds also made it hard to see anything other than brief glimpses of Jefferson and Adams. Still, a successful and enjoyable climb up.
Thanks to the poor snow in the chute and a bit of inexperience, this is the first time I have ever had someone in my group fall on Mt. Hood. I was leading the group down shortly after getting off belay and I heard "falling" from above me. My ice axe was in a deep, solid hole and by the time I really comprehended anything, the person who had slipped and the guy below him (directly above me), who got pulled off as well, had already self arrested. Amazing reaction times by both of them. Everything was fine, but considering the snow conditions, it was just one of those cases where the entire group could have gone if enough momentum had developed.
Unfortunately, we did see a far worse fall while taking a break on the Hogsback. A climber in the chute, who was not roped into his partner and had no wrist loop on his ice axe, fell at least 150 feet having lost his ice axe after the first second of falling. We all watched with mouths agape as he kept on sliding straight towards the large cracks between the snow and exposed rock at the bottom of the chute. Thankfully, he finally stopped about 20 feet from the cracks and ended up only slightly scraped up and extremely shaken. Doug and Nick offered their assistance, but a registered nurse was in a group near the fallen man and helped him and his partner down the mountain. Another case where a slightly different set of circumstances could have result in a rescue or possibly someone's death on Mt. Hood.
The rest of the climb down was uneventful. Since we had started so late and were delayed getting down, the snow was soft and we were able to sled down on our pants nearly 2/3rds of the way. Our knees were rather thankful, our bottoms a bit less so.
...
Speaking of this year's to-do list, it looks like Dain and I will be going skydiving sometime at the end of the month. In case anyone was wondering why I was looking at wingsuits last week, I sort of got distracted by them while researching where to take someone skydiving in Oregon. Wingsuits appeal to me more than free fall skydiving, paragliding, or even bungee jumping solely because it is said to be the closest a human can get to actually flying. I suspect most of us greatly desire to feel that sensation. Also appeals a bit to my inner adrenaline junkie.
...
And speaking of sensations. I failed at something last week. Which was brilliant and horribly upsetting at the same time. Extremeley rare for me to be sure I can accomplish something and then discover that I am unable to do so.
Essentially, I was trying to redesign ExpressionEngine's architecture, solely using a third party Add-On, to be much more of an application development framework. At the beginning of the week, I knew, just knew, that if I applied all of my cleverness, all of my knowledge, all of my experience, I could pull it off in exactly the way I wanted to do it. And then, early Friday afternoon after all of that work and testing and code manipulation, it fell apart with one simple problem: if the Add-On was ever uninstalled, ExpressionEngine would never work again without precise database manipulation, which is not something you can expect from the average ExpressionEngine developer, let along the average user. Bummer.
Naturally, I have a back-up plan to accomplish what I want. However, I rarely like my back-up plans. They are rarely as elegant or complete as my primary plans. They're nasty little compromising approaches to a problem. We hates them, precious! Still, there is no other way to get ExpressionEngine to behave how I want, so I guess I will have to accept it. Bummer.
...
About a month ago, while standing in front of the bathroom after an afternoon nap, I picked up Sam's trimmers and buzzed my hair. Everyone was suitably shocked, but I think this was a long time coming. I need a haircut, as my longish hair was becoming quite insufferable in the heat, but I was unwilling to go get another hair trim from a "stylist" to maintain its length. So, after years of threatening to do so, I buzzed it.
Sadly, most people complimented me on the haircut. Is there nothing I can do to make my self look less appealing?
Now, four weeks later, it is a nice comfortable length and it makes showering after a run a whole heck of a lot easier. I suspect by the end of the summer it will be back to its old length and I can keep it trimmed until the next summer.
Thanks to a week of 80 degree temperatures that were followed by two days of rain in Portland, there was a rather large assumption by local climbers that the conditions on Hood this weekend would be utter crap. Surprisingly, that was not the case. The temperatures dropped after the storms and the constant clouds (and thick fog) still hanging around the mountain disappeared just above Timberline. Once we got out of the snowcat near Silcox Hut, the snow was so solid we were able to immediately put on our crampons for the climb. Half an hour in we also turned off our headlamps thanks to the nearly full moon that had risen behind us, and we continued on using just the moon's light for the rest of the climb. Rather excellent conditions all the way up to the Hogsback for a June climb.
And then, well, the Old Chute was full of, what I like to call, crystal or feather snow/ice. It essentially does not stick to the mountain and breaks up with every step, causing you to slide a bit. You really have to insure your crampons are sticking into something solid for every single step. Can make for a difficult climb in a roped group, so we were belayed up and down the last 50 feet. The summit was sunny and beautiful and not too full of people. Our snowcat left at 3am from Timberline Lodge and there were two groups ahead of us in the chute, so we were not up in time for sunrise, alas. The clouds also made it hard to see anything other than brief glimpses of Jefferson and Adams. Still, a successful and enjoyable climb up.
Thanks to the poor snow in the chute and a bit of inexperience, this is the first time I have ever had someone in my group fall on Mt. Hood. I was leading the group down shortly after getting off belay and I heard "falling" from above me. My ice axe was in a deep, solid hole and by the time I really comprehended anything, the person who had slipped and the guy below him (directly above me), who got pulled off as well, had already self arrested. Amazing reaction times by both of them. Everything was fine, but considering the snow conditions, it was just one of those cases where the entire group could have gone if enough momentum had developed.
Unfortunately, we did see a far worse fall while taking a break on the Hogsback. A climber in the chute, who was not roped into his partner and had no wrist loop on his ice axe, fell at least 150 feet having lost his ice axe after the first second of falling. We all watched with mouths agape as he kept on sliding straight towards the large cracks between the snow and exposed rock at the bottom of the chute. Thankfully, he finally stopped about 20 feet from the cracks and ended up only slightly scraped up and extremely shaken. Doug and Nick offered their assistance, but a registered nurse was in a group near the fallen man and helped him and his partner down the mountain. Another case where a slightly different set of circumstances could have result in a rescue or possibly someone's death on Mt. Hood.
The rest of the climb down was uneventful. Since we had started so late and were delayed getting down, the snow was soft and we were able to sled down on our pants nearly 2/3rds of the way. Our knees were rather thankful, our bottoms a bit less so.
...
Speaking of this year's to-do list, it looks like Dain and I will be going skydiving sometime at the end of the month. In case anyone was wondering why I was looking at wingsuits last week, I sort of got distracted by them while researching where to take someone skydiving in Oregon. Wingsuits appeal to me more than free fall skydiving, paragliding, or even bungee jumping solely because it is said to be the closest a human can get to actually flying. I suspect most of us greatly desire to feel that sensation. Also appeals a bit to my inner adrenaline junkie.
...
And speaking of sensations. I failed at something last week. Which was brilliant and horribly upsetting at the same time. Extremeley rare for me to be sure I can accomplish something and then discover that I am unable to do so.
Essentially, I was trying to redesign ExpressionEngine's architecture, solely using a third party Add-On, to be much more of an application development framework. At the beginning of the week, I knew, just knew, that if I applied all of my cleverness, all of my knowledge, all of my experience, I could pull it off in exactly the way I wanted to do it. And then, early Friday afternoon after all of that work and testing and code manipulation, it fell apart with one simple problem: if the Add-On was ever uninstalled, ExpressionEngine would never work again without precise database manipulation, which is not something you can expect from the average ExpressionEngine developer, let along the average user. Bummer.
Naturally, I have a back-up plan to accomplish what I want. However, I rarely like my back-up plans. They are rarely as elegant or complete as my primary plans. They're nasty little compromising approaches to a problem. We hates them, precious! Still, there is no other way to get ExpressionEngine to behave how I want, so I guess I will have to accept it. Bummer.
...
About a month ago, while standing in front of the bathroom after an afternoon nap, I picked up Sam's trimmers and buzzed my hair. Everyone was suitably shocked, but I think this was a long time coming. I need a haircut, as my longish hair was becoming quite insufferable in the heat, but I was unwilling to go get another hair trim from a "stylist" to maintain its length. So, after years of threatening to do so, I buzzed it.
Sadly, most people complimented me on the haircut. Is there nothing I can do to make my self look less appealing?
Now, four weeks later, it is a nice comfortable length and it makes showering after a run a whole heck of a lot easier. I suspect by the end of the summer it will be back to its old length and I can keep it trimmed until the next summer.
– Monday, 2009 June 08 @ 8:51 AM | No Comments -