After listening to Tchaikovsky’s 5th and Beethoven’s 8th symphony at Tanglewood with my Dad and company, Beth and I decided to drive up to Acadia at 9:30pm last Sunday evening. She drove the first 4 hours and I drove the next 3.5 hours to arrive on Mount Desert Island just in time for sunrise at 5:15am. No we weren’t pulling an all nighter just to see the sunrise, we painfully drove through the night for a better chance at getting a camp site in the Sea Wall Campground which is first come first serve. (more…)

So this past Monday, myself and three intrepid co-workers, Aaron, Hillary, and John decided to atempt the Presidential Travers in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Most would recomend 2-3 days of backpacking for this monstruos 26+ mile / 9500+ foot hike. Our goal was to finish this beast in one day.

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I just recently purchased a pair of Black Diamond (formerly Acension) skins for my very big Karhu Team Jak skis. For those not privy to the lingo, skins are essentaily a furry unidirectional skin the adheres to the bottom of your ski allowing one to glide uphill without sliding back. Having trimmed them before my friends came out I’ve been anxiously waiting for an excuse to take them for a ride. Last night was the perfect chance. The full moon, clear skys and light breeze made for pretty much the perfect conditions. I set out by myself for a peaceful climb up to take some pictures and otherwise unwind from a busy Saturday in the cafe.

As the slopes here are quite steep, I quickly found that skins have there limitations. Firstly, while snow conditions play a large role in the purchase of the skins, there is definitly an inlcline limitation which is to be expected and turned out to be about 30 degrees to my untrained eye. Second, when you end up slipping, it is absolutly vital that your skins are properly trimmed such that your edges are exposed and ready to take grip. Mine weren’t perfect and I fell a bit but now I know better and you do too.

So upon reaching the the gun tower at the peak of the wildcat lift (technically its Mount Baldy’s shoulder) I took some night time photographs with a 3 inch tall tripod and very long shutter speeds. Click the photo below for some of the shots I took.

Of all the types of bums in the world, ski bums probably have the most fun. Everyday we do the same thing; wake up early, eat, work, eat, ski, eat, drink, dream of skiing. There is no responsibility needed, just put in the 25-30 hours of work a week and ski the best snow on the mountain.

At first I thought it would get tiring or even boring to ski everyday but it’s simply not true. If anything skiing is one of the most addictive drugs there is. The more you ski the better you get. The better you get the more you want to ski. The body craves the adrenaline and builds a tolerance that can only be satisfied by ever increasingly challenging runs and deeper snow. Everyone who comes to the mountain whether they are an employee or a visitor is here for the same reason: to get high on powder snow.

For the past month now I’ve been working at the Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge as a cafe cashier or barista. This means I either place breakfast and lunch orders for people and take their money, or I make chai lattees, espressos and serve beer. I have my bar tending license and my food handlers permit so I can serve alcohol and prepare food… its kind of a scary thought. When I’m not steaming milk in the glassed in cafe which is a stone’s throw from the main base lifts, I’m working on becoming a better skier.

I haven’t met one person who was a ski bum and regretted it. I’m having a great time and I hope to ski with you.

I am obsessed with watching ski videos, especially of the Tele variety. My favorite video is last year’s PowderWhores video since all the skiing is done on the Wasatch Mountains surrounding Alta and SnowBird. You can check that one out here.

In promoting there new film they’ve also released a preview and a trailer which are quite hot.

This video is worth it just for their song. Its sounds like the crap Dave and I would make up. Their skiing actually sucks but they have one dude who is quite nasty in the air.

Today was a beautiful day in CT and what better way to spend time outside then to go for a climb. The only problem was that there was nobody around to climb with. Sure, I guess I could have busted out the bouldering pad and made another low traverse on the rock face but it just not as thrilling and technically challenging as climbing up the cliff. So instead, I did a “top rope solo.”

The idea here is that typically when you are climbing with a top rope setup, you climb the rock while tied into a rope that goes through an anchor at the top of the pitch. On the other end of the rope there is a person called a belayer who takes in rope as you climb so if you are to fall you would be gently caught by the rope instead of the ground.

Well to solo you need to belay yourself by feeding your own rope. This is of course problematic because you normally need two hands to belay and well, that doesn’t leave you with many hands to climb. After looking online at how others approached the problem I realized that much like a releasable tele binding, there is many ways to tackle this problem, and there is no clear best method. Actually that’s not true. The best method and I quote “is not to solo at all.”

(I just killed a fly with my bare hand)

As others have been so kind to post there thoughts on the topic I thought I would put in my two cents and describe my rig. For those of you who just typed “top rope solo” in Google and found this entry, please don’t rope solo unless you feel comfortable doing it and this is by no means the “right” way to TR solo because everyone will have their own method that works best for them. Furthermore I am going to assume you know the basics of rope soloing and just provide a review of gear used and helpful tips.

First and foremost you NEED a multi-directional ground anchor. I didn’t use one at first, and the rope drag was insane! I originally tied into the end as if I was doing a regular TR climb and while it worked and was relatively safe, I was more prone to falling since it required extreme effort to get the rope through my belay device.

Next most important thing: wear a helmet! This should be obvious.

Third, no matter which method you choose, use figure 8’s on a bight to tie in every once in a while and always before a crux. This is the most bomber protection you can have regardless of your belay setup.

On to the belay. So many others have talked about playing with ascenders. While they do keep you from sliding down the rope, they are not designed to take falls, they wear on the rope, and they can come off the rope. Furthermore, should you need to down climb you’ll be putting yourself in harms way when you need to release the device. While this might be the cheapest option it certainly seems like the worst to me.

Others have talked about the soloist and silent partner. These are good commercial options designed for soloing but have there own drawbacks. The soloist won’t catch you on head first falls and the silent partner requires rope feeding.

I decided instead to use a gri-gri. I know they are expensive and I actually swore I would never use one but since I found one on the ground for free I decided it would be best suited for the job. While they are not designed for soloing, they provide a reliable lock when falling and allow easy feeding of rope.

I first rappeled the route placing slinged cams to control fall direction with the rope. Then setup a bomber ground anchor and tied in one end of the rope. The other end of the rope went through the gri-gri with the climber end going up to the anchor. I also brought a few slings along for prusiks for backup if needed. Once off the deck a bit I tied my first 8 on a bite and clipped in below the belay devices. As the climb continued I would replace the figure 8 backups as needed. The beauty of using the gri-gri is that once you reach the top you can simply rappel back down with out changing devices.

Overall my experience felt safe and quite peaceful to be alone. Much like lead climbing, with soloing you take things slower and focus on not falling. This makes the climbs more rewarding. Since I really didn’t want to fall this time, I only climbed 5.8-5.9 routes where I had places to tie safety knots. Harder climbs are doable with some planning.