Lewis & Clark Bridge

Going south from Washington state to Oregon state.

Chil Pepper Ristra

Chili Pepper Ristras where hanging a lot of places in Old Town. A ristra is a string of dryed chili peppers. New Mexico is known for lot of different kinds of chili peppers. It was and still is tradition to hang the strings of chili ristras on your house to finish drying and then over the winter you could take down a string and use it in what ever you were cooking. I don't use enough chilis or chili power to buy the ristras (and most people don't). Most of what I use is already ground into a fine powder ready to put into my beans, or chili stew. Hatch, New Mexico raises more chilis than any other place in the United States. I can't seem to raise them at all.

"Do No Harm"

"In 1991, facing declining sales, Yvon Chouinard applied the Buddhist principle ahimsa, or "do no harm," and commissioned an eco-audit of the company's operations. Following the audit, Chouinard made the risky decision to use only organic fibers in Patagonia's cotton products. Sales and profits rebounded. "Every time we've done the right thing, it's ended up making us more money," Chouinard says."



Here in the USA we are about to elect a new President. No matter what your choice take the time to educate your self on the issues and then VOTE. You only get one so make it count!



I find politics interesting and seldom in a uplifting or enlightening way. But what it does do for me on occasion (this election being one) is remind me of what is really important. Like all my writing always remember my views may not be your views. My concerns may not be your concerns.



But here are a few thoughts on how we as a (climbing) culture influence the world.The ideas should be important to all of us.



"Do No Harm." Chounard's mantra for Patagonia and sustainable business model.



I don't often consider myself a business although in early Feb. every year I start doing my business taxes before doing my personal income tax. When I look at the products I produce my intent is that the end result will last several generations. Goods produced by hand and passed from father to son, many times over. I am lucky to work in a niche industry that my products will hopefully see such a long useful life span.



There was a first time I regretted producing an item from steel. Not because it would last a 100 years or more. And not becausein the wrong hands it could easilycause great harm. I regretted it because the steel I used that could have easily lasted 100 years would only last a few days....may be even only hours for its intended use.



I felt as if I was wasting a precious resource. Which of couse I was, several in fact. The resources were the energy, human and physical, that it took to producethe finished product and the actual steel involved. Thatproduct wasa ice tool pick.













Instead of a tool pick that would last a short time in the grand scale whilemixed climbing why not a custom knife that would last several decades so easily? Same amount of labor, steel and energy involved. But one was a throw away when done. The other a simple tool and potential heirloom. There ceased to a choice for me once I realised where my energies were really going. No matter how much I like ice climbing...I don't like wasting our limited resources or my limited time on thisearth.











That was the first time I had asked myself, "Do No Harm?", as a business.



I have asked myself that same question any number of times while traveling throughenvironments that I knew were so very fragile. Now I ask it more often in lesseasily identified environments at may be even greaterrisk. "What do I want to do with my energy and time. And what do I really want to dowith an expensive piece of steel?"



Don't get me wrong. The blog is as much a shill for the outdoor industry and rampant consumerism as anything on the net...maybe more with the number of world wide page reads @ 1.25 million and counting.



I own 3 cars and seldom drive the one that gets the best gas mileage. (@ 30 mpg) I currently own more climbing shells than two dozen guys could wear at one time. So I am no Angel here that thinks they willsave the world. And believe me, I am aware of that fact.



But I look at theincrease in the climbing population and can still live with it. Hopefully giving something back now for what I have gotten by being involved.Glad that I was able to climb when and where I wanted to for the previous decades. And lucky enough to get on rock and ice that had never been touched. It is harder to find now.



New climbers have more to over come. They will have to look harder and go farther to find the adventure I have. But the adventure and the new stone is still out there. They will need to look closer at who they choose to emulate. Lance for example. It was soeasy to be a apart of the excitment short term.



But Lance didn't climb. Dave Lama does. Remember the bolt fiasco on Cerro Torre? Thankfully over shadowed now by a free ascent.



But weren't you at all curious and just a little annoyed at Red Bull for the sponsorship? Red Bull has been in our community for a long time now. And they have sponsored some amazing athletes and projects. The debacle on Cerro Torre was not one of them. ButI am not playing the blame game here. Red Bull didn't add the bolts to Cerro Torre.Dave Lama's crew did. Saying other wise is like saying, "it isn't the people killing people" "It is the guns killing people!



It is not the guns and it is not Red Bull. It is people in both those instances.



But here is the rub. And for me personally it is becoming a saddle sore. We all know that there are things in the world that are poison to the human body. Child obesity is rampant in every developed country in the world. Alcoholism is another disease we bring about ourselves. The cost of tobacco use is astronomical in the US alone. The USA is the largest supplier of sugar in the world. Red Bull is only a tiny part of that production line.



But Red Bull sells millions by show casing our sports and our professionals.



To the detriment of the kids that follow the exploits of guys like Will,Dave Lama or mostrecently

Felix Baumgartner's jump.



Been awhile since JIm Bridwell did ads for Camel.

It might be the time to rethink "do no harm" and see what we can improve along the way.



Right after my morning coffee ;-)

Changing Seasons

So if you haven't already heard, summer is fully upon us here on the Mountain. Since the beginning of this month we have had thousands of climbers and skiers coming out to play on Rainier. Looking around the mountain last week from the side window of a Chinook helicopter we saw evidence of people climbing and skiing almost everything around. There were ski tracks down all the standard routes, plus a good many down some more technical non-standard routes. This was pretty amazing considering all of it was happening in mid to late July, a time of year people usually put away their skis and stop attempting routes like Mowich Face and Liberty Ridge.

With all of the beautiful weather we have been blessed with over the past few weeks our large snowpack is starting to morph into its usual mid-summer condition. This means that while most routes on the mountain are still in very good shape and holding lots of snow, climbers may start to encounter some ice poking through the snow in steeper areas, and some crevasses opening up forcing climbers to do a little more routefinding and endrunning of large cracks.

Over the past week Climbing Rangers have been out climbing Mowich Face and Ptarmigan Ridge along with all the standards like the Emmons and DC. Reports have been of excellent conditions in all places. Want to get an early August ascent of some steeper west side routes? Now is the time! With great snow-free trail conditions making for fast approaches and snow still clinging to most everything above 10,000' the stage is set for some great climbing. Just be aware that with warm days rockfall and icefall hazard increases, so climb at night when it's cool and be aware of what and who is above you at all times. Ya know, like when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to climb and when to run. Speaking of running check out the fracture on Lib ridge below Thumb Rock! Although not normal at all for this time of year it is a testament to how much snow we have received and how warm the days have been.


Check out the new route updates and photos from the past week of climbing, training (always), and flying. Come on up and enjoy this seasonal transition with us here on Rainier!

Johannes Fendt 1782 Christening Record

The christening record for Johannes shows that he was christened 18 January 1782, the illegitimate son of Catharina Fendt from Aarmuehle. The witnesses were Johannes Seiler from Boenigen; Johannes Wilhelm from Matten, and Anna ab Buehl. The entry is #8, the second from the top.

Copy of microfilm record received in January .. from Sonja Reid (my 4th cousin 5 generations removed - or something like that).

• Title: Gsteig bei Interlaken Kirchenbuch, 1593-1875
• Author: Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche
• Publication: Microfilmed Staatsarchive des Kantons Bern, 1991
• Call Number: ..438 - ..447
• Page: FHL Film ..439, Christenings 1782, Page 231, Entry #8

Sonja noted that "the interesting thing about the name is the inconsistency in the way it was spelled. It is spelled B'hend, Bhend, Phend, and Fendt. It is often dependent on the time frame in which the information was recorded. Often at the birth of the child it is spelled one way and subsequent entries for the same person or for other children born to the same couple are spelled a different way."

Johannes Fendt, aka Jean B'hend, aka Johannes Phend, was my 3rd Great Grandfather and emigrated to the United States in 1832.

Exploration Day ..

This was a day I was looking forward to since Thursday. Jennifer was sick all week and I was trying not to catch it while saving energy for Monday. The plan was to go climb ice. Steve and I had loosely coordinated on Friday and the initial goal was the North Face of Chair Peak. Temps have been silly cold. (With overnight lows in Seattle in the 20°s.) During the weekend I saw that someone had climbed it on Saturday. We were on. Until it snowed Sunday. Well that wouldn't totally deflate our plans, but being on the dark side of a mountain with the high temp at sea level around freezing sounded really cold to us. That added to the high winds and possible cornices and bombs that would await us at the top of the face. (The wind chill for Monday at Snoqualmie Pass was predicted to be -11°F.) Rather than hike out there and turn around, we decided on Sunday evening to give the South Gully of Guye Peak a try. There was less of a hiking commitment and the route is wind protected.

Heading up on the road

We had a bit of a late start, and arrived in a parking area on the Oberstrasse. The outside temp was 7°. It took a bit of effort to remove our heavy coats and start moving. At least the sun was out although we were in the woods immediately off the road. Soon we got on a forest road and heading in the general direction of the Southwest Rib. We left the road near the end and headed generally east under the rib. Going was not too difficult with bare boots as the snow pack was firm except for the fresh 5" from the previous day. (Steve and I were regretting not going out to ski instead as conditions were nice for that activity.) We finally arrived at what we believed to be the gully and did some checking to confirm this. However, the gully did not have much snow above our location and we started rethinking our plan. We hiked up to the area where there was less snow (which was in the sun.) The going was not as easy as previous with the increased slope angle we eventually donned crampons. We debated a bit, and then made the decision that climbing snowy rock and a possible loose 3rd class gully didn't sound appealing to us on this day. So we turned around.

Our high point in the gully

The hike out was uneventful, but we got a good look at Chair Peak and could see cornices and thanked ourselves for the decision not to head there. We made a plan that once we got to the car we would go take a look for ice at Alpental Falls. We made the short drive and hiked up the Snow Lake Trail to the falls. Most of the ice was there, but looked a bit fragile, or had running water behind it. While there, we heard a few icicles falling. It was midday and they were in the heat of the sun. We assumed they would look better in the morning.

Checking out the ice

We hiked northwest from that location and found a few short solid patches of ice that we would be willing to top rope from trees. (We had only brought three screws for Guye, so we didn't have the capacity to lead.) Steve then searched a gully while I hacked at the ice a bit to see how durable it was. Due to the deep cold, it wasn't as plastic as I would prefer for ice climbing, but it was solid and climbable. We poked around a little more without actually climbing anything and then headed to the parking lot. I took my watch off below the falls (which were no longer in direct sunlight) to gauge the temperature. By the time we reached the parking lot it was a mere 15°. Steve and I got in the car and headed out.

On the way home we checked out some other areas that we knew ice up and investigated their feasibility for later in the week. We will see.

While not the grand goal I had originally planned, it was a fun outing. We now know where to find the gully on Guye Peak and may return when there is better snow cover. For now, I am excited to get out and climb ice while the temps are low and there is no precip in the forecast.

Redwood Canyon

On one of my stops at the Kings Canyon Visitors Center (in the western side, near Grant Grove), I asked the Ranger on duty if he had any favorite day hikes. He suggested Redwood Canyon saying that there was a 2-mile dirt road down to the trailhead without providing any other details besides asking if I had a large RV (and I didn't think to ask either).

So, the next morning I ventured a few miles south to the turnoff to Redwood Canyon. Once beyond the turnoff and around the first curve, there is no turning back! The narrow, steep, winding dirt road was carved out of the side of the canyon. There were several places wide enough for two cars to pass by each other but most of the 2-mile road (using the term loosely) was wide enough for just one vehicle.

I crossed my fingers and said a little prayer that I would not meet any vehicles coming up while I was going down! The dust flew up behind the rear wheels quickly covering the back windshield so that nothing could be seen from the rear. After a 25-minute harrowing drive, I made it safely to the parking lot, which was nearly full (and all of the vehicles had dust covering their rear windows).

The trailhead was easy to find. Going by what the Ranger had told me I took the trail to the right which gradually went up the ridge, through groves of “young” sequoia trees.

I have no idea what kind of pine tree the large cone belongs to but the cone is about 14 inches long. The three small cones belong to the Giant Sequoia. The medium sized cone is about the size of a chicken egg. The largest trees in the world have the smallest cones! But within those cones are hidden several hundred seeds which are released during fires – they require the heat in order to open up. Pretty amazing.

Once on top of the ridge, it was an easy walk through open meadows and pretty vistas. That's Big Baldy across the valley.

Once on top of the ridge, it was an easy walk through open meadows and pretty vistas. That's Big Baldy across the valley.

The trail (a 7 mile loop) went down into the valley via a series of long, somewhat steep, switchbacks. It followed a river for a short distance then went uphill the last two miles to the parking lot. Portions of the hike were somewhat strenuous (especially the last two miles) but it was mostly a nice, easy, pleasant walk through the forest, which I enjoyed immensely. Even though there were a lot of people visiting the area and the parking lot was full, I saw only four people on the trail and that was on the final uphill trek.

Photographs taken June 19, ..