I haven't blogged in quite some time, but it's not for lack of things to blog about...so instead of sitting here for hours recapping the past month or so, I'm going to just do one massive catch-up blog - for the 4 of you out there that care :)
Books
- I've managed to polish off 2 amazing books to start off 2011, mostly reading on trains and subways here and there:
The Essential Gandhi: Once I saw this book, my long-held-but-never-cultivated interest in the man demanded I read it. The book was a fantastic compilation of some of Gandhi's writings with regards to himself, early 20th century politics, non-violent resistance, race issues, and general philosophy. The book was nothing short of a revelation of a man. The book itself was compiled a bit too much, in my opinion - with paragraphs written years apart weaved together with narrated touches throughout. It was really interesting how many of his thoughts resonate with more modern works I've read. For example, the following quote could have come from Ethan Nichtern himself:
Interdependence is and ought to be as much an ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. Without inter-relation with society he cannot realize his oneness with the universe or suppress his egotism. His social interdependence enables him to test his faith and to prove himself on the touchstone of reality.
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson: I've never read or heard anything about Bryson before Mike "Phattire" O'Hara thrust a copy into my hands one night on the way to BKB. To say I tore through this book would be an understatement. Bryson is the type of writer whose cunning narratives just make pages breeze past. The book is part narrative on his quest to hike the Appalachian Trail, and part historical background about the trail - interspersed with commentary about American's approach towards the outdoors. I felt like I was part of the journey, and the book really brought forth my desire to be spending more and more of my time outdoors. Simply put, this book was awesome.
- I'm currently reading Vector Basic Training by Von Glitschka - which is helping to teach me the finer points of vector graphics - of which I find myself using more and more.
GAMES
- It's no secret I've been busting my ass late at night and on weekends to get mine and Chris' game company up and running - with our first release due to hit shelves in July. It's crunch time for us, and to say there's a lot to do would be a gross understatement. I'm not really at liberty to go into a lot of detail right now, but the update's coming, I promise.
- I was in Toronto two weeks ago, and I got to check out Snakes and Lattes, a board game cafe on Bloor Street. The place was completely and utterly fantastic in every way. I got to play some games with welcoming Toronto locals, and enjoy some hot chocolate. The place has a chill atmosphere, is open all kinds of late hours, and has a wall of 1,500 games!
- Civilization 5 is simply amazing...even though my productivity took a hit when it first came out.
CLIMBING
- On that same Toronto trip, I was able to get my first climbs in another country, courtesy of Boulderz. This place was a small gym focused mainly on intermediate to expert bouldering. The routes were FANTASTIC, and for $14 I got to climb as long as I wanted and they loaned me a chalk bag (not something I was going to put in my carry on bag through the airport). For its small size, there was certainly plenty of challenges. They features some awesome traverse work (something I've been hankering for), a great inverted cave area (with a V2 that was quite simply the more fantastic bouldering route I've done yet), and the main wall featured lots of interesting angles, and allowed you to "top out", something I haven't encountered in a climbing gym. The people were very laid back, and the tunes were fantastic. Next time I'm in Toronto, I'm headed back there.
- Mike and I have been doing some amazing climbing lately, which is great because we're preparing to take on a lot of rock this outdoor season. In the 2 1/2 months I've been back climbing since I had a nasty shoulder separation, we've gone from 5.8's to regularly topping out on 5.10a's. V2's are being hit with alarming success, and we're toying with V2+ and V3 routes. I also completed a V3+ mantle problem on the first, second and third tries.
MMA
- I've been training pretty well, although the aforementioned shoulder injury keeps rearing its ugly head, especially when I'm grappling. I hate using as an excuse not to be able to do some things - but I tend to have my good and bad days with it. Injuries suck.
ENTERTAINMENT
- A few songs I've been hooked on lately:
Defend Atlantis - Flobots
1940 - The Submarines
Kara Remembers - Bear McCreary (from Battlestar Galactica Season 4 soundtrack)
- I'll just come right out and say it, True Grit was only okay. I love Jeff Bridges, but his character just felt really forced, and Matt Damon was not very good at all. The story was good enough, and I was entertained - but it just felt...flat to me.
NYC
- For a few short days, it feels like spring...and not a moment too soon. The city has just felt really gritty, grimy and slightly depressing lately. It's amazing how winter can just grow irritating by January/February.
- There seems to be a Complete Failure of Etiquette plague setting into this city. Nobody seems to give a sh*t anymore, and it's getting to a tipping point for me....I feel a cartooning project coming on...look out for it :)
- Chris
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Great Holiday Blizzard of 2010
It was the day after Christmas, and Alexandra and I had a rental car for the day, with nowhere to go until a 7pm Islanders game with friends out on Long Island. We've been talking about going to the IKEA in Brooklyn for a long time now - so we headed down for a day of shopping and Swedish meatballs.
IKEA was a blast - we had some great Swedish food and got some excellent home furnishings (including a big tropical palm tree - which play a role much later in my mini-saga). It was slowing lightly when we left for IKEA, and it seemed to pick up a bit while we rummaged around the store for a few hours - but after packing the car the roads were still in pretty good condition. This is about the time when I found out we were expecting a blizzard.
I decided to go to the Islanders game, as the roads were still drivable, and it took us a little over 2 hours to make the trek from Brooklyn to Uniondale. By the time we got to the stadium, the roads were pretty bleak - but since we were there we decided to enjoy the game and deal with the consequences later. The game was a lot of fun, more for the friends we enjoyed it with. There were only about 3,100 people who came to the game (instead of the 17,000 or so the stadium fits), and over 90% of them were fans who came down from Montreal to root for their Canadiens. The Canadiens put in a lackluster performance, and the Islanders made them pay with a 4-1 victory.
We all said our goodbyes, and left for the long trek home. The snow really fell during the 3 hour game, and we were faced with bleak prospects of getting home in a reasonable amount of time. The winds had actually blown most of the snow off the car, and after 5 minutes of chipping ice we were good to leave the parking lot. I pressed the gas pedal, and was greeted with the sound of spinning tires. Alexandra hopped in the driver's seat and I proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes alternating between digging with the heel of my sneakers and pushing the car. The bus loads of French Canadiens waiting to leave had quite a few laughs at the expense of the silly Americans and their exploits in the snow.
When we got to the exit of the parking lot, I was about to get back into the car when I had the presence of mind to check for my house keys, which were supposed to be in my pocket. They were gone. They must had fallen out while pushing, and now I was about to freak out. I walked a few steps back and with an amazing stroke of luck, they were lying right there in the snow! Buoyed by this incredible stroke of luck, I hopped in the car hoping that the luck would see me home.
We got on the Meadowbrook Parkway heading North, and there was one lane of very light traffic moving along at about 20 mph, and things were looking pretty good. I was fairly sure the LIE would be in similar condition and we could manage back to the city. As we got close to the road, however, we were brought to a dead stop by an accident with all sorts of flashing lights a few hundred feet ahead. the line of cars brought to a stop sat there for about 30 minutes, as the roads proceeded to get really bad since there was nobody driving on them...many people started backing up to the exit we just passed to divert around the accident, and eventually we had no other choice than to follow them.
I got to the top of the on ramp, and made a left. We proceeded to drive up the road a few hundred feet, and realized there was nothing to get us where we needed to go in that direction. The "main" road we were on was in very rough shape, and we pulled off into a pristine plowed shopping center full of closed stores. It was around 11pm at this point, and after a brief discussion we agreed this was stupid and we should just find a hotel and bunker down. Since we were without GPS, we teamed up on our blackberries to figure out where we were, and googled the nearest hotel. With luck (here I go using that word again), there was a Holiday Inn only a half mile back the way we came, and they had open rooms!). How hard could that last half mile be?
We headed out from the shopping center (no joke there were 3 plows in action in that parking lot), and BAM we get stuck in the median b/w the east and west lanes of the main road. This side of the road was in horrific condition, and the Hyundai Elantra was too low of a car to deal well with the height of the snow in some spots. With Alexandra behind the wheel, I got back out and we proceeded to dig, push, dig, push, shovel snow from tires by hand, push, rock the car, shove the car sideways, etc... for the next 40 minutes - going about 10-30 feet for every 5 minutes of effort. the real killer was the inconsistent road clearings, making it hard to pick the most effective path to put the car on.
The winds were about 50 mph and constant, and the visibility was horrible. Knowing warmth was a mere half mile away, I persisted. A cop car came by, and while they are not allowed to actively help dig out people (unless of a medical emergency) - he called a tow truck to help us out of a really bad rut. I got into this rut b/c we had to stop the car to avoid hitting an equally-stuck minivan in front of us. While waiting for the tow, I helped the mini-van get back on the road, and the guy there was nice enough to give me his extra pair of gloves (did I mention I didn't have any gloves up until this point?) Thank the gods I had my excellent, spanking-new North Face winter coat courtesy of Alexandra. :)
At this point I told Alexandra that if she got any momentum to not stop and let me in the car. Momentum is key in these situations, so I told her to just drive as far as she could and I'd catch up on foot. Right about the time the tow truck came, there were about 7 or 8 other cars nearby that were all in the same situation I was in. One family stopped and loaned me a shovel for a few minutes, which was a huge help as I was in a major snowbank at the time. The tow truck that showed up got stock about 100 feet away, and I was starting to consider the real possibility we would spend the night in the car. Thankfully we had a lot of water and a tank full of gas.
However, when things looked at their worst, I gave a hard shove and zoom! Alexandra had some speed and off she went!
I was so exhilarated that I just started to run as fast as I could. I could barely feel my legs and feet, I was covered in snow, my ears were frozen - but I ran anyway. I was hopped up on adrenaline and was very much "in the moment". Alexandra and I were the only 2 things moving on that road, and we sped past quite a few other stranded vehicles - including a NYC Bus that was stretched across 80% of the street (which Alexandra deftly avoided as she was speeding away from me). The car got stuck again about 150 yards (a football field and a half) from where I freed her loose, and I climbed into the passenger seat - panting and starting to feel exhausted. After a few minutes of catching my breath and sucking down some water - I noticed another car stuck in front of us. It was the family that stopped earlier and loaned me the shovel. I took another sip of water, and threw my gloves back on and headed out to help them. It was the right thing to do after they helped me. during the 20 minutes I spent helping them dig out their car, a plow came by and cleared a nice swath for people to filter out!
I got the family free, and it took only about 10 more minutes to get our own car onto the newly plowed path. This time, Alexandra stopped and get me into the car and we got the rest of the way to the hotel without getting stuck! We arrived at the hotel at a quarter to 1am - and got ourselves a nice warm room. My frozen feet and legs took a long, very painful time to thaw out. It was the worst pins and needles feeling constantly for about 15 minutes. We quickly passed out and woke up again around 8 the next morning. I was quite a bit sore, but overall I felt pretty good and we went down for some breakfast.
The roads were in rough but manageable shape, and an hour or so later we headed back out to get ourselves home. We did pretty good to get back into Manhattan, and it would be reasonable to assume my story would end here - but this time I'm not that lucky!
Manhattan was a complete and utter MESS. We got up 1st avenue all right, but quickly realized that turning up 89th street to our apartment was out of the question - as it hadn't been plowed yet. So with Alex holding down the fort, I proceeded to carry all of the fruits of our IKEA adventure from the day before a block and a half through icy sidewalks, snow banks and grey slushy goo to our apartment. I got quite a few weird looks as I carried the tropical palm tree down the street. After 3 trips of this, we were ready to drive the car one last measly block to the AVIS rent a car on 90th Street. Seeing that 90th street was in just as rough shape as 89th, I decided to drive around the block to hit the road with some momentum. After going up to 95th street, over to 2nd avenue, back down to 90th street and back east to the intersection of 90th and 1st, we were ready to plow down towards York and give back the car. The light turned green and then some stupid Manhattanite walked in front of the car, killing all of our momentum and we hit the snowbank at the east side of 1st avenue with a slow, not-so-glorious thud. Ultimately it wouldn't matter as the street had just too much snow.
I left Alex with the car and walked down to the end of the block and told Avis my situation. I was greeted with "well you just have to bring the car back somehow". After giving my license as collateral, I was "lucky" enough to be given a small metal hand shovel with which to achieve the task at hand. I went through another round of shovel, shovel, dig, push, rock, push, move 20 feet forward, repeat for the next 2 hours. In the middle of it all, a few other people nearby were digging out their parked car, and were nice enough to dump all of the extra snow in the middle of the street, just to move their car FIVE F-ING FEET into a garage - because they didn't want it on the street. As they walked away, they did not register me at all and walked away. The final insult was when Avis couldn't even dig a pathway to their entrance, which I had to do on my own. I got the car into the garage, and was given one last kick in the pants with a $13 gas charge because the tank wasn't full due to the 2 hours it was travelling at 0.001 miles per hour as I self-plowed 90th street.
Through the entire ordeal, I kind of surprised myself with how present I was in the situation, how I was able to cultivate a positive mindset, and got what needed to be done - done. I didn't complain or whine or panic, I just took responsibility and took care of my situation as best as I could. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and kick some ass.
- Chris
IKEA was a blast - we had some great Swedish food and got some excellent home furnishings (including a big tropical palm tree - which play a role much later in my mini-saga). It was slowing lightly when we left for IKEA, and it seemed to pick up a bit while we rummaged around the store for a few hours - but after packing the car the roads were still in pretty good condition. This is about the time when I found out we were expecting a blizzard.
I decided to go to the Islanders game, as the roads were still drivable, and it took us a little over 2 hours to make the trek from Brooklyn to Uniondale. By the time we got to the stadium, the roads were pretty bleak - but since we were there we decided to enjoy the game and deal with the consequences later. The game was a lot of fun, more for the friends we enjoyed it with. There were only about 3,100 people who came to the game (instead of the 17,000 or so the stadium fits), and over 90% of them were fans who came down from Montreal to root for their Canadiens. The Canadiens put in a lackluster performance, and the Islanders made them pay with a 4-1 victory.
We all said our goodbyes, and left for the long trek home. The snow really fell during the 3 hour game, and we were faced with bleak prospects of getting home in a reasonable amount of time. The winds had actually blown most of the snow off the car, and after 5 minutes of chipping ice we were good to leave the parking lot. I pressed the gas pedal, and was greeted with the sound of spinning tires. Alexandra hopped in the driver's seat and I proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes alternating between digging with the heel of my sneakers and pushing the car. The bus loads of French Canadiens waiting to leave had quite a few laughs at the expense of the silly Americans and their exploits in the snow.
When we got to the exit of the parking lot, I was about to get back into the car when I had the presence of mind to check for my house keys, which were supposed to be in my pocket. They were gone. They must had fallen out while pushing, and now I was about to freak out. I walked a few steps back and with an amazing stroke of luck, they were lying right there in the snow! Buoyed by this incredible stroke of luck, I hopped in the car hoping that the luck would see me home.
We got on the Meadowbrook Parkway heading North, and there was one lane of very light traffic moving along at about 20 mph, and things were looking pretty good. I was fairly sure the LIE would be in similar condition and we could manage back to the city. As we got close to the road, however, we were brought to a dead stop by an accident with all sorts of flashing lights a few hundred feet ahead. the line of cars brought to a stop sat there for about 30 minutes, as the roads proceeded to get really bad since there was nobody driving on them...many people started backing up to the exit we just passed to divert around the accident, and eventually we had no other choice than to follow them.
I got to the top of the on ramp, and made a left. We proceeded to drive up the road a few hundred feet, and realized there was nothing to get us where we needed to go in that direction. The "main" road we were on was in very rough shape, and we pulled off into a pristine plowed shopping center full of closed stores. It was around 11pm at this point, and after a brief discussion we agreed this was stupid and we should just find a hotel and bunker down. Since we were without GPS, we teamed up on our blackberries to figure out where we were, and googled the nearest hotel. With luck (here I go using that word again), there was a Holiday Inn only a half mile back the way we came, and they had open rooms!). How hard could that last half mile be?
We headed out from the shopping center (no joke there were 3 plows in action in that parking lot), and BAM we get stuck in the median b/w the east and west lanes of the main road. This side of the road was in horrific condition, and the Hyundai Elantra was too low of a car to deal well with the height of the snow in some spots. With Alexandra behind the wheel, I got back out and we proceeded to dig, push, dig, push, shovel snow from tires by hand, push, rock the car, shove the car sideways, etc... for the next 40 minutes - going about 10-30 feet for every 5 minutes of effort. the real killer was the inconsistent road clearings, making it hard to pick the most effective path to put the car on.
The winds were about 50 mph and constant, and the visibility was horrible. Knowing warmth was a mere half mile away, I persisted. A cop car came by, and while they are not allowed to actively help dig out people (unless of a medical emergency) - he called a tow truck to help us out of a really bad rut. I got into this rut b/c we had to stop the car to avoid hitting an equally-stuck minivan in front of us. While waiting for the tow, I helped the mini-van get back on the road, and the guy there was nice enough to give me his extra pair of gloves (did I mention I didn't have any gloves up until this point?) Thank the gods I had my excellent, spanking-new North Face winter coat courtesy of Alexandra. :)
At this point I told Alexandra that if she got any momentum to not stop and let me in the car. Momentum is key in these situations, so I told her to just drive as far as she could and I'd catch up on foot. Right about the time the tow truck came, there were about 7 or 8 other cars nearby that were all in the same situation I was in. One family stopped and loaned me a shovel for a few minutes, which was a huge help as I was in a major snowbank at the time. The tow truck that showed up got stock about 100 feet away, and I was starting to consider the real possibility we would spend the night in the car. Thankfully we had a lot of water and a tank full of gas.
However, when things looked at their worst, I gave a hard shove and zoom! Alexandra had some speed and off she went!
I was so exhilarated that I just started to run as fast as I could. I could barely feel my legs and feet, I was covered in snow, my ears were frozen - but I ran anyway. I was hopped up on adrenaline and was very much "in the moment". Alexandra and I were the only 2 things moving on that road, and we sped past quite a few other stranded vehicles - including a NYC Bus that was stretched across 80% of the street (which Alexandra deftly avoided as she was speeding away from me). The car got stuck again about 150 yards (a football field and a half) from where I freed her loose, and I climbed into the passenger seat - panting and starting to feel exhausted. After a few minutes of catching my breath and sucking down some water - I noticed another car stuck in front of us. It was the family that stopped earlier and loaned me the shovel. I took another sip of water, and threw my gloves back on and headed out to help them. It was the right thing to do after they helped me. during the 20 minutes I spent helping them dig out their car, a plow came by and cleared a nice swath for people to filter out!
I got the family free, and it took only about 10 more minutes to get our own car onto the newly plowed path. This time, Alexandra stopped and get me into the car and we got the rest of the way to the hotel without getting stuck! We arrived at the hotel at a quarter to 1am - and got ourselves a nice warm room. My frozen feet and legs took a long, very painful time to thaw out. It was the worst pins and needles feeling constantly for about 15 minutes. We quickly passed out and woke up again around 8 the next morning. I was quite a bit sore, but overall I felt pretty good and we went down for some breakfast.
The roads were in rough but manageable shape, and an hour or so later we headed back out to get ourselves home. We did pretty good to get back into Manhattan, and it would be reasonable to assume my story would end here - but this time I'm not that lucky!
Manhattan was a complete and utter MESS. We got up 1st avenue all right, but quickly realized that turning up 89th street to our apartment was out of the question - as it hadn't been plowed yet. So with Alex holding down the fort, I proceeded to carry all of the fruits of our IKEA adventure from the day before a block and a half through icy sidewalks, snow banks and grey slushy goo to our apartment. I got quite a few weird looks as I carried the tropical palm tree down the street. After 3 trips of this, we were ready to drive the car one last measly block to the AVIS rent a car on 90th Street. Seeing that 90th street was in just as rough shape as 89th, I decided to drive around the block to hit the road with some momentum. After going up to 95th street, over to 2nd avenue, back down to 90th street and back east to the intersection of 90th and 1st, we were ready to plow down towards York and give back the car. The light turned green and then some stupid Manhattanite walked in front of the car, killing all of our momentum and we hit the snowbank at the east side of 1st avenue with a slow, not-so-glorious thud. Ultimately it wouldn't matter as the street had just too much snow.
I left Alex with the car and walked down to the end of the block and told Avis my situation. I was greeted with "well you just have to bring the car back somehow". After giving my license as collateral, I was "lucky" enough to be given a small metal hand shovel with which to achieve the task at hand. I went through another round of shovel, shovel, dig, push, rock, push, move 20 feet forward, repeat for the next 2 hours. In the middle of it all, a few other people nearby were digging out their parked car, and were nice enough to dump all of the extra snow in the middle of the street, just to move their car FIVE F-ING FEET into a garage - because they didn't want it on the street. As they walked away, they did not register me at all and walked away. The final insult was when Avis couldn't even dig a pathway to their entrance, which I had to do on my own. I got the car into the garage, and was given one last kick in the pants with a $13 gas charge because the tank wasn't full due to the 2 hours it was travelling at 0.001 miles per hour as I self-plowed 90th street.
Through the entire ordeal, I kind of surprised myself with how present I was in the situation, how I was able to cultivate a positive mindset, and got what needed to be done - done. I didn't complain or whine or panic, I just took responsibility and took care of my situation as best as I could. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and kick some ass.
- Chris
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Mount Washington
"Take a step to the right and you'll be a whole lot closer" - Eli
When Eli proposed a group hiking trip to Mount Washington, I was torn. My shoulder was feeling better, but still nowhere near fully healed - but having done nothing physical for 2 weeks, my mind and body were absolutely screaming for something to do. While I received quite a bit of unsolicited advice telling me "chill out" and "relax", I'm not about making up excuses to not have amazing adventures. I was totally bummed that I missed the last hike 2 weeks ago (right after I had my shoulder separated), so I simply couldn't pass up an opportunity to get out to New England for the weekend. If you've never been up there in the middle of October - you're missing out on the amazing colors of the trees, crisp clean air, and coffee shops every hundred feet.
Friday night was spent with friends in Rhode Island - a few games of Dominion followed by Thunderstone. We got to bed early, and woke up Saturday at 5:15. Eli and I were ready to go from the start, and after much wrangling of our crew of adventurers - we were headed up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a roughly 3.5 hour ride north. It was fun driving through Kingston, Warwick, Providence and Boston - places I haven't been to since college. I still miss New England, and after having left 5 years ago, part of me will always toy with the idea of moving back at some point.
We got to the foot of Mount Washington around 10:30 - and our crew of six geared up for the hike. The weather reports called for 1-3" of mixed precipitation, winter conditions, avg. winds at around 50 mph on the summit, gusting to high 60's, and a wind chill of -1 deg. F. I should note here form the start that this report was created my the Mount Washington Observatory (MWOBS), who monitor conditions constantly from a huge observatory at the summit.
We were well prepared with winter wear, snacks, and water - so onwards and upwards we went. Our plan was to tackle the Tuckerman Trail, a 4.2 mile hike each way to the summit, with about 4900 feet of elevation gain. The weather at the base was gorgeous, low 50's, and a light mist in the air. There were plenty of small waterfalls and steams at the start of the hike, and plenty of photos were taken. At this point, Eli and I decided that with the pace the crew was taking (admittedly slow), we would never make the summit in time, so we left our comrades and booked it up the mountain. It was a tricky hike, as we were basically navigating a ravine full of small boulders - so footing was very important. Gradually the weather got slightly colder, but it was fantastic in every way because you're heating up with all the hiking - so we were comfortable all the way up to the caretaker's cabin roughly halfway through the trail. We left word for our crew that they could drive home without us (as we took 2 cars up for this very reason), and set on.
The weather around this point started to get really interesting, as the snow started as just faint wisps in the air:
to light accumulation:
to pretty constant accumulation:
At this point we were reaching the top of the tree line, and we donned our winter gear. We were at the bottom of the mountains head wall, so we were still shielded by the winds. We were greeted to an awesome waterfall, courtesy of the melting snow and apparently not a regular sighting along the Tuckerman Trail. At this point all that lie ahead of us was rock, snow, ice and heavy wind. The ascent become increasingly difficult, as we had to navigate much slower and carefully - especially in my case as I could really only use one arm.
This video was taken at the bottom of the head wall we were about to tackle. At 10 seconds of the video, the plain white area is actually Mount Washington, it's covered in thick fog.
As we entered the Arctic Zone, the winds really picked up now, and the ground cover was anywhere from a few inches to a few feet, and it was a small victory to make it to each stone cairn - which served as our trail markings. At this point in the ascent, the wind was blowing fiercely into our faces, driving snow into our eyes, so each step became harder and harder. At the same time we were contending with poor footing. There were portions where we simply had to get on our hands and knees and crawl past some sections. And boy, did it get cold. However, Eli and I refused to give up even though our energy was getting sapped with each step. We refused to yield to whatever Mount Washington was throwing at us. If conditions had been any worse, we probably would be forced to head back down...but as we got about 0.6 miles from the summit, we realized it would be much safer to reach the summit, go into the observatory building to warm up and change into dry clothes than to turn around and head back freezing our butts off.
An hour later, we approached summit and the feeling was absolutely amazing. Eli and I were pretty jubilant, but at the same time - we both knew that we couldn't enjoy the moment for long. Winds at the top of the mountain were peaking at 70mph, and the snow was very significant and everything around us was caked in thick layers of ice. Visibility was extremely poor and we had a hard time finding the right building. After 10 minutes of searching frantically among the high winds - we found the right door - and entered to a the dimply lit ranger station. We were greeted by 2 other hikers, and some unfriendly rangers - who made it quite clear that what we did was a pretty poor idea all around - and we didn't look all that prepared. One guy in particular was pretty gruff about the whole idea - and wasn't afraid to put some fear into us - and to be honest I can't really fault him. I'm sure he's seen some pretty messed up stuff on the mountain - but that being said it didn't exactly help to imbue any confidence on those going to head back down the mountain.
After thawing out (Eli's beard was frozen solid), refilling our water and changing our socks, we looked over the topographical map of the mountain with the rangers. We had 2 problems - tackling the rough weather, and daylight. The ascent took us about 4.5 hours, and the late start means it was about 3:30 and we had about 3 hours of light left. The ranger presented us 2 options:
A) Go down the Mt. Washington car road.
This involved an extra 4 miles of hiking, then a 2.5 hour hike through the woods back to our car - in total darkness. In addition, the majority of the road was covered in thick ice and completely exposed to the 50 to 70mph winds we got blasted by on the summit. The advantage here was clearly on the ranger, who could search for us by car should we never get down to the cabin.
B) Go back down the way we came.
We thought about it, and realized it would be a trickier hike, but we could go down the steeper, shorter, but rougher Lion's Head Trail. It provided the quickest decent vertically, but would involve some very rough terrain. We decided to go down this route.
The first 0.4 miles of the way back involved the same route we took up the mountain, which took us around 45 minutes of intense effort. Luckily for us, going back down was WAY easier. The fact that there was a thick snow and ice cover allowed us to sled down big swaths of the route on our butts, as long as we were careful to take it kind of slow and avoid the rocks. It was actually a lot of fun, and it took us all of about 10-15 minutes to get to the cairn which marked the trailhead for the Lion's Head Trail. As an added bonus, all of the snow I accumulated on my frozen jeans from the sledding actually acted as an insulating layer and my legs warmed up. (Wearing jeans was not a good idea in general though)
The Lion's Head was amazing. As we were really moving as fast as we could (burning daylight, after all) - we took very few pictures after this one:
For part of the trail, we were actually walking the ridge line of the mountain, and the setting sun cast a gorgeous glow over the snow and ice. It was here where the quote from the start of this post came from. The weather was still windy and vicious, but we were in very high spirits and enjoying the journey. The path down involved a lot of tricky bouldering and poor footings - but we were able to make it back down to the end of the trail just as dark enveloped the mountain.
It was an epic journey - and definitely one of the most arduous things I've ever done. Physically I was sore, but my shoulder, and the remnants of the cold I'd had for weeks were significantly healed - something I credit to the energy of the mountain, and some well spent time in nature. It really beats the crap out of life in the city - and the trip helped to solidify the notion that I should be spending far more time out of it.
- Chris
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Such a Schmuck
This afternoon I headed out to Tiger Schulmann's, ready for another night of training. There's no questioning the routine: it's Thursday afternoon and I was geared up to go. I stuffed my now-dry grappling shirts and pants, stuffed them in my bag full of kickboxing gear and slung the 30 pounds over my shoulder. I checked my pockets: wallet, phone, keys...check check and check. I grabbed my iPod, threw in my headphones - the same headphones that got water damaged this past Sunday and only the left earbud works. I put both earbuds in anyway - my little signal to the world that I don't want to be bothered with you. I've got that look in my eye...that look of determination and single-minded focus on getting to TSK and pushing myself. I threw on any random tune and headed out.
As I walked down York Ave, I blew right past one of those obnoxious kids from Children's International trying to get me to stop and save the children - I was glad I had both earbuds in: a clear sign I wanted nothing to do with him or his sales pitch...he leaves me alone. I manage to catch the M79 headed to the subway - the bus is half empty so I hop on to save a few minutes. I am absorbed in a game of Blokus, and barely remember to get off the bus @ Lexington Ave. I hop off the bus and walk back to the corner to walk the 2 blocks to the 6 train downtown. I see an old woman leaning onto the garbage can on the corner, cane draped over one shoulder. She's wearing a one-piece pink dress that goes down to her ankles - I pay little attention as I walk around her - I hear muffled speak through my non-functional earbud. I assume she's asking for change - I'm sad, but I'm resolute. It's a personal policy that I don't endorse begging, or selling candy on the subway, or subway car acrobatics/singing/preaching, or people who try and stop you on the sidewalks asking you to support a cause/politician/starving children half a world away. I remain in my own world - I distract myself with the tunes in my left ear and ignore the woman behind me. I hear her say something to someone behind me..."I don't want to bother you, sir...". I continue living in the assumption that she's begging - I can't wait for the light to change and walk away from it. Then she taps the bag slung over my shoulder, with reluctance I pull the earbuds out of my ears and turn to her - as kindly as I can muster - completely prepared to tell her I won't give her any money...
"Can you please help me across the street sir?"
I take a second, and I say to myself: "You're such a schmuck, Chris."
I throw on a smile, "Of Course, Ma'am." I shift my bag, hold out my right arm and she grabs around my elbow, and I escort her around the cars and trucks that cheated the red light and force us to navigate through the crosswalk carefully. She extols about how crazy New York drivers are, and she's thankful for my help. "You must not have heard me with all that music.", she says. I make up a lame excuse that I had turned it up because their was a bunch of loud kids on the quiet bus I was just on. The crossing completed without incident, she thanked me in such a sincere way that my heart was calmed. The ignorance I initially showed her was forgotten - she was simply grateful for my assisstance. I wished her a pleasant day - and she return my wishes in kind. We parted ways as I weaved through my fellow pedestrians the 2 blocks to the 77th Street station.
I swiped my Metrocard, and waited for the subway - still contemplating what just occurred. "Am I really so negatively conditioned to this city?", I asked myself. I presume everyone's out to try and sell me on something, beg me for something, to bother me. I realize that this city's makes me act coldly sometimes. I realize that it's not entirely me being a schmuck when I ignored the woman - I honestly did not hear her clearly...but I instantly recalled my buddhist & taoist learnings regarding how something's true nature can be obscured by approaching it with pretenses and assumptions. I just assumed that the noise in my ear was begging, based on preconceived notions of someone learning on a garbage can - and those assumptions can cause misunderstandings which lead to guilt and regret.
I realize that there's no harm done - ultimately I did the right thing and performed the right action with the right mindset. I realize that this was the world's way of teaching me a lesson in awareness - true awareness cannot come by maintaining some insular mindset.
It cannot come by tuning out the world with an iPod.
I realize that I'm not a schmuck - I'm just a human that needs to tune out less often.
As I walked down York Ave, I blew right past one of those obnoxious kids from Children's International trying to get me to stop and save the children - I was glad I had both earbuds in: a clear sign I wanted nothing to do with him or his sales pitch...he leaves me alone. I manage to catch the M79 headed to the subway - the bus is half empty so I hop on to save a few minutes. I am absorbed in a game of Blokus, and barely remember to get off the bus @ Lexington Ave. I hop off the bus and walk back to the corner to walk the 2 blocks to the 6 train downtown. I see an old woman leaning onto the garbage can on the corner, cane draped over one shoulder. She's wearing a one-piece pink dress that goes down to her ankles - I pay little attention as I walk around her - I hear muffled speak through my non-functional earbud. I assume she's asking for change - I'm sad, but I'm resolute. It's a personal policy that I don't endorse begging, or selling candy on the subway, or subway car acrobatics/singing/preaching, or people who try and stop you on the sidewalks asking you to support a cause/politician/starving children half a world away. I remain in my own world - I distract myself with the tunes in my left ear and ignore the woman behind me. I hear her say something to someone behind me..."I don't want to bother you, sir...". I continue living in the assumption that she's begging - I can't wait for the light to change and walk away from it. Then she taps the bag slung over my shoulder, with reluctance I pull the earbuds out of my ears and turn to her - as kindly as I can muster - completely prepared to tell her I won't give her any money...
"Can you please help me across the street sir?"
I take a second, and I say to myself: "You're such a schmuck, Chris."
I throw on a smile, "Of Course, Ma'am." I shift my bag, hold out my right arm and she grabs around my elbow, and I escort her around the cars and trucks that cheated the red light and force us to navigate through the crosswalk carefully. She extols about how crazy New York drivers are, and she's thankful for my help. "You must not have heard me with all that music.", she says. I make up a lame excuse that I had turned it up because their was a bunch of loud kids on the quiet bus I was just on. The crossing completed without incident, she thanked me in such a sincere way that my heart was calmed. The ignorance I initially showed her was forgotten - she was simply grateful for my assisstance. I wished her a pleasant day - and she return my wishes in kind. We parted ways as I weaved through my fellow pedestrians the 2 blocks to the 77th Street station.
I swiped my Metrocard, and waited for the subway - still contemplating what just occurred. "Am I really so negatively conditioned to this city?", I asked myself. I presume everyone's out to try and sell me on something, beg me for something, to bother me. I realize that this city's makes me act coldly sometimes. I realize that it's not entirely me being a schmuck when I ignored the woman - I honestly did not hear her clearly...but I instantly recalled my buddhist & taoist learnings regarding how something's true nature can be obscured by approaching it with pretenses and assumptions. I just assumed that the noise in my ear was begging, based on preconceived notions of someone learning on a garbage can - and those assumptions can cause misunderstandings which lead to guilt and regret.
I realize that there's no harm done - ultimately I did the right thing and performed the right action with the right mindset. I realize that this was the world's way of teaching me a lesson in awareness - true awareness cannot come by maintaining some insular mindset.
It cannot come by tuning out the world with an iPod.
I realize that I'm not a schmuck - I'm just a human that needs to tune out less often.
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