For a living, I do physics and biology.
Summer has been pretty productive, but I didn't get out as much as I would've liked. But then there's always next summer and I'm pretty thankful for the few weekends I did take off. Ended up seeing some cool new places (Deep Springs College) and spending time in familiar ones (Tuolumne). Anyway, here's a video from a trip we took a few months ago -- just spending some nice time with friends cragging at East Cottage Dome.
Today was good. Sat down and finally hacked ten pages. W00t.
It's gonna be a good week. Two for $5 at mollie stones. Kim and I tried getting these last night but Mollie stones closed just as we biked up so we had to return this morning.
Over fish tacos and beer at the Mobil Station in Lee Vining, we found out that three Stanford Alpine Club (SAC) teams were going to attempt the Third Pillar of Dana. Kind of strange that all three groups decided to do the Third Pillar on the same day.
Since Eu-Jin and I aren't the speediest of climbers, we elected to get an early start. After saying good night to the rest of the Stanford folks, we headed to the secret bivy spot and laid out our sleeping bags. I'm always a bit anxious before a big climb so I spent a lot of the night tossing and turning before falling asleep. The next morning, my eyes popped open and I scanned the sky, still pitch black -- I could see the outline of my Camry against the bright moonlit sky and Orion's belt twinkled from between the trees. Not a cloud in sight. Checking my watch, I saw that it was 4:14am, one minute before our appointed wake up time. I closed my eyes for a few moments, waiting for the alarm to begin beeping. We got up, groggily packed our gear, and started the drive up to Tioga Lake and the start of our day. We grabbed our packs, the rope, and the gear from the trunk before wolfing down some Clif bars. We started hiking the approach by headlamp at 5am, tripping over the rocks and roots of the rough trail. Steadily we ascended the inky darkness towards the Dana Plateau, leaving the lake behind. Light began the fill the sky as dawn broke and we found ourselves in a strange place. The Dana Plateau is littered with small boulders that the wind, snow, and rain have carved into rounded shapes and dramatic fins. The breaking light drew into sharp relief the objective of our day's trip: the Third Pillar of Dana, a dramatic fin of rack that juts out prominently, dominating the skyline of the Sierra Crest. We began the descent towards the base on shattered blocks. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we realized we had gone down too far. We lost an hour fighting our way back up the steep scree and talus. So much for early starts -- that mistake pushed us back a lot. We made it to the base of the climb and began racking up when we saw Alex, Tanya, and Warren picking their way down the correct slope. They arrived just as I was starting the first pitch. Right away the climb got my attention. The altitude does strange things to your endurance. Just sitting still, you feel strong, like you were at sea level. But exerting any amount of effort quickly sapped my energy; even the easy scrambling at the end of the first pitch left me winded and panting for breath. The second pitch was the crux for me --- "flared 10a fingers" was the description in the guide and it felt tenuous and greasy, like my fingers would pop out of the crack at any moment. I placed a piece ... then another .. before reaching the relative security of a wide crack higher up. Normally, I hate wide cracks but I welcomed this one! A few awkward moves of thrashing in the crack ended the pitch. After that, the climbing went well -- it was fun and interesting and there were a few thought provoking sections where I had to wait for a bit to figure out the moves. Amazingly, as I was finishing the second pitch, I saw Cory, Laura, and George charging out of the first pitch. They were climbing incredibly fast and would finish right behind us despite leaving the car three hours later than we did. Cory caught up with us by taking a variation and we met at the last belay ledge. Cory graciously offered to let me lead the last pitch -- by then I was feeling really beat. The combined effects of altitude and leading the previous four pitches had left me with just enough energy -- I hoped -- to reach the top! George and Laura joined Cory and before long the entire SAC crowd was hanging out on the ledge, watching me as I struggled to make the moves on the last pitch. Feeling tired and fighting arm cramps, I slowly and deliberately picked my way through the last pitch. I almost fell at the 10b lieback but I managed to hop down to a lower ledge before committing to the moves. Hanging out right below the top, I placed a few pieces before firing all the way. Pulling myself over the edge was a great feeling -- it was an amazing pitch, high up with a beautiful pitch. Alex later described it as "the best granite pitch I've done." The Third Pillar is truly a unique climb -- its position right on the edge of the crest gives it a unique and magnificent view of the desert floor below. I'm glad I was able to climb it and in the company of great friends and a great partner!
This story on a deep fried butter dish came with an ad for Lipitor, a drug used to treat high cholesterol. Random? Probably not.
I nearly choked on my coffee this morning watching this -- it's definitely nerdy, but for anybody's who's taken a high school chemistry class, it's pretty hilarious.
I love the personification of the noble gases as snooty hipsters who are too cool for school ...
Passing through Tuolumne Meadows was just too much of a temptation, so Kim and I decided to knock off the North Ridge of Mt. Conness on our way back from Deep Springs. Life's demands --- thesis, research, and work --- had prevented me from getting out for most of the summer and I wasn't feeling in great shape. Kim was also nursing a sore shoulder, given to her by a careless driver who decided to run his pickup through a stop sign, knocking her to the ground. Despite her doctor's warning to "take it easy", Kim's not likely to follow that advice; the last time we went to the meadows, she climbed all day on a swollen ankle (injured, ironically, while walking in a climbing gym), easily flashing 5.10 face climbs.
We left Deep Springs as the last of the day's light was leaking over the Sierra crest, speeding up the 395 towards Lee Vining. Arriving at the secret bivy spot behind the Mobil gas station, we were surprised that nobody else had claimed the best patch of dirt underneath the big pine. The next morning, Kim woke me --- we had overslept our alarm! We grabbed all of our stuff, threw it into the car, and sped up towards Tioga Pass, arriving at the Sawmill campground to begin our hike up towards Conness at 6:13am. The hike was beautiful, gradually ascending a valley gouged by the passage of a glacier eons ago. The glacier had long retreated up the mountain to the highest cirque, leaving behind a series of lush meadows and alpine lakes fed by its remains --- today, the Conness glacier barely covers a few football fields and the next few years of rising temperatures will continue its gradual erosion. Skirting high above the last lake, we gained the top of the ridge and began following it as it wound its way, like a snake, up towards the summit. As we approached the ridge, its bulk and sheltered us from the wind, but now as we strode on top, we were exposed to strong gusts which knocked as off balance and sent us teetering like drunks. We made good time, scrambling unroped up towards the second tower in our sneakers before rappelling down the other side. But something wasn't right after the rappel --- the terrain roughly matched the description in the guide, but the angle was all wrong. Instead of easing off, as the guide book promised, the angle of the ramp below us steepened before descending out of view. I put on my climbing shoes and headed down, trying to scope an exit off the ramp to the easier ground rising to our right. I shot a wary eye towards the gravel that was strewn like so many ball-bearings on the ramp. It didn't take too long for my feet to skate, and I hung, motionless for a moment before bear-hugging a block in front of me. "Probably not the right way," I called back up to Kim before heading back up. After a while, we figured that we hadn't rappelled far enough, and so we set up another intermediate rappel before reaching easier ground, wasting a lot of time. It was a strange experience to climb so much terrain unroped, with your partner so close at hand. Climbing, for the most part, is pretty solitary since one person stays behind to secure the belay while the leader forges ahead. Freed from the demands of gear and a rope, we wandered back and forth over the face, finding the easiest way up, squeezing through chimneys and climbing through blocks of shattered rock. Finally, one last move and we were standing on top of flat ground, the summit block just in front of us. Captions:1. Kim with Mt. Conness in the distance. The north ridge ascends the right hand skyline towards the summit.
Deep Springs College is a unique educational institute. In exchange for laboring on a fully-functional cattle and alfalfa farm, students receive free tuition, room, and board. At the end of their two years, they transfer to some of the best universities in the country. As part of the package, the all-male student body lives in self-imposed isolation on a farm nestled in a remote desert valley. They govern their own affairs, including admissions, curriculum, and disciplinary actions, accepting only 12-13 students a year.
I had heard of Deep Springs in high school, but my interest never extended past requesting some application materials. Like most high schoolers, the idea was romantic, but I couldn't quite wrap my head around such a radially non-traditional path. Safer it seemed to just go with the flow and apply to a four-year college and come out with a firm path towards medical school or some other professional degree and some societal acceptance. But the place had stuck out in my mind as an interesting experiment in education and an admirable model of self-governance. So when my friend Frances invited me and Kim to join her as she moved into her visiting faculty position at Deep Springs, I jumped at the chance. It was a chance to just check out the place. We drove over there, crossing the Sierra Nevada at Tioga Pass, before heading down another two hours. The college is located about an hour's drive outside of Bishop, a small town on the east side of the Sierra range. While we were there, we got a chance to check out the campus and experience a small slice of life there. Anyway, here are the pictures: Captions:
