Everest News Farce

Just a quick comment on "news" written by non-climbers about climbing. I have read close to 100 articles bemoaning the sad state of affairs on Everest, about how too many people died there this year, and about the overcrowding and bottlenecks and how it's all a bunch of greedy overpaid business people on an adventure holiday, and it's not like it was in the old days with the jolly good groups of high ranked climbers doing it for the cause man...

Trail Running along the Blue River in Summit County CO
Training for Elbrus Race 2013

I think there are a few driving forces behind this rash of ignorant incendiary writing.

1) Google loves "new and fresh" articles of about 300-700 words with a certain ratio of keywords

Almost every one of these articles falls into that category. Panda and Penguin have pretty much screwed up the internet for people who really want to learn about stuff. Silly fluff articles will prevail.

2) Recent memoir re-hashing

Much like the Rolling Stones not being able to just give it up already, we have some ghost-written books out alleged to be by some of the few remaining survivors of ancient Everest history claiming superiority for their methods of climbing. Maybe it's too bold of me to say so, but they conveniently forget that they paid their hundreds of porters what amounts to mere pennies per day. That the huge siege on the mountain built a pyramid of logistics on the backs of those hundreds of porters and sherpa to get two guys to the top. I'm not convinced those ethics are any better than the current standard on Everest. (this isn't directed at the few near-alpine style ascents rare and uncommon in Everest history)

3) Non-climbers and armchair mountaineers love to bash Everest

Enough said - if it's about Everest and it's negative, they'll eat it up. Sells ad space.

4) Time delay writing

These really sound like they were written about last year (2012 season) during which there were too many deaths and too many bottlenecks. They probably assumed that the whole thing would escalate, wrote these in January and set a timer for "early June" and let it auto publish.

Summit of Carstensz Pyramid in Oceania
One of the Seven Summits

Ironically, I think this was one of the safest years on Everest in recent times. Aside from the whole rock throwing incident. Big weather window. Very little bottle-necking. Few deaths. Those are the facts that have me questioning these articles.

How about you? Do you think I have these articles pegged? Or is there something I'm missing? Let me know...

Carstensz Summit Photo

Carstensz Summit at 11:00 AM of 30 April 2013. Wrote about the amazing adventure in my book "Carstensz, Stone Age to Iron Age" [CLICK TO BUY] - the name makes sense when you consider the contrast between my experiences dealing with the groups from ancient and modern history and their respective attitudes on things.

Myself, bottom left, at the summit of Carstensz

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"I've read Mr. Miske's other books and this is his best yet. It was great to see him make this summit, especially with everything that went on. The environment, the politics, the locals, the weather, the mud, the injuries, the exposure and terrain..its just unreal what the author went through to get this summit! Just read it. 5 stars!" -- Book Review on Amazon

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Climbing Groups and Guide Services

Guide Companies:
Andean Face Local Ecuador Guide Company
International Mountain Guides
Mountain Madness Guide Company
Rainier Mountaineering Inc. Expeditions
San Juan Mountain Guides
Mountain Trip
Alaska Mountaineering School

I have used each of these guide companies at one time or another, and can vouch for their excellent service.

Message Boards:
Cascade Climbers
Summit Post
Colorado 14'ers
Mountain Project

I have been active more or less on each of these. You can find route info, friends to climb with, and gear to buy and sell on most of these if you dig in the forums.

Orizaba Summit Photo

March 5 2013 5:10 pm. Summit of Orizaba highest volcano in North America and one of the Volcanic Seven Summits.

Orizaba - the highest mountain in Mexico - GPS Track

My friend Todd and I did Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico, third highest in North America, and the highest volcano in North America, making it one of the Volcanic Seven Summits. At approximately 18,500' it's usually not a walk in the park, though we did manage to summit on our first acclimatization hike, where we planned to stop either below or above the Labyrinth. We felt so good we kept on going and hit the top at about 5:10 PM. We descended in the dark, getting lost in the Labyrinth and the cliffs below, apparently, from this Spot GPS track [SPOT Connect], going too far to climber's left of the proper track. During our "lost in the dark" phase I was pretty sure we were too far to the right. We eventually moved in the correct direction and ended up crossing a familiar line of cairns and followed them down the way we'd come up, after a lot of mental wear and tear trying hard not to fall off a cliff in the dark.

Picture above shows me climbing through the mixed rock snow ice gravel of the Labyrinth. Balanced rock above is the landmark we used for the descent in the dark, and is at the ridge where the Labyrinth trail turns and goes to the foot of the Jamapa Glacier. Here is the GPS track as waypoints, not paths, the way that SPOT uses by default from their admin page.

Utah Mount Olympus Training Run and Test

I ran up and down Mount Olympus along the Wasatch Front East of Salt Lake City this morning, and here is my training data:

Google Earth Elevation Profile - by miles

Polar Graph - by time - note steep tail = faster down

Highlight is time/lap to top from road

Steep Class 4/5 Red line to Right

If you want to read the whole story, go to my Seven Summits Quest blog.

I put my Google Earth Data below.

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Utah Big Baldy Traverse Training Run - August 2

Got up this morning not sure what exactly I was going to do. I was supposed to go to work today and Friday then head to Colorado on Saturday, but the calendar was mixed up and I had to cover for a developer who will be off for the next 10 days, so I ended up off today to make up for the extra time.

I went to bed thinking I might do either Timp or Baldy. This morning Baldy won, and based on some trail runners the last time I was up with Dallin, I decided to try the traverse. I would hike up Battle Creek, to the top of Big Baldy, then down Dry Canyon and at the trailhead go North over the forks of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail back to Battle Creek.



I had no idea what that would be like on the Dry Canyon or Bonneville section, since I hadn't been on the Dry Canyon Trail without snow, having only been on it for my March attempt at the Everest Ridge of Timp. I usually run on the BST North of Battle Creek, so it would be all new for me.

This is from the Google Earth Elevation Profile, showing how it panned out. Notice how steep it is on the descent of Dry Canyon.

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This image is from my Polar watch software, showing a slightly different view, based on time rather than miles.

Here's a view from the lap splits, based on grade and elevation. It doesn't show the elevation accurately, as I did not sync the altitude for the area and it guessed a few hundred feet wrong. Notice that coming down from Big Baldy to the base of Dry Canyon is really steep. Really steep.

In the Polar graph, you can see my heart rate going up and my speed going down at the same time. I really wasn't prepared for how slow it would be going down that steep trench trail at Dry Canyon, and I ran out of water as the day heated up to over 80 degrees. There's no water at any of these trailheads (with a name like Dry Canyon what do you expect?) and I had two quarts of extra in the car. I pushed for the car and ended up doing a fair amount of walking as the Bonneville connectors wove in and out of neighborhoods and private land, and eventually came out at the car.

I chugged the two quarts and weighed when I got home. Down 5 lb - if you include the 4 lb from the water I drank, I was down 9 lb when I hit the car. They'd pull you from some Ultra's for that.

Bottom line stats: nearly 4400' up and down, in 11 miles, in 3:50. Not great, but pretty good considering I don't train much in Utah right now, and it was pretty hot. Not sure, but this implies I won't be happy at a trail marathon right now.