Dalia

Had to let everyone see the photo my sister sent to me. Thanks, Sis.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday :: The View from the Other Side

Say Cheeeez! Taking group pictures at the Joslin Reunion on November 23, .. in Springfield, Missouri: Missy, Sue, George, Babs, Tim, Jim, and Linda.

The Sun's Last Glow Before Night Falls

September 8, .. - - Southwest MontanaExtremely hazy skies made for a strange, muted, monochromatic sunset.



A week later, somewhat clearer skies prevailed.



September 15, .. - - Southwest Montana

A Look Back At

Can we take an over-the-shoulder glance at last year's posts before diving into ..? January .. began with a tribute to those Stubborn Irish People From Chicago who keep the decorations up and the lights turned on until January 6th - Epiphany or Feast of Three Kings. When affirmative comments came from other gardeners who celebrated the 12 Days of Christmas, they warmed me like a cozy quilt around my shoulders. Yolanda Elizabet from Holland, Entangled from Virginia, Leslie from California, Barbara from Switzerland, MSS from Austin, TX, Therese from Louisiana, Kate from Saskatchewan, Kerri from New York State, Mr McGregor's Daughter from Chicago, Lisa at Greenbow, Indiana, Red Dirt Dee from Oklahoma, Nicole in the Caribbean, Josie in Vancouver and Dawn from Austin also had traditions of leaving the light glow a little longer. A few weeks later May Dreams Carol made up the acronym GADS, for Gardeners Attention Distraction Syndrome. My answer to her was to Embrace The GADS! I'm a bee, not an ant - so buzzing from project to project is my nature. Carol not only took my advice and tried hard to "Embrace the GADS", she decided to Embrace "Embracing"! That label on her blog pulls up a whole subset of Embrace posts.

Installing our Disappearing Fountain changed the way the garden looks and sounds. We now see birds sip and splash just a few feet from the breakfast room window. Who knew we had orioles and goldfinches? The secret garden was touched by a little magic when A Fairy Garden Consultant arrived from the Pacific Northwest.

I recorded a couple of songs last spring - one was "Salvia, Salvia, Save Me" (from the deer), which has turned out to be my biggest 'hit'.
The lyrics to "May Dreams in Indiana" were written in .., when Carol was an online friend with a great garden blog. But last spring, the very real Carol and MSS of Zanthan Gardens sat next to my piano and listened to preview the song before Philo & I made it into a YouTube.
Everyone who was part of Spring Fling was touched by a little magic! We Austin Garden bloggers had been meeting off and on since July .. -but last winter Pam/Digging had the idea to go national and Diana, MSS and Bonnie helped her make it a reality. It was wonderful to meet Susan Albert and see Cold Climate Kathy again!

Philo & I went to the movies in June, partly to enjoy the film, and partly to see if our scene extras in the Austin Indie film Baghead made it to the screen. The DVD of Baghead has just been released - it's on Netflix, too. Since we're visible for a few seconds, I guess we need to buy a copy!











Warm, dry Spring turned to sweltering Summer in Austin but it was a lovely, peachy summer in the faraway gardens of our family . Our grand dog Penny was already helping out in Lily's garden. We mourned George Carlin and enjoyed a few great tomatoes. There were plenty of flowers here in spite of the heat and drought - for eleven months of .. the 15th was celebrated with a bloom day post - but intermittent camera problems meant July's entry was a simple list at Annie's Addendum rather than a post with flower portraits. Philo and I were delighted to have the company of MSS of Zanthan on the annual Austin Pond Society Tour. In mid-tour, my old Kodak EasyShare camera stopped working completely but we had such a good time that I was inspired to write more music. At the same time that Philo and I were putting together the video of The Pond Song, our son and daughter-in-law in Illinois were uploading our co-written love song to Lilac Time in Lombard, 'I Don't Want to Live In Texas When It's May". We tried two cameras before settling on a Canon PowerShot A590. It was fun to see what it could do after a little rain fell on the garden. The new camera helped me share the visits of unusual critters like the Bird Poop Caterpillar, decollate snails and a mantidfly. Inspired by inspired by fellow bloggers Vertie and Iris and by the website of genuine Austin entomologist Wizzie Brown, I wrote a comedy song called My Austin Entomologist. One final song for .. needed the scanner, rather than the camera - images from old albums filled the screen for the nostalgic and wistful "Can I Recover Christmas"

This year was not exactly a great gardening year - too hot, too dry, too many other things going on. But it was a great year for meeting and talking to gardeners! Some of these friends were part of my real-world, including my beloved friends the Divas of the Dirtalso in the real world were the bloggers who came to Spring Fling, friends and gardeners on the Conservancy Tour with Pam/Digging all those at the fun October meet-up- Renee and RockRose Jenny and Good & Evil Lori at Eastside Patch and The Grackle. It's always seemed as if we are friends when we read and comment on each other's blogs. Joining Twitter in September meant immediate conversations - some with people known in person. When reading tweets, I can sort of hear them saying the words in my mind. There are no goals or resolutions for this blog in .., no plans for more frequent posting or better photos or higher numbers on the stat counters or more income from the ads. There are no counters and there are no ads. Just words and pictures from one slow bumblebee of a blogger who likes to visit y'all and hum to you once in awhile. May .. be good to all of you.

Aerial Mount Rainier, Climbing Route Images

Moving the bear aside... This picture tells a long story. Here is Mount Rainier on May 30, 2006. I was able to capture a few climbing route images during a flight.

A series of recent storms dumped a lot of snow on the mountain. In some places, there were reports of 3 feet. There are rumors that more is expected later this week too. Winter is not over...

Today, however, climbers contended with blue bird skies and light breezes (and quite a bit of postholing.) The tracks indicated that a few made the summit too! Here, two climbers took on the arduous task of breaking trail up the Emmons Glacier... It didn't appear as if anyone else was on the route either. These climbers are at roughly 11,400 feet, exiting the top of the corridor to the left.

Parties were having a hard time making it to Camp Schurman until Sunday, so it's good to see a team getting up the route. This may mark the first successful ascent of the route in 2006.

And here is a nice image of the Ingraham Direct and Disappointment Cleaver routes. The green line traced the visible climbing route up the Disappointment Cleaver. Notice how directly it climbs the spin of the cleaver... Nice...

More images later, this week. All images by Mike Gauthier

A critical look at crampon fit and design

There are many different crampon manufactures. I am not so much interested in manufacturer or style of crampon as I am in the actual boot to crampon interface, in other words the "fit" of the crampon.

If you have ever lost a crampon on technical ground you know the surprise and general helplessness that goes right along with it. That is if you live through the experience.

I've only done it once. For the sake of documentation I was attempting to show a novice climber what not to do and some how literally kicked my right crampon off. As I watched it tumble down the waterfall I too started to topple over and slide.

The only thing that caught me was the dumb luck of catching my tool's pick on his buried pick as I went buy. Thankfully his placement held and I didn't knock him off as well. Other wise? It would have been a 500'+ foot tumble and most likely death, certainly serious injury.

Humbling and just as sobering. I had soloed some difficult terrain in those same boots and crampons. To this day I am not sure if my set up was bad or just my adjustments on the straps.
I was damn lucky and it cooled my jets for soloing (or just climbing) ice for awhile.

Either way it is not something I ever want to repeat.

Not everyone will recognize the crampons in the picture. But in 1980 they were one of the models that were putting up the first of the WI6 routes. They were a rigid model by SMC. Chouinard's rigid design while revolutionary always had a durability/reliability issue. The earliest clip on Salewa/Chouinards were the crampon of choice for many of us who disdained the weight of Lowe's Footfang. Foot Fangs were a quick glimpse into the future of crampon and not all of it was good news imo.

Back then we used Beck neoprene coated nylon straps (also sold by Chouinard) to hold the crampons on. Clip on crampon bindings were still new to climbing. While that turned out to be a great idea 10 years years later. (mid 1980s) I had seen two different brands of a single crampon with the early clip on binding still attached before we hit the first ice field on the Eiger in '78. Crampons sitting in the rumble mid way up a big north face gives one a moment to pause and consider the consequences of that gear choice.

Part of the fit process on the older crampons (not Foot Fangs however) was to adjust the crampon to the sole pattern of the boot. And most importantly it seemed to me was to make the fit tight enough that you were unlikely to loose a crampon is you broke a strap or a crampon post.

The more rigid the crampon and boot interface the better the combination will climb. Actually let me go farther in that comment, the more rigid the boot sole and the more rigid the crampon the better the combination will climb on pure ice given a solid interface between the boot and crampon.

Looking at currently available equipment with 7 pairs of La Sportive boots (Spantik, Baruntse, Batura, Nepal Evo, Trango Extreme Evo, Trango Ice Evo and the Nepal Evo GTX all size 45) and 4 different brands of crampons ( Camp, Black Diamond, Petzl and Grivel and 7 models) ) it is interesting the observations you can make on crampon fit and how the difference in boot construction even between models in the same brand affect that fit.

With the popularity of mixed climbing I am actually shocked at the sloppy interface between boot and crampons across the board. I don't claim to be a "M" climber but I understand how to hook a tool on rock and what it takes to climb at Hafner or on hard alpine mixed.

If you weigh in at 125 and have a size 7 foot not a lot is going to ruffle your gear if it is fit right. Hit 200# and have a size 12 foot and you can easily do things to a crampon that a 125# M12 climber has yet to dream of. An example is a front bail that turns into a shock absorber and can literally bounce off the lip of a boot. That might get anyone a little cranky. Add to a bad design, as a way to fix, the other bad design...with bail "laces" and you go from bad to worse.

I replace the Grivel "round" bails with something else and simply cut the additional retaining straps off the front bail of the BDs.

On the mixed terrain pictured below I noticed more than once I was climbing on the "ring" of a Grivel front bail. Not a comforting feeling. Just as bad I think is the large diameter wire and over size bails that BD uses. Bails hitting rock before your crampons do is a bad thing. Yes most every boot will fit BD crampons but precise they aren't. Of the three big manufactures only Petzl seems to have the front bails fit squared away. But then Petzl has the only front bails I know of that break. So may be "squared away" is a not really the right word. Crampons need to stay on the boot. Black Diamond has never had a breakage problem. I'll take reliability first, thank you! Everything is a trade off. And that is just a quick look at the front bails!

DT photo credit to DanielH and DaveB.

To be fair the crampon manufactures are hamstrung when it comes to boot fit. What is really needed is a DIN norm for rigid soled climbing boots. Then every crampon manufacturer would know exactly what they have to design to/with. After all the hard-goods guys are only half the real product on ice/mixed. You have to clamp a crampon to a boot sole to make a usable tool. I have 7 pairs of boots, all the same size and from the same manufacture. None of them fit the crampons I own exactly the same. Imagine the nightmare the crampons manufacturers go through every season as the boot technology and sole profiles change. Is it no wonder they build on the conservative side?

I'll repeat myself. We need a rigid sole mountain boot DIN norm.

I'll let you decide what is a good front bail/crampon fit for your style of climbing and what is not. My answer was to add Petzl bails to my BD crampons for a better fit and trust in the Petzl spiel that their bails are now reliable. It is a trim set up that fits all my boots well and drops a few oz. in the process.




There is nothing easy. cheap or guaranteed in all of this. I understand that. But I also get to point out the bad designs and ask that it be done better. More of us should! Speak up!







These are just shots of the front bails. While some front bails might not be the best set up, we should also be looking at the bottom of the crampons. To be specific just what the crampon covers on the bottom of the boot.




Most of us don't want to be climbing in "fruit boots" with no heel piece and only front pointing. It is a good direction for design to get lighter gear as long as we don't forget its real use. As important as the attachment system is and how much clearance the bails have from the boot, the real reason we use crampons is to "stick" us to ice and snow. How many points you have going down is even more important as those going forward if you want to climb with the least amount of effort on difficult terrain.




To my way of thinking the more down points the better. I'd rather have the weight and additional of traction that is the end result of skipping down points in a design. To lose weight, crampons have also lost "sole". By that I mean the crampons have lost surface area on the front half of the crampon generally. Less and less of your boot is being covered by the crampon. A quick look at the old Chouinard/Salewa rigid shows a crampon that almost perfectly covers the entire sole outline of the boot. Makes climbing on the crampon precisely, a lot easier.

More importantly we use a alpine/ice climbing crampon to "cut" steps when you want to rest from a front pointing position or help clear out a chopped ledge by kicking. How the down points are positioned and how many of them are on the crampon define how you can use your crampons to accomplish "cutting". Down points facing backward tend to skate your foot off when driving the foot forward with power to "cut" and don't allow you to kick efficiently to clear a step or a ledge.

The next selection of pictures is a grab bag of old and new crampons. Double click the photos and take a look at the difference in boot sole surface area coverage, the number and location of the down spikes and their obvious resulting traction or lack of traction.
























































The difference between lever lock heel bails is small but not without need for comment. Black Diamond and Grivel use a fairly large plastic lever. Both are comfortable on the back of a soft boot like the Trango Series from Sportiva. The Petzl lever? No so much. Painful in fact. Bad enough that I don't use the Petzl lever on anything but the heaviest boots. Nepal Evos and my dbl boots don't have an issue with the Petzl levers but I can't wear them on any of my Trango Series boots. It is just too painful.



Grivel and Black Diamond also use their retaining straps to give an extra safety feature by locking the levers in place with the added leverage and a tight strap. Not Petzl however. Hard to image a worse design for a crampon lever lock than what Petzl uses. Not only is the lever hard to get off when required but the retaining strap will only "retain" the crampon if you are extremely lucky and you pop a lever while climbing. The strap will not retain the lever against you boot. Take a look at the last picture in the next series. The lever down is with a TIGHT safety/retaining strap in place. Both Grivel's and Black Diamond's will retain the lever in the correct up position. It is a simple leverage issue. Petzl missed that. Black Diamond and Grivel did not. Weak......on Petzl's part. However you can fix the Petzl rear bail to be more reliable. You'll have to cut the adjustment ball on the top of the lever and then thread the safety strap through the top of the flip lever. Solves the problem but why are we required to fix it?

Easier and thankfully both Black Diamond and Grivel heel levers and locks will fit easily on the Petzl crampons. You can order up a pair from BD's customer service for a small fee and they snap right on.














With miles of ice climbing it is easy to look both backwards and forwards. The majority of pure ice lines were climbed with basic boots, ice tools and crampons. Some times I laugh at what we are using now and not in a good way. Most pure ice lines could be climbed with a club with a nail through it and hob nails.

What we have now for ice tools, boots and crampons makes ice climbing trivial in comparison to 30 years ago technology. The newest ice climbing gear is stellar in comparison so while I may sound like I am simply bitching, I am not. Ice tools are amazing these days. I am the perfect example of just how good they are. No question I am climbing harder ice now than I ever have because of the current hand tools. But boots and crampons have fallen behind the advances in ice tools. And in many ways boots and crampons have fallen behind some of the 30 year old technology! My 30 year old plastic boots and chromoly crampons will climb pure ice as good or better than anything available currently and they weight LESS!

Lucky for the manufactures that almost any crampon will work, as will almost any boot.

Call it a wake up call to the industry. And a invitation for you to join me in asking for better products. If nothing else take a critical look at your own gear and sort it out as required.

I'd like to see lighter weight boots and lighter weight crampons. Both with better over all traction all the while keeping the ability to front point with less effort. I'm not asking for much :)

To do that it is going to take a rethinking of basic designs and may be a critical look back to look forward.

The Brinker Kinexxion

The following Deed Record was found on June 7, .. at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It was the occasion of an extremely happy “Happy Dance” for me, as reported by Carol several days later. You see, it had been many, many years since I've been able to add a new ancestor to my pedigree chart.



I was ecstatic, to put it mildly. I had finally found the maiden name (as well as the actual first name) of the mother of Elizabeth (Switzer) Yarian – Catharine Brinker – and the name of Catharine's father, Andrew!



Not only had I added a new ancestor, but, I didn't know it at the time, I would have the Brinker lineage several generations back to the early 1700s in Switzerland. It seems that extensive research has been done on the Brinker family by two ladies who have documented Andrew's parents and grandparents!



In addition, at least one book has been published on the Leatherman/Lederman family – the wife of Andrew Brinker was Barbara Leatherman.



Yes, those last two days before I left Salt Lake City on June 9th were filled with amazing revelations and I was busy gathering as much information as possible, barely even reading most of it at the time!



And this document, a Quit Claim Deed dated the 11th of August in 1849 was the catalyst for that research frenzy... the heirs of Catharine Sweitzer were “selling” 213 acres in section 12 Fairfield Township, Columbiana County, Ohio to Thomas McCoy for which he gave one dollar to each of them. I've added emphasis on specific "important" portions...

Daniel Deemer, etal to Thomas McCoy.

Know all men by these presents the we Daniel Deemer and Susan Deemer his wife, of the county of Columbiana, Jacob Mondwick and Barbara Mondwick his wife of the County of Portage, Peter Bubecker & Rebecca Bubecker his wife of the County of Mahoning, Jacob Yarian & Elizabeth Yarian his wife of the County of Portage for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar each to us severally in hand paid by Thomas McCoy of the county of Columbiana the receipt whereof is hereby Acknowledged, have remised, released, and forever quit claimed... all our right, title and interest both legal and equitable in and to the following described premises, situate in the county of Columbiana and state of Ohio, and being the South East corner or part of section number twelve, in township number twelve, in range number two in the district of land offered for sale at Steubenville. Beginning at the South East corner of said section then on West with the line of the same thirty chains and seventy five links to a post, thence North fifteen degrees West fifty chains and fifty nine links to a post on Peter Firestones line thence East thirteen chains & twenty five links to a post, thence North ten chains and eighty seven links to a post, thence East thirty chains to a post, on the Eastern boundary line, thence South with the section line fifty nine chains and seventy four links to the place of beginning. Containing two hundred & thirteen acres and forty two hundredths, be the same more or less. It being the tract or parcel of land willed & devised by Andrew Brinker late of Columbiana County, deced, to his daughter Catharine Switzer & her heirs & deeded by the executors of said Andrew to said Catharine. To have and to hold the aforesaid described premises with all the privileges and appurtenances unto the said Thomas McCoy his heirs and assigns forever, so that neither we the aforesaid grantors above named nor our heirs nor any other person or persons claiming by through or under us shall at any time hereafter by any ways or means have claim or demand any right or title to the aforesaid premises or appurtenance or any part thereof. In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this eleventh day of August A. D. 1849.

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of us

Samuel Entrilkin

George W. Entrilkin

The deed was signed by Dr Daniel Deemer, Susannah Deemer, Jacob Morndick, Barbary Morndick, Peter Buckecker, Rebecca Buckecker, Jacob Yarian, and Elizabeth Yarian.



Received for record January 30th, 1850. And recorded on the second day of February following.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

But there was one thing that really, really puzzled me about this transaction. Did you notice that I put the word selling in quotes in the paragraph prior to the deed transcription?



Why was the land sold to Thomas McCoy for so little – just one dollar paid to each of the heirs?



It seems I had overlooked another earlier deed recorded in volume 41, page 818. I had made note of it but not the name of the purchaser and I hadn't taken the time to view it while in Salt Lake City – I was concentrating on deeds that included “etal” with the grantors name! On my visit to Columbiana County I looked up the record and found that Jacob and Catherine had actually sold the land for $5,000 to Thomas McCoy. However, I neglected to write down the month and day of the transaction (I got in a hurry because the Recorders Office was extremely busy). The year was 1849. Most likely earlier than August 11th since it was recorded in an earlier volume than the other deed.



So, why?. If Jacob and Catherine sold the land to Mr. McCoy earlier in 1849 then why was there the second transaction with her heirs signing off on a Quit Claim deed? Catharine was still living – she didn't die until 1852. So, why?



I don't have an answer to that question. I'm just very glad that they did, otherwise I still might not know that Catherine Brinker was the mother of Elizabeth Yarian. Nor would I now have several more generations added to my ancestral pedigree chart!





Columbiana County, Ohio Deeds Volume 42, bottom of page 596 (FHL Film 926947)



Columbiana County, Ohio Deeds Volume 42 page 597 (FHL Film 926947)

Traversing the Trail Ridge Road

On my “speedy” drive back to Indiana from Salt Lake City (1600 miles in 4 days) I chose to go through Rocky Mountain National Park. I knew I wouldn't have any time to spend there but also knew that it would be a nice drive!



Trail Ridge Road, the road through Rocky Mountain National Park, opened on June 7th, just three days before I arrived. The highest continuous paved highway in the United States, connecting the towns of Estes Park on the east side and Grand Lake on the west, it reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet and affords some spectacular views.





This winter, Mother Nature, dumped a lot of snow on the area. More than she has in 30 years. The amount of snow that the snowplow operators faced when they began clearing the road in April along with a big snow storm the last week of May, which produced 17 foot drifts in some areas, delayed the opening of the road. It is usually open by Memorial Day weekend.



I was fortunate that it was open by the time I went through. I was also fortunate that it was a most beautiful day!









A big snow blower at the Alpine Visitor Center.





This fellow was about 15 feet off the road.



If you look closely, you can see guardrails along the road on the right-center side of the picture. This is looking back from the Rock Cut parking area.