Alpine Climbing

So after a Turkey day workout extravaganza yesterday and what with the gym being closed today and the weather in the mountains sucking there was no alternative but to go workout on my own. So off to the garage for a somewhat cold and solitary ten minutes of pain.

Michael at CrossFit suggested pullups combined with overhead lifting/pushing makes a powerful combo and he’s not wrong. I devised the following; pullups for climbing and thrusters because I’m so very bad at them – “there isn’t a lot of pushing in your world”.

So…

Set of 21, 15, 9 pullups (no kip) and dumbell push-presses with 50 squats after each set, total 150 squats.

The nice thing about this is you just camp out next to the bar and get with it. You could change it up with 400m run instead of squats. I’m tempted to add pushups too, just because.

Alasdair and I spent a short day at Index Town Wall on Saturday. Thin Fingers proved to be “good character building stuff” as the crux of the first pitch was pretty wet. The second pitch was just plain hard especially in the cold. Probably the last day of rock climbing for a while so no complaints.

I took my new Canon A630 digital camera for a test drive and got a really good panorama of Mount Index and Mount Persis from midway up the Lower Town Wall.

There are more new pictures in the gallery:

• Two climbs on Mount Combatant in 2004.
• A few photos of Mount Rethel in 2003.
• Ice climbing on the East Coast.
• North face of Mount Hood, OR.
• An ascent of Taseko Mountain, BC back in 2000.
• A trip to the Upper Tellot Gl. in 2003.

These all appear on the World Map page. If the Pacific Northwest weather continues I’ll be adding some more ice climbing pictures this weekend.

Destructive relationships, we’ve all had them. You know, the attraction outways all of the downsides. The object of your desires is; married, not interested in men/women or otherwise unattainable. Or, most likely, all of the above and crazy like a rabid wounded dog. Any sane person would walk away rather than entering into a train wreck of a relationship that can only end badly. Remember, “It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye”. But no, it’ll seem like a really, really good idea.

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A bestiary of pullups…

Slow kip	Fast kip
Assisted pullup	Reverse handed kip
Bar muscle up	Pullup with medicine ball
L pullup	Behind the head pullup

Special thanks to all those at CrossFit who took a few minutes to “get some more” after their workout the other night and help me with photos for this post.

Driving into Mike King’s ranch on our way into the Waddington a few weeks back with Jello Biafra’s paranoid ranting blasting out reminded me about how important music really is.

“Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors” Jello Biafra and DOA
“Naked” Benjamin Zephaniah
Driving to Da Wadd with Simeon. It’s a long haul to Williams Lake.

“Soundclash” Renegade Soundwave
Weekends seracing on Mount Baker with the Vancouver contingent. Waiting for the snow to come.

“Real Gone” Tom Waites
Climbing Joffre with Robert Nugent – the top of the “hill”.

“Troublegum” Therapy?
“Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” The Dead Kennedys
Ice climbing in the San Juans with Simeon and driving through the “dead zone” of northern New Mexico past midnight.

“Music for the Jilted Generation” The Prodigy
Driving back from Canada after climbing Slesse and getting passed by Al, who was going even faster.

“Bites and Remission” Skinny Puppy
Soloing The Triple Cs on Dragontail in bad weather.

“The Stone Roses” The Stone Roses
Cragging in the Peak with MoJo and the “Bristol Crew”.

“Play” Moby
Climbing the Black Dyke on Canon Cliff in a snow storm with Jimbo as part of the New Hampshire Magical Mystery Tour.

Someone showed me this neat little tool the other day. It’ll let you produce World and US maps with states highlighted. For instance I used it to show the countries and US states I’ve visited (hanging out in airports doesn’t count).

create your own visited countries map
create your own visited states map