STAGE ONE [and] EAT THAT VIEW!

It seems like a summiting of North America's highest point, Denali, 20,320 feet (6195 m) will be in the works for your lead author, sometime in the next few years. Our good friend Erik has been drifting toward mountaineering lately, and we here at A.P.R. are getting caught up in his enthusiasm and are already in the planning stages for a climb. I don't know if any canids have made the ascent, but I know your intrepid assistant editor Mattie would love to join us, and if it is allowed, she'll be there.

The first stage for such an undertaking is safe glacier travel, part of which entails being able to haul oneself or another member of a climbing party to safety, in the event of a crevasse fall.

Although we've undertaken some limited glacier excursions in the past, there's no substitute for expert instruction to keep mountain/glacier travel as safe as possible. To this end, Erik learned about the Alaska Mountaineering School, and the courses they offer, a few months ago (http://www.climbalaska.org/), and we signed up for the April 11/12 Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue course, offered on the Matanuska glacier, 80 miles east of Anchorage, in the Chugach Range. Based in the groovy climbing/tourist mecca of Talkeetna, AMS has been around for over 30 years, and is a top-notch operation, providing all manner of mountaineering courses and guided expeditions.

Erik and I rented a cabin fri. at Majestic Mountain Lodge, a beautiful resort 15 miles east of the glacier, with ski trails around the valley, surrounded by sharp, icy peaks. I went for a nice skate ski, and Eric a run, that evening. Saturday morning, we showed up at 0800 for our course, at the glacier parking area. This is what the AMS web-site has to say about this course:(http://climbalaska.org/wshop-glacier.html)

"The first morning is spent teaching basic knots, wearing a harness, using crampons, self-arrest position, placing ice screws, and building anchors. After a lunch, we practice rope coiling, belaying, and stacking for glacier travel. Students break into rope teams and practice traveling and route finding skills. Next we move into simulated crevasse fall scenarios from simple assistance to raising systems, all on flat terrain.

The morning of the second day is spent at a cliff lowering "victims" over the edge so they can practice fixed-line ascension while the rescuers set up hauling systems. The afternoon is spent roping up for glacier travel in 2, 3, and 4 person teams and incorporating extras such as sleds. The exact itinerary will depend on conditions and instructor preference."

The Matanuska glacier is one of the few in Alaska that is not in fast recession. Because it has a very high source region, over 12,000 feet, unlike many of the others in the state. It has retreated back about a half-mile in the past 30 years, and thinned at the edge somewhat, but hasn't retreated nearly as much as many of the lower-elevation source glaciers, like the Mendenhall near Juneau, or Portage, east of Girdwood. Here is a summer picture I took of it in August, 2006.

There was still plenty of snow around this past sat., when we arrived just before 0800. It was plenty chilly as well, about 18 deg. with a stiff breeze. We stayed quite cool the first two hours as we met our instructors, the other students, and then had some basic glaciology. Knot tying began by 0900, and doing that for over an hour with gloves off, made for some cold hands. I had learned many of these knots years ago when I was a firefighter/medic at Chena Goldstream Fire-Rescue in my Chena Ridge neighborhood, but had forgotten them in the years since. The prussik, figure 8 on a bight, figure 8 follow-through, double fishermans, and munter, were among the ones we practiced that morning. The prussik is especially valuable, it allows you to attach a short section of rope attached to your body, to the main climbing rope. When you put a load on it, it tightens up and prevents movement. But if it is loosened, you can slide it up and down the main rope. So it is used for ascending and descending on the main rope, in case you fall into a crevasse.

After our knot-tying, we headed in toward the glacier. A short way in, a picnic table marks the point where untrained/ungeared people are urged not to continue. There we put on our crampons, helmets, and ice axes, and walked in just about a half-mile further over the glacier to a small frozen lake. On the way in, our instructors gave us basic crampon instruction, how to step efficiently without tearing up our pants, and self-arrest procedure. This is if you start sliding or falling down a slope or into a crevasse. You must fall/slide onto your shoulder, and dig the ice axe in to the ice, and hopefully come to a stop.

We spent the rest of the first day at this area, learning about anchoring procedures, and then how to rope up in teams of three or four, for glacier travel. The jumbled forms of seracs behind us provided for interesting scenery. Seracs are large chunks of ice that fall off the edge of the glacier as it moves. Great danger exists near these, but we stayed well back. Many lives have been lost on glaciers world-wide, in the icefall areas on their terminus, from seracs falling.

We had three instructors, Nick, a 25-30 yr. old student at AK Pacific Univ. in Anchorage, who has been guiding/instructing for 2 years, Melis, a really sweet 30 yr. old or so woman from Talkeetna, who has over 10 years experience (with many Denali summits), and Greg, about my age, who lives in McCarthy and has many years of guiding/instructing experience with AMS and in the Wrangell mountains.

Here Nick is showing us how to make a three-point anchor in the ice. First you make two V-threads, holes bored in the ice with an ice screw, in which rope is threaded through. An ice anchor makes for the third point at the top. This anchor is made to attach the climbing rope to, in case a crevasse rescue is necessary. The two or three on the rope team not in the crevasse need to anchor the climbing rope to the mountain, so they can detach, check on the victim, and begin preparing to haul them in.

The end of the first day, we roped up in teams of three or four, and headed out, back to the parking area. The heaviest members of the team are put in the middle, with lighter ones in front (meaning I'm almost always up front!) or in back. This is because the front person is usually the one to fall in to a crevasse, so the heaviest person right behind should be able to arrest their fall without any additional aid. Then the person behind them can begin making an anchor to transfer the weight of the victim to the mountain/glacier.

We all had a great time our first day, and the sun came out in the afternoon, making for beautiful scenery.

Quick, what is this? Modern art in downtown Anchorage? The Arctic Ocean from space? No, just a frozen puddle at the glacier's terminus last sunday morning. Interesting how something so mundane can be surprisingly interesting/beautiful.

Easter Sunday, the second day of our course, dawned sunny, and a little warmer, with no wind. Beautiful. We started the day roping up in our teams, then heading in to near the same area as the day before. Then we set up three point anchors in an ice slope, and threw the rope over a 25 ft. ice ledge. Here is where we practiced our ascending/descending on the main rope, as if we had to haul ourselves up from a crevasse fall (assuming we were not injured).

To ascend/descend, a rope foot-prussik is used on one of our legs, and a mechanical ascending tool is used in one of our hands. The foot-prussik is just a short section of 6.5mm cord with a loop for your foot, attached to the climbing rope by a prussik knot. When you put your weight down, the prussik knot tightens around the main rope and you can step up. Then you can slide the ascender in your hand up the rope. Then, you can lift your leg up, loosen the prussik, slide it up, then step back down, etc... Thus, you ascend up the rope. It goes surprisingly fast. It only seemed like a minute or so for me as I zipped up the rope on the ice ledge. Descending is just the opposite procedure.

Here we all are having a go on the rope ascending and descending. Erik is just to the right of me, heading up.

Another anchoring technique we learned was to use pickets in snow. Pickets are t-shaped aluminum bars in different lengths, ours were 18". You anchor these in to snow either vertically (if it is deep enough) or horizontally, with rope attached. If the snow is packed down enough, they can be surprisingly strong, and able to take the load off the rope team so the crevasse victim can be hauled up. The snow in our area wasn't very deep or hard, so it was a test trying to get that done. The last thing we did Sunday afternoon before roping up for the walk out, was practicing an actual crevasse fall rescue scenario. First Melis, Nick, and Greg did one for us, then we split up into teams, and did it ourselves.

A pack attached to a climbing rope, to simulate a victim, was thrown over the ice ledge, with two or three people behind. Then, the closest person to the edge had to arrest the fall, while the person(s) behind had to make sure the one ahead was holding, while they detached, and built an anchor (though we built the anchors first, to make things faster/simpler). Once the anchor was in, the person near the edge arresting the fall could slowly detach, and then the team could rig up the line with a pulley for added mechanical advantage, to aid in hauling in the victim. That was fun, learning all those steps, and there's alot to it, many different knots and attachment procedures, etc.. Something that definitely needs to be practiced.

After we all went through these scenarios, we roped back up for our trip back. Once we got back to the parking area, we returned all the gear we borrowed, filled out course evaluations, and thanked our instructors. They were all very supportive and professional, and we came away with valuable knowledge, that will make for safe, and efficient glacial travel, as we journey through our vast alpine areas here in Alaska.

What is stage two? http://climbalaska.org/mtc-12day.html That will be our 12-day AMS mountaineering course, which Erik and I will take next year. This will teach us all the essentials for safe and effective mountaineering, which we'll use in stage three, the actual Denali ascent. When will that be? Well, if not 2010, certainly 2011. We want to do it ourselves, with a few others, and not have to spend many thousands of dollars for guides. We'll need to build up some more mountaineering experience first. If any of you out there are interested in joining us, let us know!

EAT THAT VIEW!

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/26-1

I came across the above article a few weeks ago, about the organic vegetable garden Michelle Obama is developing, on part of the White House Lawn. Of course, it is from an English paper, not the U.S. You all know how we here at A.P.R. feel about the U.S. mass media. Enough said.

What an interesting development, and what great symbolism. You would never have seen anything like this in a Republican administration. Let's roll back the years a little. I am old enough to remember when Jimmy Carter use to give fireside chats from the White House in the 1970s, in a sweater, urging people to conserve energy. He actually installed solar panels on part of the White House roof. When Reagan came in, those were dismantled, as were many governmental research programs and funding for alternative energy. Nothing of the nature of Carter's or Ms. Obama's undertakings occurred at the White House from 1981 until this year.

Planting the Seeds of a Revolution
by Ellen Goodman
"You have to admit that this gives new meaning to the idea of a "shovel-ready project." There are now 1,100 square feet on the South Lawn of the White House being transformed into a kitchen garden. If Americans follow the first family's lead, the seed pack will become the new stimulus package. At least we'll have something to do with those pitchforks after the AIG bonus babies surrender their money.

I tip my hat to the first lady since my own rookie season in the green league opened when my daughter was Sasha's age. It began with a lust for real tomatoes and a horror that she would grow up thinking cucumbers sprung full grown, cellophane wrapped and adorned with stickers from the supermarket womb.

I soon discovered that having a garden is like having a pet. (Obamas beware!) You start out dreaming about puppies and you end up wielding a pooper scooper. You start out planning for snap peas and you end up pulling weeds. You also get hooked.

The image of Michelle Obama surrounded by fifth-graders digging into the White House dirt gave heart to locavores everywhere.

The idea of an edible landscape was fertilized by left coast chef Alice Waters and food guru Michael Pollan. But it was Roger Doiron, a modest Zone 6 gardener - my kind of guy - and head of Kitchen Gardeners International who began a lettuce-roots campaign last year to "Eat the View" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Now spring has sprung and we have the first mom getting her hands dirty in the attempt to get children to eat their vegetables.

But there is something else about the incredible edible project that also makes me do a fist bump. The Obamas aren't just eating the view, they are eating the lawn.

What Michelle and the kids and the crew did the other day was to drive a shovel right into the heart of that American icon: the lawn. They literally took the most pampered lawn in America, dumped it in the wheel barrel, and carted it away. All that was missing was a chorus of "This lawn is your lawn."

Is it possible that along with local, organic food, the First Garden can promote the thoroughly subversive idea that this symbol has seen its day?

I am not the only one who looks at lawns - including my own - as a populist enemy. The low grassy surface has its roots in the English aristocracy, among folks who had so much food and land they didn't have to farm it, they only had to display it.

Today, lawns cover 40 million acres, making them the largest agricultural sector in America. They consume 270 billion gallons of water a week, or enough for 81 million acres of organic vegetables. They suck up $40 billion a year on seed, sod, and chemicals, leading one historian to compare them to "a nationwide chemical experiment with homeowners as the guinea pigs."

We mow the lawn, we fertilize it, we pesticize it, we water it, for the absurd purpose of keeping this useless patch in a deliberate state of arrested development.

"It's actually devouring resources and polluting and happening in the most visible parts of our community - the vacant land between the house and the street," says Fritz Haeg, creator of the Edible Estates project, whose goal is to begin replacing the domestic front lawn with what he calls "full frontal gardening."

This may be a fertile time for change. During the housing bubble, people thought of their homes as an ATM or a transient way station. If we settle into a view of home as a place we nurture ourselves, we may have a grass-roots anti-grass movement.

I don't want to get carried away. The last White House occupants to eat the lawn were Woodrow Wilson's sheep. As a gardener, I begin every new term with high hopes and end up with tomato hornworms, a creature that makes the Very Hungry Caterpillar look anorexic.

Moreover, the White House garden is likely to produce a bumper crop of metaphors.
I can imagine the first Fox News report on the cost of each leaf of spinach. I can imagine when Miriam's Soup Kitchen begs the Obamas to stop sending over zucchini - HELP! Or the first time one of their cultivated bees stings a foreign leader.

But then again, the First Gardeners are in the first 100 days. We never did promise them a rose garden."
© 2009 The Boston Globe

Just the fact that the White House garden is organic sends a powerful message. That they want what's best for their children, and that they know organic produce is. As well that to grow one's own food, even if it's just a small portion, is rewarding on many levels. While A.P.R. is in much despair lately, over the control that the Wall Street criminals are exerting over the Obama adminstration's economic and foreign policy, we revel in this small, symbolic development.

In fact, with the dire state of the economy, we recommend that everyone "Eats Their View", i.e., digs up that environmentally disastrous lawn, the effluents of which are helping to create dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore areas. Replace it with an organic garden, just the work involved in the fresh air will be good for you, not to mention the fruits of your labor.

We here at A.P.R. decided never to have a lawn when we moved in to our new Chena Ridge research centre in March, 2006, and instead have planted dozens of fruit and ornamental trees, and raspberries. This year, we are putting in a raised bed garden, probably about a 15 ft. by 25 ft. or so box, with added topsoil. We can't get too fancy in our planting, the moose will eat tender tasty things like carrots, radishes, spinach, etc... But potatoes, onions, and whatever else we can plant that they will leave us will be in (we know they love pumpkins, so those are out). And with the economy still heading into the dump, any moves toward self-suffiency can't be a bad thing.

I remember fondly my maternal grandmother on their farm on Cooper Mountain, above Beaverton, Oregon. She and my grandfather raised 13 children on their 53 acres of fruit orchards, and grew all their own food. She used a wood-burning kitchen cook-stove until the day they left the farm in 1975. That kitchen was so hot on those long summer days while her and the older kids canned and put up food for the coming winter. Will we have to go back to that? Can we? Certainly living more like that would be good for all of us. Cheers.