http://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaineers/dp/0898868289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240547758&sr=1-1on.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaineers/dp/0898868289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240547758&sr=1-1
"Mountaineering - The Freedom of the Hills" is the climbers bible. First written in 1960, it covers all the aspects of the sport, from the proper knots to use for roping up, to weather, camping, and food. We here at A.P.R. are about 1/3 of the way through it, hung up right now in the knot section. Besides just reading about it, we need to get out in our local mountains and spend time refreshing our skills, while enjoying the scenery. 
We only had one day though for a trip into the Alaska Range. My friend Matthew Klick, who is a serious mountaineer, and all-around athlete, told me he had summitted Mt. Silvertip, about 9400 ft., a few weeks ago. It is in the half of the Alaska Range east of Denali National Park. The drive there takes about 2 1/2 hours, 90 min. east to Delta Junction, then an hour south on the beautiful Richardson Highway, which parallels the Delta River as it drains these awesome peaks. The view of Mt. Hayes, above, at 13,832 ft., is always inspiring, as it glistens in it's permanent coat of snow and ice. Even on the hottest of summer days, the free-air freezing levels rarely reach this high, and new snow falls above 8000 feet every month. 
Matt told me to summit Silvertip, you have to go up the somewhat steep and narrow gulch that Michael's creek is in, (above) to a windswept high valley, backed by a headwall. Then you have to climb the headwall, drop behind it and cross part of Jarvis Glacier, then climb Silvertip. But it is all non-technical, no anchors are needed, and you just need crampons, ice axe, and helmet, and know how to self-arrest with your axe.
We only had one day though for a trip into the Alaska Range. My friend Matthew Klick, who is a serious mountaineer, and all-around athlete, told me he had summitted Mt. Silvertip, about 9400 ft., a few weeks ago. It is in the half of the Alaska Range east of Denali National Park. The drive there takes about 2 1/2 hours, 90 min. east to Delta Junction, then an hour south on the beautiful Richardson Highway, which parallels the Delta River as it drains these awesome peaks. The view of Mt. Hayes, above, at 13,832 ft., is always inspiring, as it glistens in it's permanent coat of snow and ice. Even on the hottest of summer days, the free-air freezing levels rarely reach this high, and new snow falls above 8000 feet every month. 
Matt told me to summit Silvertip, you have to go up the somewhat steep and narrow gulch that Michael's creek is in, (above) to a windswept high valley, backed by a headwall. Then you have to climb the headwall, drop behind it and cross part of Jarvis Glacier, then climb Silvertip. But it is all non-technical, no anchors are needed, and you just need crampons, ice axe, and helmet, and know how to self-arrest with your axe. 
This is a picture looking back to Silvertip, from the other side of the Delta River, in April, 2006. When my friend Jeff Gordon and I skied along the river, and into a drainage on the other side, before having to come back in a ground blizzard. But you can see, in the lower right, the canyon Michael's creek is in, with the valley and headwall behind.
We reached the spot where Michael's creek crosses the highway at about 0930, and I put on my metal-edged backcountry classic skis. Above is about a half-mile in, but looking back, the gulch is very narrow and pretty steep. Matt's tracks were still visible, it had not snowed since he was up there, two weeks before. Which was a good thing, as the avalanche potential should therefore be lower, as temperatures had warmed, and in the spring sun, unstable cornices and slabs should have already come down.
Mattie just couldn't get enough of those steep sidewalls, she was up and down them on both sides constantly. Unfortunately, I forgot my climbing skins for my skis, in my rush to get out of the house earlier. For those not in the know, these are felt-like adhesive-backed strips you strap on to the bottom of your skis. They give you strong traction for steep uphill striding, but allow you to glide down, albeit much more slowly than without them. But, without them, in that narrow, icy gulch, I quickly decided it would be treacherous on skis, so ditched them about a half-mile in, and just cramponed up, and took hold of the ice axe. It was somewhat breezy, even at the start, a north wind about 20 mph was blowing in the Delta River canyon, which the highway cuts through, and that wind was funneling up the gulch. About a mile up, we came to the first of three snow slides/avalanches that had come across the gulch. This one happened before Matt's trek, his tracks were visible on 
it, a good sign for us. This is looking up at an angle toward its source. It was about ten feet thick over the stream, well deep enough for a fatal encounter. I have had some avalanche training over the years in Missoula and Juneau, involving digging snow pits with an expert, as well as reading books, etc.., and am very conscious of the hazards these pose, and the factors that produce them. I knew a very nice man, Rod Sutherland, in Missoula, who I first met at the Univ. of Montana, where he headed the student outdoors program. He died in a small avalanche, much like this one, in the Kootenai Creek canyon, in the Bitterroot mountains, in May, 1997. I hiked in there shortly thereafter, and it was very sad, seeing how small the slide was, and realizing his misfortune to go that way at 
only 29 years of age. About two miles up, on the north side, we saw this cornice hanging over the steep sidewall. A small slide had already occurred. This is a place not to linger in! With that strong spring sun shining on it, only a matter of time before it drops, and brings much of the snow on the sidewall down with it. We hurried right through there. 
About three miles in, we were well above any vegetation, in higher, more exposed terrain around 4000 feet. Being there, with no vegetation in site, surrounded by rock, snow, and ice, with a cold 20F breeze, I thought, cool, we could be in Greenland, or Antarctica, for all we knew. The wind was up to about 25-30 mph, and this was the view back, note the lens-shaped clouds over the high mountains.
These are altocumulus standing lenticular clouds (ACSL for short, in weather-speak). They occur in a stable atmosphere when strong winds ascend up one side of a mountain, or range, cool enough for condensation to occur, then when the air descends and warms on the other side, condensation ends, and the cloud tapers off. Which is why they have the lens shape, and are a sign of strong winds aloft that could pose problems at the surface. This one, above, was over the south sidewall of the canyon, and I wondered what we'd find when we got higher. 
Well, about an hour later, and just five miles in from the road, at 2500 feet, we reached the windswept valley Matt told us about, at around 5000 feet. The wind was fast and furious, 30-40 mph with stronger gusts, and it was about +15F. More importantly, the top of the headwall was in the clouds, and they were getting a little thicker. We spent about a half-hour here, sizing up the situation, deciding what to do. 
For some reason, when I tried using my camera for self-portraits, every setting delivered a picture like this, above. Almost like being in another dimension. Which, in a way, we were, in that bare, icy, windswept valley, backed by the cloud-covered headwall. Well, we decided not to make a permanent visit to this other dimension, and turned back. Climbing the headwall, and crossing an unfamiliar glacier while whited out, we reckoned, would do that for us. That was a bit of a bummer, since we were only halfway to our goal, but half the skill of mountaineering, is knowing when to back down, and stay safe. The higher mountains, above 6000 feet in Northwest Canada and Alaska, have some of the potentially deadliest weather of anywhere in the World, all year. Mountains in Norway, which only go up to 8000 feet, and Patagonia which has peaks of 8000-11,500 feet can compare, or the Himalayas above 22,000 feet during the Indian monsoon season. What does that mean? Storm force winds (58 mph or more) and heavy snow possible in every month. And when it's very cold, wind chills on the bottom of the charts (-80 or so).
It's not something we take lightly. On the way back down, the snow and ice covered rocks on the canyon sidewalls were sure beautiful in the sun and shade. I was much more careful on the way down as well. One hazard I was conscious of, was the possibility of punching through snow-bridges covering flowing Michael's creek. There were several I had to cross on the way up and down, under which you could hear the water flowing. Punching straight through several feet onto some rocks could cause serious injury, so we stepped lightly across each one, probing ahead with the ice axe. Fortunately they all held, and I stayed on the sidewalls as much of the time as I could, which was easy, with the crampons on. Six hours after starting up, we came back to my stashed skis. I decided just to carry them, not wanting to get out of control, on that steep, narrow route. Unfortunately, in sunny areas, the snow had turned to ripened spring mush, and I started postholing quite a bit, sometimes at every step. This is when you just fall right through the snow, a foot or more, sometimes it was past my waist. A few times I actually crawled, to spread my weight out more. My knees and hips got pretty sore from just a half-mile of this, so it was a relief when we got back to the car.
GOOD NEIGHBOUR ?
I came across this article several days ago on the Commondreams.org web-site. This incident occurred at the Summit of the Americas, where heads of state from all the western Hemisphere countries met, except Cuba, which the U.S. has insisted upon excluding, since 1962.
Acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Mr Chavez had approached Mrs Clinton at the meeting and they discussed returning ambassadors to their respective posts in Caracas and Washington.
Venezuela, the fourth-biggest foreign supplier of crude oil to the US, has repeatedly accused Americans of aiding the political opposition to Mr Chavez, a former paratrooper.
In 2002, Mr Chavez charged the Central Intelligence Agency with masterminding a brief coup against him.
Mr Chavez, who last month called Mr Obama an "ignoramus" when it comes to Latin America, gave Mr Obama a copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano's book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.
When asked by reporters at the Fifth Summit of the Americas whether he planned to read the book, Mr Obama, who doesn't speak Spanish, joked: "I thought it was one of Chavez's. I was going to give him one of mine."
Mr Chavez regularly accused former president Bush of trying to destabilise his Government, and in a 2006 speech to the United Nations called him "the devil". In September, Mr Chavez expelled US ambassador Patrick Duddy to show solidarity with Bolivia, which had also kicked out its US envoy.
Mr Obama said he recognised that it would take time to improve relations with Latin America, which he said felt neglected by the Bush administration.
Other Latin American critics of the US were less enthusiastic about the nation's new President.
Bolivia's Evo Morales, a former coca grower who has clashed with the US since taking office in 2006, said "policies of conspiracy" had not changed under Mr Obama.
"If there is a real change, a change in economic policy, and if there are relations based on mutual respect, it will be better," Mr Morales said. "We can't go back to the past."
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega two days ago greeted Mr Obama with a 50-minute speech that included harangues about "Yankee troops" and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Mr Ortega said Mr Obama wasn't responsible for President John Kennedy's misadventure. "I'm grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Mr Obama said."
We reached the spot where Michael's creek crosses the highway at about 0930, and I put on my metal-edged backcountry classic skis. Above is about a half-mile in, but looking back, the gulch is very narrow and pretty steep. Matt's tracks were still visible, it had not snowed since he was up there, two weeks before. Which was a good thing, as the avalanche potential should therefore be lower, as temperatures had warmed, and in the spring sun, unstable cornices and slabs should have already come down.
Mattie just couldn't get enough of those steep sidewalls, she was up and down them on both sides constantly. Unfortunately, I forgot my climbing skins for my skis, in my rush to get out of the house earlier. For those not in the know, these are felt-like adhesive-backed strips you strap on to the bottom of your skis. They give you strong traction for steep uphill striding, but allow you to glide down, albeit much more slowly than without them. But, without them, in that narrow, icy gulch, I quickly decided it would be treacherous on skis, so ditched them about a half-mile in, and just cramponed up, and took hold of the ice axe. It was somewhat breezy, even at the start, a north wind about 20 mph was blowing in the Delta River canyon, which the highway cuts through, and that wind was funneling up the gulch. About a mile up, we came to the first of three snow slides/avalanches that had come across the gulch. This one happened before Matt's trek, his tracks were visible on 
it, a good sign for us. This is looking up at an angle toward its source. It was about ten feet thick over the stream, well deep enough for a fatal encounter. I have had some avalanche training over the years in Missoula and Juneau, involving digging snow pits with an expert, as well as reading books, etc.., and am very conscious of the hazards these pose, and the factors that produce them. I knew a very nice man, Rod Sutherland, in Missoula, who I first met at the Univ. of Montana, where he headed the student outdoors program. He died in a small avalanche, much like this one, in the Kootenai Creek canyon, in the Bitterroot mountains, in May, 1997. I hiked in there shortly thereafter, and it was very sad, seeing how small the slide was, and realizing his misfortune to go that way at 
only 29 years of age. About two miles up, on the north side, we saw this cornice hanging over the steep sidewall. A small slide had already occurred. This is a place not to linger in! With that strong spring sun shining on it, only a matter of time before it drops, and brings much of the snow on the sidewall down with it. We hurried right through there. 
About three miles in, we were well above any vegetation, in higher, more exposed terrain around 4000 feet. Being there, with no vegetation in site, surrounded by rock, snow, and ice, with a cold 20F breeze, I thought, cool, we could be in Greenland, or Antarctica, for all we knew. The wind was up to about 25-30 mph, and this was the view back, note the lens-shaped clouds over the high mountains.
These are altocumulus standing lenticular clouds (ACSL for short, in weather-speak). They occur in a stable atmosphere when strong winds ascend up one side of a mountain, or range, cool enough for condensation to occur, then when the air descends and warms on the other side, condensation ends, and the cloud tapers off. Which is why they have the lens shape, and are a sign of strong winds aloft that could pose problems at the surface. This one, above, was over the south sidewall of the canyon, and I wondered what we'd find when we got higher. 
Well, about an hour later, and just five miles in from the road, at 2500 feet, we reached the windswept valley Matt told us about, at around 5000 feet. The wind was fast and furious, 30-40 mph with stronger gusts, and it was about +15F. More importantly, the top of the headwall was in the clouds, and they were getting a little thicker. We spent about a half-hour here, sizing up the situation, deciding what to do. 
For some reason, when I tried using my camera for self-portraits, every setting delivered a picture like this, above. Almost like being in another dimension. Which, in a way, we were, in that bare, icy, windswept valley, backed by the cloud-covered headwall. Well, we decided not to make a permanent visit to this other dimension, and turned back. Climbing the headwall, and crossing an unfamiliar glacier while whited out, we reckoned, would do that for us. That was a bit of a bummer, since we were only halfway to our goal, but half the skill of mountaineering, is knowing when to back down, and stay safe. The higher mountains, above 6000 feet in Northwest Canada and Alaska, have some of the potentially deadliest weather of anywhere in the World, all year. Mountains in Norway, which only go up to 8000 feet, and Patagonia which has peaks of 8000-11,500 feet can compare, or the Himalayas above 22,000 feet during the Indian monsoon season. What does that mean? Storm force winds (58 mph or more) and heavy snow possible in every month. And when it's very cold, wind chills on the bottom of the charts (-80 or so).
It's not something we take lightly. On the way back down, the snow and ice covered rocks on the canyon sidewalls were sure beautiful in the sun and shade. I was much more careful on the way down as well. One hazard I was conscious of, was the possibility of punching through snow-bridges covering flowing Michael's creek. There were several I had to cross on the way up and down, under which you could hear the water flowing. Punching straight through several feet onto some rocks could cause serious injury, so we stepped lightly across each one, probing ahead with the ice axe. Fortunately they all held, and I stayed on the sidewalls as much of the time as I could, which was easy, with the crampons on. Six hours after starting up, we came back to my stashed skis. I decided just to carry them, not wanting to get out of control, on that steep, narrow route. Unfortunately, in sunny areas, the snow had turned to ripened spring mush, and I started postholing quite a bit, sometimes at every step. This is when you just fall right through the snow, a foot or more, sometimes it was past my waist. A few times I actually crawled, to spread my weight out more. My knees and hips got pretty sore from just a half-mile of this, so it was a relief when we got back to the car.But, we were not ready for the day to end, since our summit attempt was weathered out. So, we drove south on the highway 10 miles to Miller Creek. I spied some snow-machine trails lacing up 
it, and decided to ski in there. It was some of the best skiing I've had all winter! With that bright sun, the mountains all around, and the snow still in good shape, even the 30 mph north wind didn't matter. I skied about five miles up, then the trails ended at the base of the Canwell Glacier, and we turned back. Good stuff. So, after our fun day of hiking, and skiing, we were very energized, and the 2 1/2 hour drive home went by very quickly. This is why we live here! We're going back in there in late June or July, set up base camp in the 5000 ft. valley, and then just climb all around for a few days.
it, and decided to ski in there. It was some of the best skiing I've had all winter! With that bright sun, the mountains all around, and the snow still in good shape, even the 30 mph north wind didn't matter. I skied about five miles up, then the trails ended at the base of the Canwell Glacier, and we turned back. Good stuff. So, after our fun day of hiking, and skiing, we were very energized, and the 2 1/2 hour drive home went by very quickly. This is why we live here! We're going back in there in late June or July, set up base camp in the 5000 ft. valley, and then just climb all around for a few days. GOOD NEIGHBOUR ?
I came across this article several days ago on the Commondreams.org web-site. This incident occurred at the Summit of the Americas, where heads of state from all the western Hemisphere countries met, except Cuba, which the U.S. has insisted upon excluding, since 1962.
"PORT of SPAIN - Venezeulan President Hugo Chavez has vowed to seek closer ties with the US and is considering taking steps to send an ambassador to Washington after the countries expelled each others' envoys last year. 
Book beginnings: President Obama (left) shakes hands with President Chavez and points at his gift copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano's book. Photo: AFP
Mr Chavez said he spoke with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, marking a change from his approach to diplomacy with the administration of George Bush, whom Mr Chavez once likened to the devil.
"I feel great optimism, and the best goodwill to move forward," Mr Chavez said after a meeting between US President Barack Obama and presidents from the Union of South American Nations in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
"I have no doubt that there will be, going forward, greater closeness."
"I feel great optimism, and the best goodwill to move forward," Mr Chavez said after a meeting between US President Barack Obama and presidents from the Union of South American Nations in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
"I have no doubt that there will be, going forward, greater closeness."
Acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Mr Chavez had approached Mrs Clinton at the meeting and they discussed returning ambassadors to their respective posts in Caracas and Washington.
"This is a positive development that will help advance US interests, and the State Department will now work to further this shared goal," Mr Wood said.
Venezuela, the fourth-biggest foreign supplier of crude oil to the US, has repeatedly accused Americans of aiding the political opposition to Mr Chavez, a former paratrooper.
In 2002, Mr Chavez charged the Central Intelligence Agency with masterminding a brief coup against him.
Mr Chavez, who last month called Mr Obama an "ignoramus" when it comes to Latin America, gave Mr Obama a copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano's book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.
When asked by reporters at the Fifth Summit of the Americas whether he planned to read the book, Mr Obama, who doesn't speak Spanish, joked: "I thought it was one of Chavez's. I was going to give him one of mine."
Mr Chavez regularly accused former president Bush of trying to destabilise his Government, and in a 2006 speech to the United Nations called him "the devil". In September, Mr Chavez expelled US ambassador Patrick Duddy to show solidarity with Bolivia, which had also kicked out its US envoy.
Mr Obama said he recognised that it would take time to improve relations with Latin America, which he said felt neglected by the Bush administration.
Other Latin American critics of the US were less enthusiastic about the nation's new President.
Bolivia's Evo Morales, a former coca grower who has clashed with the US since taking office in 2006, said "policies of conspiracy" had not changed under Mr Obama.
"If there is a real change, a change in economic policy, and if there are relations based on mutual respect, it will be better," Mr Morales said. "We can't go back to the past."
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega two days ago greeted Mr Obama with a 50-minute speech that included harangues about "Yankee troops" and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Mr Ortega said Mr Obama wasn't responsible for President John Kennedy's misadventure. "I'm grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Mr Obama said."
This is great news! And much needed, as the history of the U.S.'s role in Central and South America is a very dismal one indeed. Where to start... Let us just say for now, that on the "Walk of Shame" that I described in an early post, on the Higgins Street Bridge in Missoula, documenting all of the U.S.'s subversions and interventions in other countries since 1900, contained many South American countries. Millions of people have been affected in those countries when our government over the past decades either directly intervened and brought into power repressive, fascist governments, or provided covert support to make that happen. Governments that tortured and murdered sometimes hundreds of thousands of people in each country for being suspected "leftists". Facts not lost to the people in those countries. The worst were Chile (1973), Argentina (1965-1985), and all the Central American countries (1914-1932, 1952-1992). The politicians who supported these policies, some Democrats included, knew what those governments would and were doing to their people, and so in our view, are just as guilty of murder as the actual torturers. Politicians like Henry Kissinger (who would be arrested if he were to travel to Spain!). Retired USMC Brigadier General Smedley Butler, in his amazing 1930 expose, "War is a Racket" (which should be standard reading for everyone), documented many Central American interventions in the 1910s, which he was a part of.
But there was a time, when FDR was in power, when relations were temporarily better with Latin America, and it was known as the "Good Neighbor Policy".
"Main Impacts of Good Neighbor Policy
Boom in hemispheric trade and accompanying economic recovery.
End to U.S. military interventions and occupations; no more U.S. Marines dying in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, or Nicaragua.
Hemispheric unity behind the United States and against the Axis powers.
Dramatic decline in the demeaning stereotyping of Latinos by the U.S. government,
Boom in hemispheric trade and accompanying economic recovery.
End to U.S. military interventions and occupations; no more U.S. Marines dying in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, or Nicaragua.
Hemispheric unity behind the United States and against the Axis powers.
Dramatic decline in the demeaning stereotyping of Latinos by the U.S. government,
media, and entertainment industry."
http://ggn.irc-online.org/neighbor/99.html
Now that more left-leaning governments have freely and fairly been elected into power throughout the region in the past ten years (in fact, the only real right-wing countries left now are Mexico and Colombia), there is no going back. Led by Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia, regional economic, military, and energy production ties are increasing in Central and South America. It would be very beneficial for the U.S., and those countries, if it supported those efforts. So, it is imperative that this country ceases meddling in the affairs of others in support of corporate profits and the old European oligarchies who still cling to their wealth gained at the expense of the indigenous populations in their countries. After all, it was a documented consortium of mult-national corporations who pushed the Nixon administration to support the fascists in Chile, before their 1973 coup, as well as during and after it (see my "Is It 9/11 Already?" post).
Now that more left-leaning governments have freely and fairly been elected into power throughout the region in the past ten years (in fact, the only real right-wing countries left now are Mexico and Colombia), there is no going back. Led by Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia, regional economic, military, and energy production ties are increasing in Central and South America. It would be very beneficial for the U.S., and those countries, if it supported those efforts. So, it is imperative that this country ceases meddling in the affairs of others in support of corporate profits and the old European oligarchies who still cling to their wealth gained at the expense of the indigenous populations in their countries. After all, it was a documented consortium of mult-national corporations who pushed the Nixon administration to support the fascists in Chile, before their 1973 coup, as well as during and after it (see my "Is It 9/11 Already?" post).
What would we think, if some European countries, or Russia, or China, were supporting the Republican party, or any other, forcing an undemocratic system on us. Well, that is what has happened from Mexico south from the U.S. government. It would be good if those days are over.
Cheers.
