Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while, but here is a picture of a chair that I took at a mountaineering equipment store in Boulder, CO a while ago. The chair is entirely made out of climbing equipment - belay devices, ropes, ice-axes etc. You could even sit on it, and it feels perfectly normal.

And in other news, I’ve been considering moving out of Cincinnati to Boulder, Colorado. My job lets me live wherever I want, and I figured that I’d much rather live in a place where I can pursue some of the activities that I enjoy.

I was reading the National Geographic’s Adventure magazine for May 2008, which had a fantastic article on the legendary mountaineer Conrad Anker.

I found this wonderful thread at the end, which I thought captured my thoughts on climbing quite beautifully:

“What we do as certified risk takers….” The sentence trails off unfinished, but then Anker picks up the thread.

“Kids need to know that there are still some badasses out there, doing incredibly demanding things to their bodies. Most people are so risk-averse. The world’s full of couch potatoes. Hell, we climbers should get government stipends for keeping the risk-taking gene pool alive.”

I couldn’t have put it any better, and that has got to be the quote of the year!

Sir Edmund Hillary
July 20, 1919 – January 11, 2008

Last week, one of the greatest explorers and adventurers of our time, Sir Edmund Hillary passed away.

In an age without goretex and spring-loaded cams, he and Tenzing Norgay managed to climb Everest against all odds.

As a mountaineer, I am still in awe of the climbs that they accomplished during a time when things must have seen a lot harder, and Everest a lot taller than it is today. In fact, for the longest time, I had a poster of the Hillary Step in my room that reminded me every day of perseverance and the motto “Carpe Diem” — seize the day, while you still can.

More importantly, Sir Hillary embodied a sheer force of will, respect for the outdoors and for other climbers — something that is sorely missing in a lot of today’s adventurers.

So here’s to Sir Edmund Hillary. Way to climb, just for the hell of it.

After spending my time sleeping in bivy sacks on my climbing trips, I finally decided to get myself a cheap-but-good tent for regular short climbs.

It’s a 7×7 foot Swiss Gear three-person, three-season dome tent. I do need to get some soft-shell spray-on to waterproof the tent before I take it out.

And the moment I got back home from work, I couldn’t resist putting it together to see what it looks like and snap up a couple of pictures. So far, I’m impressed, especially considering the price that I paid for it!

And oh, it looks a tad weird because I put it together on the concrete. So, the tent could not stretch out on the floor (which would have been possible on the ground by driving stakes through the base). But despite that, it seems to be a pretty good investment.

I’m a happy camper!

After having a very busy two weeks, I decided to unwind a little on Sunday and went to Loch Vale (~10,160 ft) to do some ice-climbing.

There were four of us, Steve, Constance, Jeff and I. Steve was our guide and Constance and Jeff were doing mostly mixed climbing while I was doing mostly ice. It was extremely cold and windy, very long (~5+ miles each way) and very tiresome and stressful. But it was totally and absolutely worth it! Read on for some pretty pictures.

On the way to Estes Park

On the way to Estes Park

On the way to Estes Park

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Steve hiking through the snow

Constance posing for the camera

Steve with a grin

Karthik finds something funny

Constance in the snow

Constance giving the fingers

I’m tired and I need a drink

Karthik at Loch Vale - yes! We’re finally there.

Folks getting their climbing gear on

Gorgeous Ice Formations

View of Loch Vale

View of Loch Vale

Steve leading

Steve leading

Steve leading

Steve leading

Finally, the top-rope has been set

Natalie from Roy’s team climbing the Chimney

Natalie from Roy’s team climbing the Chimney

Jeff climbing

Steve belaying with a grin

Oops, Jeff just lost his grip on the ice-axe

Constance climbing in the snow

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Jeff belaying Constance and Steve doing something in the snow

Karthik brandishing his ice-axe

If at first you do not succeed, mountaineering is not for you

Karthik trudging through the snow for his climb

Karthik posing for the camera

Do I crack this rock or do I crack this ice?

Okay, the ice-axe is stuck. Damn!

Karthik hanging on his ice-axes (take the picture quickly, damn it!)

Traversing rock and ice with crampons is hard

Steve (or is it Jeff?) climbing

Steve (or is it Jeff?) climbing

Karthik trying to climb

Damn, this ice is delicate

Karthik climbing (top middle in blue)

Heavy snow

It was snowing heavily, and the wind was terrible

Jeff and Constance posing

Top roping the Chimney

Top roping the Chimney

Top roping the Chimney

That looks like an impossible climb

Steve giving us a ‘demo’ that the climb is hard but quite possible

That overhang looks so hard

Steve manages to make a hold for his ice-ax

Steve’s almost there

Steve makes it to the top

Ice-axes are Karthik’s weapons of mush destruction

Constance on the rocks

Constance on the rocks

Oh, Constance lost her ice-axe. So, she uses a ski-pole to lift it up!

Constance picks up her ice-axe!

Karthik climbing the Chimney

Jeff having a little ‘fun’ with the tree

Damn, this tree is harder than the rock

Karthik climbing up the Chimney

Karthik climbing up the Chimney

Damn, I’m almost there

This is harder than I thought

The ice is too thin up here

Oh man, is he going to make it?

Jeff posing for the camera

Random gear picture

Karthik dragging his backpack across the snow in the parking lot

Obviously, everybody thought it was the funniest thing ever

The team - Karthik, Jeff, Constance and Steve

Constance tried giving me horns but was too late. Hah!

Goodbye, Blue Sky

The whole climb lasted from ~9 AM till about 4:40 PM. By the time we got done and got back, it was almost 6:30 PM. After this trying experience, Matt and I went to a fantastic Nepali restaurant called Himalaya (!) and had a wonderful dinner. T’was a trying but fun day.

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

~H2G2, DNA

As you all know, I love mountaineering, rock climbing and a plethora of other extreme outdoor sports. So, I have always wanted a Casio Pathfinder, which is an awesome watch with such features as digital compass, altimeter, barometer and thermometer.

So this Christmas, Delana has gotten me this fantastic and very useful (not to mention possibly life-saving) Christmas gift. Yup, a Casio Pathfinder.

The model that I got is the PAG70-1V, which was one of the two models that I had wanted. This watch is totally fantastic. I am totally thrilled and excited, this little baby has got a tonne of cool features and works amazingly well. And I think that Digital Watches really are a neat idea.

Yay!