13.1 what?

13.1 read the sticker on some woman's car at the gas station...that number needs a unit. I am diligent to include units on the reports and figure i produce, mostly because i spend a bit of my day looking at old reports that don't contain units, attempting to figure out what their spread sheets and graphs mean....it makes me wonder how presenting these graphs must have went...."as you can see, our monthly supply rises an unknown amount as the graph moves from left to right."

the woman bought $18 in lotto tics....maybe 13.1 is how many dollars she spends on the lottery every week....she could just put the money in the bank and pretend she won the $60000 jackpot that pays of in 30 years

Winter Break 2010-2011

Minus 5 temps...hair and wool fibers frozen

Saddle and Bridger peaks in the southern Bridger range
Two climbers clipped in on 'the dribbles' (WI4), a multipitch ice climb in hyalite canyon...
The same climbers...
...still visible as a speck on the wall.

Winter break 2010-2011 has been fun...Time off from school to hang with my family and enjoy the rocky mountains is always good. I ice climbed and skied every day for a month (almost), and that provides for a lot of adventure. ...Since this blog is supposed to be about science and adventure, some parameters that comes into play when climbing and skiing in the winter months has a lot to do with the condition of solid water in the form of snow and ice. Mass and phase (of water), air temperature, wind velocity/direction must all be judged to gain perspective on conditions, not to mention the rates and time values of these parameters ...not that that this is super difficult...bozeman and other mountain towns teem with amateur snow scientists, and some of them even get into it and get degrees.

Thanks again to all my climbing and ski partners and my family and friends for hanging with me and enjoying the winter holiday! (sorry no pics of me with the fam, just a few mountain images...note the climbers in the last 3 images as it zooms out, to see the scale of the mountains)

The Way of The Elk. Part 3

I was able to shoot two elk today, both of which were tagged by other hunters. The cards did not fall my way today, as I shot one cow 3 times in the front shoulder. The brave elk stumbled another 50 feet as I was sprinting towards her, but she succumbed to another hunter's shots and tag. The elk karma needs to turn my way, and quick if I am to fill my tag.

The Way of the Elk, Part 2

I have been back to the the elk hunting grounds out in hyalite, but have yet to see an animal. The rain turned to snow, and I went skiing, which was deep for october! Hopefully november will bring some better luck...

Photos: bridger, late oct, 2010

The Way of the Elk. Pt 1

It was pitch black by the time I made it back to the road from an overland (that means no roads, no people) hunt last night ...The new forest service signs marking the attractions in Hyalite canyon glowed in the reflection of my headlamp as I jogged past. I probably looked like a german foot soldier with the riffle in my hand, but I was glad to be on the road.... I did not want to reverse miles of deadfall in the dark. The road would provided a nice running opportunity for me anyways.

It began to rain hard, and I cam upon a truck with some human activity. The rain was coming down in sheets , but I was able to make out 3 people near the bed of the truck. They looked to be sportsman.....maybe they will swing me a lift back to my car. I tried to buddy up.

"Any luck?"

"Ya, got three of 'em"

"Three Elk !?" ....with all the shooting I heard, three elk seemed reasonable.

"No, three trout."

"Say, how much farther till the dam?"

"bout 2.5 miles" one of them said as they sped off in their nice truck. I suppose I cant blame them, as I probably looked pretty crazy, soaked to the bone and toting a weapon.

I will be back in the same spot tonight to hunt again, but the rain will have turned to snow, which may help decipher the age of the thousands of elk tracks I saw.

Nobody Told Me There'd be Days Like These

Today was a little rough to say the least. It started at about 4:30 am as my roommate woke me for an airport ride. No problem, I am happy to help out friends, but I was extremely groggy, even for 4:30. My instant coffee tasted especially bitter, and I could not tell if the objectionable taste was from expired coffee or my woozy state. After a bit of tea and a short drive to the airport, I returned home to sleep another few hours to prepare for a full day of calculus and bioengineering research. This was a poor strategy. It still felt like I had only slept 5 hours despite catching a few winks before class....when the lecture hit, I was behind and not following along, for the TA is very fast and good. The mental punishment would not stop, and it came time for the opening quiz of the semester. I did not do that well and will have to continue to study hard just to pass ( despite the fact that the name of this blog is a play on the commonly used math term "take the limit as this or that goes to zero",taking closed book calculus tests is not my strong suit.) After class it was off to work, where I was hoping to be efficient enough to get all my work done by the weekend. Ya right. My boss informed me shortly thereafter that I would be working sunday night (July 4th). My day is not going well.... "Thats OK", I thought trying to think positively, "I have gone on lots of road trips to climbing destinations already this summer...every weekend....I can miss out this weekend." "I will get more calculus done."

I shake of the damage and return to my windowless lab full of shakers and hoods. Through the the rhythmic drone of glass beakers clinking metal in the shakers, I hear some rumpled thumping noises....

"what is that?" asks another researcher.

"HAIL!" I scream out.

Sure enough, baseball sized hail was pelting the Montana State University campus with unrelenting fury. Windows were broken out of many of the buildings. Someone was seen running down a stairwell with a blood stained shirt. I then realized that my room at home contains west facing windows, vulnerable to the stormy onslaught. I reluctantly pedaled my bike home between thunderclouds to inspect the damage. The streets were filled with storm debris. When I got home the giant hailstones in the yard told me what I already knew. Shattered glass covered my bedroom, which was soaking wet...John Lennon's lyrics played in my head...."Nobody told me there'd be days like these, nobody told me there'd be days like these. Strange days indeed."

Train up! Get psyched!

With 8 inches of snow in my yard and possible tendonitis in both knees from another long ski season, I can only dream of sunny rock climbing anywhere in the western US. Luckily this weekend should provide weather in the 60's near Butte, with a maze of world class granite (maybe a stretch) to explore and climb. Hopefully we will see perfect climbing temps....more likely mixed rain and sun with snow on the ground. I have been waiting to regularly climb for a while.... in an effort to stop being so terribly weak and mediocre at the sport of climbing, I have been training. Despite this fact, I regularly flail and curse on anything harder than 5.10+, simultaneously calling for slack/take in the rope, before letting out a guttural scream mid-fall. If only I was as psyched as my good buddy Ethan (pictured, crazy). Ethan boulders and generally climbs like a crazed person, putting in long sessions at the local rock gym. Post send, Ethan then further crushes an intense climbing workout full of ridiculous one arm hangs, campusing/pull-ups and dips on gymnast rings (ever tried one?....so burly. my body convulses as I crank out 1.5 dips). The one time I have attempted the workout it hurt to sit up the next day, and sneezing was out of the question. Ethan does it multiple times a week, aspiring to climb 5.14 (ya right).

The mind must also be trained If I am to break through. Snow and boredom have pushed me to practice climbing self rescue and study more engineering. I practice escaping the belay, jugging the rope and the 3:1 haul, among other techniques so that I may be prepared to save my climbing partner in an accident. I practice because I am psyched. Psyched to climb longer and more difficult routes on peaks here in the rockies this summer, but the real challenge may be balancing full time work and school and the relatively new feeling of being a weekend warrior. Last summer I lived the dream of every other week being free from impingements...my climbing improved rapidly with multiple destination climbing trips. The strength gained has faded, but I will never forget the climbs, which is important for psyche factor. Hopefully this summer will bring some new adventures, probably in steep mountains with some of my best friends, including Ethan, if he ever leaves the gym.