Mount Baker in the sky [jatp]

photography exhibit in Seattle

For readers in the Seattle vicinity, just mentioning that a friend and climbing guide, Brittany Aäe, is holding a photograph exhibit at Caffe Vita, 4301 Fremont Avenue North, in Seattle, this month. Enjoy.

Argentan, 30th and 17th and 7th edition(s)

When I started the ‘Og, in 2008, I was about to run the 23rd edition of the Argentan half-marathon… Seven years later, I am once again getting ready for the race, after a rather good training season, between the mountains of the North Cascade and the track of Malakoff. with the last week in England, Holland, and Canada having seen close to two trainings a day. (Borderline stress injury, maybe!) Weather does not look too bad this year, so we’ll see tomorrow how I fare against myself (and the other V2 runners, incidentally!).

climbing in Mazama, WA

We spent the last few days of our Washington State vacations in Mazama, last hamlet up the Methow Valley and I found upon arrival that one of the four houses there hosted a mountaineering store and a climbing guide company! With too little time to organise a whole day climb of the nearby Liberty Bells, I spent a short morning with Brittany climbing a nearby bolted cliff called Fun Rock. Thanks to Brittany’s efficiency, I managed to climb six pitches, including two chimneys, which I particularly affectionate!, and a slightly more challenging route in the upper fives. I was very glad to work with Brittany, who is an amazing young woman now full time mountain guide and running coach, besides being a terrific climber and long-distance runner. Her website, Magnetic North, is definitely worth a visit….

no country for ‘Og snaps?!

A few days ago, I got an anonymous comment complaining about my tendency to post pictures “no one is interested in” on the ‘Og and suggesting I moved them to another electronic media like Twitter or Instagram as to avoid readers having to sort through the blog entries for statistics related ones, to separate the wheat from the chaff… While my first reaction was (unsurprisingly) one of irritation, a more constructive one is to point out to all (un)interested readers that they can always subscribe by RSS to the Statistics category (and skip the chaff), just like R bloggers only post my R related entries. Now, if more ‘Og’s readers find the presumably increasing flow of pictures a nuisance, just let me know and I will try to curb this avalanche of pixels… Not certain that I succeed, though!

walking the PCT

The last book I read in the hospital was wild, by Cheryl Strayed, which was about walking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) as a regenerating experience. The book was turned into a movie this year. I did not like the book very much and did not try to watch the film, but when I realised my vacation rental would bring me a dozen miles from the PCT, I planned a day hike along this mythical trail… Especially since my daughter had dreams of hiking the trail one day. (Not realising at the time that Cheryl Strayed had not come that far north, but had stopped at the border between Oregon and Washington.)

The hike was really great, staying on a high ridge for most of the time and offering 360⁰ views of the Eastern North Cascades (as well as forest fire smoke clouds in the distance…) Walking on the trail was very smooth as it was wide enough, with a limited gradient and hardly anyone around. Actually, we felt like intruding tourists on the trail, with our light backpacks, since the few hikers we crossed were long-distance hikers, “doing” the trail with sometimes backpacks that looked as heavy as Strayed’s original “Monster”. And sometimes with incredibly light ones. A great specificity of those people is that they all were more than ready to share their experiences and goals, with no complaint about the hardship of being on the trail for several months! And sounding more sorry than eager to reach the Canadian border and the end of the PCT in a few more dozen miles… For instance, a solitary female hiker told us of her plans to get back to the section near Lake Chelan she had missed the week before due to threatening forest fires. A great entry to the PCT, with the dream of walking a larger portion in an undefined future…

forest fires

Wildfires rage through the US West, with currently 33 going in the Pacific Northwest, 29 in Northern California, and 18 in the northern Rockies, with more surface burned so far this year than in any of the past ten years. Drought, hot weather, high lightning frequency, and a shortage of firefighters across the US all are contributing factors…Washington State is particularly stricken and when we drove to the North Cascades from Mt. Rainier, we came across at least two fires, one near Twisp and the other one around Chelan… The visibility was quite poor, due to the amount of smoke, and, while the road was open, we saw many burned areas with residual fumaroles and even a minor bush fire that was apparently let to die out by itself. The numerous orchards around had been spared, presumably thanks to their irrigation system.The owner of a small café and fruit stand on Highway 20 told us about her employee, who had taken the day off to protect her home, near Chelane, that had already burned down last year. Among 300 or so houses. Later on our drive north, the air cleared up, but we saw many instances of past fires, like the one below near Hart’s Pass, which occurred in 2003 and has not yet reached regeneration. Wildfires have always been a reality in this area, witness the first US smokejumpers being based (in 1939) at Winthrop, in the Methow valley, but this does not make it less of an objective danger. (Which made me somewhat worried as we were staying in a remote wooden area with no Internet or phone coverage to hear about evacuation orders. And a single evacuation route through a forest…)Even when crossing the fabulous North Cascades Highway to the West and Seattle-Tacoma airport, we saw further smoke clouds, like this one near Goodall, after Lake Ross, with closed side roads and campgrounds.And, when flying back on Wednesday, along the Canadian border, more fire fronts and smoke clouds were visible from the plane. Little did we know then that the town of Winthrop, near which we stayed, was being evacuated at the time, that the North Cascades Highway was about to be closed, and that three firefighters had died in nearby Twisp… Kudos to all firefighters involved in those wildfires! (And close call for us as we would still be “stuck” there!)