Robby Grossman, one of the NOLS 2007 Denali expedition members, recently released the first batch of his professional and artistic Denali shots. The pictures are breathtaking; therefore I want to share with you all:

Robby Grossman’s Denali shots

Readers, how many LittlePo’s do you find in the photos?

LittlePo also presents you:
Photos from other expedition members:
1. Erin Murphy’s photos
2. Dan Ruth’s Denali photos

When I saw the first snowfall on the night of Dec 7, 2006, I almost cried. I had been longing for snow since my paddling season was over. I have planned many winter activities on my calendar and shaken off the dust on my ski boots. However, the first snowfall hasn’t gotten any followers. Maybe now it’s time to cry.

This winter has been very odd – oddly warm. Therefore we have been skating, biking, rock climbing, and I almost went kayaking in December. It was great to be out, and it was fine not to have a white Christmas. I just don’t feel funny anymore when I recalled the story told by a friend from New Zealand that on their Christmas cards Santa either enjoys his sun bath in beach shorts or rides a dolphin and races with a shark.

Happy New Year! Happy 2007 to all my family members and friends.

and happy new year links to outdoor blogs (the order is maybe random):

Tom @ Two-Heel Drive
Rick @ Besthike.com
John @ Fedak.net
Climb_ca @ GetOutdoors
Russ @ winehiker wikiculture
cyberhobo @ cyberhobo.net
Kevin @ bastish.net
Jon @ Weekendblogger
Tom @ Trout Underground
Wade @ Outdoorzy
Mark @ OutdoorsPro
Cutter @ Cutter’s Blog
Raven @ Adventure Spirits
WaterGrass @ Whispering Wind
and many others … (leave a comment and I’ll add your site to the list.)

I really like this article “Beginners are people too” which I recently came across on the Backcountry Blog. The author, an experienced climber, finds herself reconsidering her behavior towards new climbers after she becomes the rookie on the surfboard.

For many sports I do, I still consider myself a novice; therefore I appreciate all the suggestions and comments I can possibly get from the pros. At times, I have to share my experience with or instruct a pure newbie to some sports I indulge, for example, I taught a few friends how to ski and last Saturday I ran a beginner gym rock climbing session for my club. Facing beginners, I usually find myself worrying about two things: 1. I worry whether I can help create a good first-time experience so that they will decide to come back; and 2. I worry whether I am giving them too much information which they might consider worthless. Then I start to worry that maybe I worry too much.

It is a common plot in many Chinese martial arts novels that an aged kung-fu master gets excited and gratified when he finally locates a quality pupil. They always say that people naturally know that it’s difficult to find a good master but people don’t usually understand that it’s more difficult to find a satisfying pupil. Even so, skilled kung-fu masters never stop searching because they don’t want their skills to fail to pass down to later generations. We might feel “the frustration of attempting to help someone who is completely unreceptive to suggestions” from time to time but we know we’ll never stop sharing as long as we’re passionate about what we are doing. Also there is always someone like me who really appreciates advice on safety and efficiency.

Congratulations to Jeremy, who won the first place of the amateur group last weekend while he was participating in the freestyle skate slalom festival in Berman, Germany.

Not until last summer did Jeremy start doing freestyle slalom. Within only few months he has matured from being extra cautious and nervous on moves towards complete relaxation. His growth was contributed by his solid skating foundation he obtained by many roller skate competitions in his youth, and years of street inline skating history; however, without his determination he wouldn’t have progressed so rapidly. I was surprised when I heard that he placed the first among the amateur skaters, and this event was only his second slalom competition.

Congratulations to Jeremy, and I am counting days left for him to compete in the professional group.

Related Link:
Jeremy and Denni’s Slalom Blog: theSlalom.Com

I know Joe from a hut-to-hut hike in the White Mountains led by my MLS (Mountain Leadership School) comrade Mike, and the next time I heard this name again, he was thru-hiking the AT (Appalachian Trail). He is back home now and what is fantastic is that he has a blog all about his AT journey. From the photos, he doesn’t look like the Joe I used to remember probably it’s due to some weight loss, but he mentioned in one of the post-journey entry that he is back to his pre-hike weight. Next time I see him, I’ll be able to recognize him again!

Here it is: Joe’s AT Adventure

I do not participate in a hike if the time spent on commuting is longer than that spent on hiking, so how should I account for my participation in Outdoor Bloggers’ First Annual Ho Down – thirteen hours on the plane and about twelve hours in Tom Mangan’s new Honda Element for just two day hikes?! Well, it is certainly more than just day hikes although I did feel it might be impulse participation the moment I booked my flight, but just as what I expected it turned out to be a very good investment.

For both nights camping near Gumboot Lake in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, we bathed in moonlight, crisp fall air, comradeship, and bottles and bottles of superb red wine (Salute to the professional wine hiker, Russ. He upgraded me from Miss half bottle to a wine taster). We chit-chatted and we also talked about big pictures – how and what we could do to contribute to the outdoor community as a collective? No concrete plans have been concluded yet; however, the discussion I had with these quality people kept stirring in my head and several of my personal outdoor projects have been inspired since then.

The weather was gorgeous, and it made Mt Shasta look so friendly and tempting. On Sunday, we hiked from the parking lot at Bunny Flat to Horse Camp, where the trailhead to Mt Shasta is. Most of the snow on top of the summit had melted, I heard this voice as if Mt Shasta was talking to me, “Come up here, girl, to examine what you just learned about mountaineering.” I felt sorry that I didn’t plan better and bring some gear; however, this is an excellent excuse to revisit this place. Oh, my bad, why should I need an excuse? The beauty of this place already serves as a good reason for people to visit or even to reside. Tom at Trout Underground, the local Ho Downer, will tell you how privileged he and his wife, Nancy, are to live so close to this pristine wilderness.

To learn more about our first Ho-Down and check out some photos:

• The Outdoor Bloggers Hike to Brookie Heaven
• Outdoor Blogger Ho-Down a Fine Success!
• photos - Shasta bloggers meetup
• Images from the Ho down
• Ho Down Update: Outdoor Bloggers Plan World Domination

A glance of the Ho Downers by Tom Mangan:

climb_ca, John Fedak, Rick McCharles, Tom Chandler, Russ Beebe, and me.

What to participate in the Second Ho Down? Here are some appetizers:

• Second Annual Ho-Down in Damascus, Virginia
• Prospective Ho-Down Organizer, Cutter

Photo credit: Nancy & Tom Chandler

Update: more photos from John Fedak

I can’t agree more with eBomb’s opinion on Steve House’s story from the latest issue of Outside magazine. I read the issue weeks ago, but every time I recall the article I still feel sick. Adventurers need to be bold but House has pushed it too far and become arrogant. The point he wants to make regarding the style of alpinism might make sense, but by discounting other styles of climbing he makes his voice not worth listening to. There is not only one road that leads to Rome, and there is certainly not only one way to make it to the summit.

Jeremy, my husband, is a talented and graceful skater; in contrast, I am dull on skates. Why hadn’t I seized this great resource and learned to glide gracefully? Perhaps I will end up managing to do triple toe loop? Sigh… Inline skating is one of the many sports I am confident that I will not be good at. I am too afraid to fall on hard surfaces; my nerves will be on edge way before my skates are on their edges.

I decided to join Jeremy for one of his practice sessions last week after all. So that next time when he hangs out with his friends he will have an answer to “does your wife skate?” And maybe I can shorten my waiting time to get something to respond to my outdoor buddies’ question: “does your husband hike?”

I couldn’t do cones right away and had to start with learning basics, because I am not like him – I am not an Italian, not Crazy and not Special (It seems that all the names of freestyle skating moves are tailored to him. It is so not fair). I spent probably a couple of hours repeating toe turns, 180 hop turns, front crossovers, t-brakes and finally I did a few runs of regular slalom with cones which are 80 centimeters apart from one another.

This is exciting, outdoor bloggers are planning to meet up somewhere OUT there (Bah, west coast again?! Maybe I should consider moving… )

This “1st Annual Outdoor Blogger Ho Down” is proposed by climb_ca at GetOutdoors and the tentative plan has been shaped up by him and Tom Mangan at Two Heel Drive:

“It’s the weekend of Oct. 6-8 (Friday the 6th was added as a travel day). Current thought is to hike a couple miles to Horse Camp in the Mt. Shasta Wilderness. Camping is limited to 10 people per group; the Sierra Club rents campsites at Horse Camp for $5 a night.”

Since I started to kayak two years ago, Lehigh River has been my major playground. It has two whitewater sections of Class 3: the Upper Gorge (Whitehaven to Rockport) and the Lower Gorge (Rockport to Glen Onoko). The Upper has more play spots and the Lower requires accurate boat control. I like them both. I’ve kayaked on the Upper five times, but I was never bored, instead, the river gave me new kinds of fun, training and surprise every time I visited it.

I was doing some research online to shovel up some facts, rapid description and area maps of the Lehigh Gorge because I have been thinking to compose several articles to depict my excitement and experience on kayaking through the Lehigh Gorge. I hope that my readers will not only share my river satisfaction but also learn more about this river and consider doing some whitewater sport as well.

Below I describe two links which I found useful:

1. Lehigh River Water Trail (