Final Frontier: An Outdoor Blog

Jun

16

Just got out of the NOLS AKIC (Alaska Instructor Course) a few days ago. The course went well; however, I will not work for NOLS until next year because my calendar is very booked for this year. Currently I am at Pacific Northwest working for YMCA Seattle for three summer courses. I will have some in-town days between courses and I’ll try to throw some articles online because I have had thoughts storming in my brain for a while and I cannot wait to share them with you all.

Take care my friends and enjoy your cool summer!

No Comments » Add

Personal

Alaska Again

May

8

Well, I am supposed to be in Anchorage tonight (5/8); however, I am stuck in some random hotel near Salt Lake City airport. My first flight was delayed so I missed the connecting flight to Anchorage, and won’t arrive there until tomorrow afternoon (5/9).

I really love Alaska and I guess that is why I visit Alaska three summers in a roll. This time I am going to stay for another 34 days. Friends asked me, “Are you going to try Denali again?” Of course I want to; however, not this summer. What I am going to do is also something as exciting if not more exciting than Denali. I am taking the NOLS Alaska Instructor Course, which means if I successfully complete the course, I will be a NOLS instructor. Maybe I will start teaching wilderness courses, but hopefully I can teach technical courses very soon!

That being said, my blog is going to be quiet for a while. (I did put a couple articles in the queue though). Don’t forget me and give me some of your best wishes!

- Little Po

2 Comments » Add

Personal, Outdoors, Site Related, NOLS

In Alaska Again

Jun

1

I am in Alaska again!!! The mountain range and the weather is gorgerous. My purpose of being here this time is to participate in another NOLS course, which is the Denali Mountaineering course, and the main objective of this 34-day long expedition is of course to summit Mt McKinley. Please do wish me good luck, as for this time I do need some luck. I’ll be back to the civilization in early July. Until then, my friends, enjoy your summer.

7 Comments » Add

Personal, Outdoors, Mountaineering

7 Responses to “In Alaska Again”

cyberhobo Says:
2007-06-01 at 1.34 pm
Happy mountaineering to you!
jlacivita Says:
2007-06-13 at 3.02 pm
Hello Everyone!

For those that don’t know, I’m Szu-ting’s husband, and I just received an update from her NOLS expedition. (Don’t worry, Szu-ting is not one of the people mentioned as evacuated) Here it is:

—

Hello,

I have been in touch with the NOLS Denali Expedition. It has been a busy few days on the mountain! Unfortunately, this has included two expedition members leaving due to minor medical issues (sore hips and a 1″ long cut). Those two climbers have been in touch with their families, so if you are receiving this you can rest assured that your climber (child, spouse, or friend) is healthy!

My name is Rick Rochelle and I’m the Assistant Director of NOLS Alaska. We collected an email address or two from each participant of the expedition anticipating that we would hear from the expedition leaders occasionally. They carry a satellite phone (and walkie-talkies and a ground-to-air radio), primarily for emergency use, but also to call us for a few minutes every 7-10 days to let us know how things are going. From experience, we know that you care deeply about their progress!

They started at the Eielson Visitor Center which is here:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=63.43054&lon=-150.30816&s=250&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG50
This is a great website you can use to follow their progress. You can change the scale and move around the map just by clicking on the map in the direction you want to go. If you want to download software, Google Earth is another good site.

They crossed the tundra to the south camping next to the Muldrow Glacier the first night in the field (6/3). (Their low point on the Thorofare River was 3000′ above sea level, heading towards the summit at 20,320′.) After 3.5 more days of hiking up the glacier to the south-southwest, they reached the cache of food and fuel about a mile up-valley from McGonagall Pass (6/7):
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=63.22689&lon=-150.75795&s=250&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG50

The cache is a story in itself. We took it by vehicle to Wonder Lake last September and then by dogsled from Wonder Lake to the Muldrow Glacier just southwest of McGonagall Pass in March. There was a feature article in Backpacker Magazine a year ago about the Yanuchi family that does this part of the expedition. The cache was nearly intact. Apparently ravens got through the kevlar and between the seams of aluminum sheeting on one bag and got about twenty pounds of food (out of nearly a thousand). The course has plenty of food and fuel for the next 22 days or so.

On 6/8, a young woman (Erin) who was quite sore from the trip up to the cache decided it was best to leave the mountain. So instructor Patrick Mettenbrink and students Jon, Geno, and Erin left to hike to Wonder Lake–a four-day round trip. (The expedition did not start at Wonder Lake because the road was not open yet.) Here is the Wonder Lake trailhead on the map:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=63.4543&lon=-150.83393&s=250&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG50

On 6/9, the course ferried a load of food and fuel up the mountain. On their way back to camp, a mile and a half above the cache, a young man (Seth) tripped and cut his knee as he hit a rock. He sustained a 1″ wide laceration which necessitated evacuation. On the morning of 6/10, instructor Ben Krasnow and students Dan, Naomi and Seth departed for Wonder Lake. Also on 6/10, we at NOLS Alaska dispatched three instructors to the park (a 10-hour drive to Wonder Lake) to support the evacuation. On the evening of 6/10, Patrick’s team reach Wonder Lake and Erin arrived here in Palmer via NOLS vehicle on the evening of 6/11.

Patrick’s team (heading back to the mountain) and Ben’s team (heading to Wonder Lake) camped together at the confluence of Cache and Clearwater Creeks on the night of 6/11. At 11 am on 6/12, Ben’s team met with the NOLS Alaska evacuation support team near Turtle Hill (two miles south of the McKinley River) and passed Seth off to them. They made it to a medical facility at 11 pm last night (6/12). Seth received four stitches. He told me it was remarkably not painful and he is in good spirits.

By this evening, I suspect the remaining 13 expedition members will be nearly re-united. Remarkably, expedition leader Erica Lorenzen and seven students have been able to make progress up the mountain–to the point that they are on schedule. They camped at 10,500′ last night and will be traveling back down get more supplies today. Once the course is re-united, the standard pattern will be to ferry a load up the mountain and camp back down low one night, then move camp up the next day. Essentially, from 5,700′ to 17,000′ they will climb everything twice. The summit is about two maps away, but they will be measuring things more in elevation gained than in miles now.

I usually send an update when folks first get to the cache near McGonagall Pass, but with so much in flux we focused on supporting the evacuations rather than sending confusing emails mid-evacuation! We average about one evacuation per two expeditions, so to have two on one course is unusual. Since Denali is in a wilderness area, the park only allows helicopter evacuation for the most serious injuries.

The course leader said everyone else is healthy with only the normal soreness as folks get used to heavy loads and double-layered plastic boots. I’ll update you regularly from now on (about once a week).

Here are two final links:
Denali National Park mountaineering site: http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/mountaineering.htm
Weather forecast for the mountain: http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=SXAK49PAFG&type=public

Let me know if you have questions!

Rick
jlacivita Says:
2007-06-13 at 3.04 pm
Hello Everyone!

For those that don’t know, I’m Szu-ting’s husband, and I just received an update from her NOLS expedition. (Don’t worry, Szu-ting is not one of the people mentioned as evacuated) Here it is:

—

Hello,

I have been in touch with the NOLS Denali Expedition. It has been a busy few days on the mountain! Unfortunately, this has included two expedition members leaving due to minor medical issues (sore hips and a 1″ long cut). Those two climbers have been in touch with their families, so if you are receiving this you can rest assured that your climber (child, spouse, or friend) is healthy!

My name is Rick Rochelle and I’m the Assistant Director of NOLS Alaska. We collected an email address or two from each participant of the expedition anticipating that we would hear from the expedition leaders occasionally. They carry a satellite phone (and walkie-talkies and a ground-to-air radio), primarily for emergency use, but also to call us for a few minutes every 7-10 days to let us know how things are going. From experience, we know that you care deeply about their progress!

They started at the Eielson Visitor Center.
This is a great website you can use to follow their progress. You can change the scale and move around the map just by clicking on the map in the direction you want to go. If you want to download software, Google Earth is another good site.

They crossed the tundra to the south camping next to the Muldrow Glacier the first night in the field (6/3). (Their low point on the Thorofare River was 3000′ above sea level, heading towards the summit at 20,320′.) After 3.5 more days of hiking up the glacier to the south-southwest, they reached the cache of food and fuel about a mile up-valley from McGonagall Pass (6/7):

The cache is a story in itself. We took it by vehicle to Wonder Lake last September and then by dogsled from Wonder Lake to the Muldrow Glacier just southwest of McGonagall Pass in March. There was a feature article in Backpacker Magazine a year ago about the Yanuchi family that does this part of the expedition. The cache was nearly intact. Apparently ravens got through the kevlar and between the seams of aluminum sheeting on one bag and got about twenty pounds of food (out of nearly a thousand). The course has plenty of food and fuel for the next 22 days or so.

On 6/8, a young woman (Erin) who was quite sore from the trip up to the cache decided it was best to leave the mountain. So instructor Patrick Mettenbrink and students Jon, Geno, and Erin left to hike to Wonder Lake–a four-day round trip. (The expedition did not start at Wonder Lake because the road was not open yet.)

On 6/9, the course ferried a load of food and fuel up the mountain. On their way back to camp, a mile and a half above the cache, a young man (Seth) tripped and cut his knee as he hit a rock. He sustained a 1″ wide laceration which necessitated evacuation. On the morning of 6/10, instructor Ben Krasnow and students Dan, Naomi and Seth departed for Wonder Lake. Also on 6/10, we at NOLS Alaska dispatched three instructors to the park (a 10-hour drive to Wonder Lake) to support the evacuation. On the evening of 6/10, Patrick’s team reach Wonder Lake and Erin arrived here in Palmer via NOLS vehicle on the evening of 6/11.

Patrick’s team (heading back to the mountain) and Ben’s team (heading to Wonder Lake) camped together at the confluence of Cache and Clearwater Creeks on the night of 6/11. At 11 am on 6/12, Ben’s team met with the NOLS Alaska evacuation support team near Turtle Hill (two miles south of the McKinley River) and passed Seth off to them. They made it to a medical facility at 11 pm last night (6/12). Seth received four stitches. He told me it was remarkably not painful and he is in good spirits.

By this evening, I suspect the remaining 13 expedition members will be nearly re-united. Remarkably, expedition leader Erica Lorenzen and seven students have been able to make progress up the mountain–to the point that they are on schedule. They camped at 10,500′ last night and will be traveling back down get more supplies today. Once the course is re-united, the standard pattern will be to ferry a load up the mountain and camp back down low one night, then move camp up the next day. Essentially, from 5,700′ to 17,000′ they will climb everything twice. The summit is about two maps away, but they will be measuring things more in elevation gained than in miles now.

I usually send an update when folks first get to the cache near McGonagall Pass, but with so much in flux we focused on supporting the evacuations rather than sending confusing emails mid-evacuation! We average about one evacuation per two expeditions, so to have two on one course is unusual. Since Denali is in a wilderness area, the park only allows helicopter evacuation for the most serious injuries.

The course leader said everyone else is healthy with only the normal soreness as folks get used to heavy loads and double-layered plastic boots. I’ll update you regularly from now on (about once a week).

Let me know if you have questions!

Rick
Julia Says:
2007-06-14 at 6.13 am
I just read about this guy who mountain-climbed seven peaks on seven continents in under seven months to win the world record. Knowing what an avid outdoors-person Szu-ting is, I thought you might enjoy seeing the info: http://rugged.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=671208%3ABlogPost%3A262%29
jlacivita Says:
2007-06-14 at 10.01 pm
Greetings,

News from the evacuees: Erin’s crew saw a fox den with kits on the hike out. Seth’s group saw a couple of grizzly bears 100-200 yards away while in the vehicle on the drive out. Erin flew home last night and Seth flew home this morning. They got to spend time sharing stories. It was sad to see them go.

I heard from the expedition again this morning (6/14) and I have a correction: Last time I heard from Erica and crew, she was at 7,300 feet, not 10,500′. They were about to back-ferry down through the Lower Icefall to the cache at 5,700′ yesterday, then go back up to camp at 7,300′. I misunderstood their elevation over a garbled satellite connection, which is why I was astonished at their progress.

The whole group of 13 reunited at 7,300 feet on the Muldrow Glacier at 7 pm last night approximately here:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=63.17878&lon=-150.85929&s=100&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG50.
This was quite a push for the evacuation teams, so they are taking a rest day today. Erica and all the folks who originally stayed on the mountain are working on putting in a route through the Great Icefall to 10,000′ at the base of Karsten’s Ridge today. Everyone plans to camp together at 7,300′ tonight and hopefully move to 10,000′ tomorrow.

One of you asked about the weather. Erin and Seth tell me it was quite nice (aside from the clouds of mosquitos). I put a link to the weather in the previous email. Here is a webcam the park just announced this morning!
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denacam.cfm
If you click on landmarks, you will see where the mountain is in perfect weather.

This shows where the webcam is and in what direction it is photograhing:
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denamap.cfm

Finally, below is a photo of the group! This is from June 2nd just before leaving NOLS Alaska.
Back Row: Seth, Jon, Dan, Ben (Instructor), Mark
Middle Row: Lanie, Naomi, Erin, Robbie, Geno
Front Row: Geoff, Szu-Ting, Patrick (Instructor), Erica (Lead Instructor), John
All three instructors have been on Denali before–two of them while working and the other reaching the summit on a personal trip.

Best wishes,

Rick
jlacivita Says:
2007-06-20 at 12.47 pm
Greetings,

News from the evacuees: Erin’s crew saw a fox den with kits on the hike out. Seth’s group saw a couple of grizzly bears 100-200 yards away while in the vehicle on the drive out. Erin flew home last night and Seth flew home this morning. They got to spend time sharing stories. It was sad to see them go.

I heard from the expedition again this morning (6/14) and I have a correction: Last time I heard from Erica and crew, she was at 7,300 feet, not 10,500′. They were about to back-ferry down through the Lower Icefall to the cache at 5,700′ yesterday, then go back up to camp at 7,300′. I misunderstood their elevation over a garbled satellite connection, which is why I was astonished at their progress.

The whole group of 13 reunited at 7,300 feet on the Muldrow Glacier at 7 pm last night approximately here:

This was quite a push for the evacuation teams, so they are taking a rest day today. Erica and all the folks who originally stayed on the mountain are working on putting in a route through the Great Icefall to 10,000′ at the base of Karsten’s Ridge today. Everyone plans to camp together at 7,300′ tonight and hopefully move to 10,000′ tomorrow.

One of you asked about the weather. Erin and Seth tell me it was quite nice (aside from the clouds of mosquitos). I put a link to the weather in the previous email. Here is a webcam the park just announced this morning!

If you click on landmarks, you will see where the mountain is in perfect weather.

This shows where the webcam is and in what direction it is photograhing:

Finally, below is a photo of the group! This is from June 2nd just before leaving NOLS Alaska.
Back Row: Seth, Jon, Dan, Ben (Instructor), Mark
Middle Row: Lanie, Naomi, Erin, Robbie, Geno
Front Row: Geoff, Szu-Ting, Patrick (Instructor), Erica (Lead Instructor), John
All three instructors have been on Denali before–two of them while working and the other reaching the summit on a personal trip.

Best wishes,

Rick
Linda (fy) Says:
2007-06-25 at 6.41 am
wow..Xiao Po,

Wish you luck and have a great time there.
I haven’t read your blog for a while but whenever I read it, you are always doing something adventurous.

Wish me luck

May

2

This entry is totally not related to the great outdoors. Purely personal.

Tomorrow I’m going to do my doctoral dissertation defense at 1 pm EST.
Wish me luck!!

and then … I’m going to enjoy the summer being out of course, and resume blogging.

11 Comments » Add

Personal

11 Responses to “Wish me luck”

nachtluft Says:
2007-05-02 at 10.26 pm
Best luck to you!!
fedak Says:
2007-05-02 at 10.48 pm
Congrats and good luck!
etta Says:
2007-05-03 at 3.18 am
Best of luck on your defense!
小帽 Says:
2007-05-03 at 4.52 am
祝好運！出外小心！
cyberhobo Says:
2007-05-03 at 3.11 pm
Good luck and a long summer!
Ting Says:
2007-05-04 at 1.41 am
A late good luck to you. I guess you are out for a celebration now.
winehiker Says:
2007-05-04 at 1.50 pm
Go get ‘em, Little Po!
Linda (fy) Says:
2007-05-05 at 4.34 am
I am late for this but I assume you are done.
Wish you best for job hunting.
philives Says:
2007-05-09 at 10.02 am
Get a job!
Sylvia Lee Says:
2007-05-18 at 2.53 am
I saw this post so late,
I think you have already finished the defense.
Good luck to your future career!!
phys Says:
2007-05-20 at 12.32 pm
I found this post very late, so I think I should say congratulations now.
By the way, I’ve been read your blog for a while, but I don’t know you are a PhD student till now. I’m working on my PhD too, so I’m kind of curious about your major.
I guess I’d better introduce myself first. I’m a physics major, and I love rock climbing very much. That’s why I’m interested in your blog. Nice to meet you.

Happy New Year!

Jan

1

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.)

3 Comments » Add

Personal, News and Blog Roll

Happy Birthday, LittlePo

Sep

28

Alright, this post is totally not related to the outdoors, but after all, this is MY site.

Happy Birthday, LittlePo. LittlePo is now officially 31 years old, although sometimes she still misses those twenty-something days.

LittlePo hopes that she would be able to go out and summit some peaks today, especially right now she is in Boulder, CO. Unfortuately the reality is that she is stuck in front of a computer working. Well, at least I can have some birthday wishes:

I hope in the following year, I will

have more field days hiking, backpacking, climbing
learn new playboating tricks
telemark ski in the backcountry
find a perfect place to move to (suggestions welcome!! Criteria: has to be close to mountains and class 3+ rivers)
have more readers
more to come

21 Comments » Add

Personal

Archive for the 'Personal' Category