Wing's Daily News

I’m very lucky to be a student of two very different Martial Arts. I’m a sixth degree black belt in Kempo Karate and a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’ll save for a later post how they compare and contrast, suffice to say that I can practice Kempo anywhere at any time by myself, BJJ however I need a partner and a mat. Here are some photos of a hike I do at a local park. I leave the hiking trail then free climb a 70′ rock face to get to the summit plateau. The summit plateau is a small flat clearing that overlooks the park. It’s in this spot that I practice Kempo and meditate. It’s ironic I studied under a great Kempo master that used to tease me about how serious I was about Kempo. He’d day “Jim…all you want to do is climb the mountain and meditate.” Since I actually know how to rock climb I can now literally climb the mountain and meditate!

A friend expressed surprise yesterday that I had been promoted to sixth degree Black Belt in Kempo. He thought that “I had stopped training in Kempo.” Not at all, I just did not make my private kempo sessions like this hike public. It’s true that I was not practicing my discrete Kempo techniques like Kata’s all of the time. I was however studying, honing and perfecting my craft which is martial arts and martial theory. I started as a pure Kempoist. I recognized that I had an acute fundamental weakness in the grappling arts (although I wrestled in high school). I spent the last 12 years learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I now believe that I am expert in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both of these incredible martial arts. Do I love one more than the other…perhaps…perhaps.

The spring climbing season is underway on Mt. Everest and it’s being widely reported that a group of three western climbers were attacked above 21,000 feet by a mob angry Sherpas. I’ll set up this story for you then tell you what I think happened. Most of the climbing that is done on Mt. Everest is “siege” climbing. Teams of climbers will bring tons of supplies which includes food and climbing gear. Camps are set up along the route at successively higher altitudes. The climbers will climb from one camp to the next in stages. Should a team get into trouble they can “retreat” to a lower camp.

Sherpas are indigenous people that do all of the heavy lifting on Everest climbs. They hump gear up and down the mountain. They lay fixed ropes (more on that later) and they assist climbers during the climb. The Sherpas are among the best climbers in the world and many Sherpas have died on Mt. Everest keeping western climbers alive. They are truly among the climbing elite,  so it’s quite puzzling why a group of Sherpas would attack a team of western climbers.

The “Swiss Machine” Ueli Steck, nearly gets a beatdown on Mt. Everest.

Over 4,000 people have climbed Mt. Everest most of them are not professional climbers. The typical Everest climbers life depends on the Sherpa since the Sherpa is typically the most experienced climber in most climbing teams. That being said often times professional climbers will climb Everest. Guys like Reinhold Messner and Ed Viesturs have climbed Mt. Everest several times and without the use of supplemental oxygen which is totally badass. Climbers like Messner and Viesturs are as good as any Sherpa in the world. Among the three climbers that were attacked was Ueli Steck. Steck is the ultimate climbing badass in fact he’s called “the Swiss machine”. To say that Steck is the Michael Jordan of climbing would not be an understatement. Steck specializes in “speed climbing”. Speed climbing is style of climbing which uses minimal gear and is incredibly dangerous. Steck has speed climbed some of the most difficult mountains in the world like Mt. Eiger. Click here to watch a video of Steck speed climbing Mt. Eiger.

Apparently there was a team of high altitude Sherpas laying fixed ropes. Fixed ropes are thousands of feet of climbing rope that climbers clip into so they can climb up the mountain without falling off. Using fixed ropes is the typical way one climbs Everest. You snap your ascender into the rope and hold onto it with your right hand. As you climb you slide the ascender up. The ascender slides up but not down. The ascender is clipped into your climbing harness. If you let go of the ascender or slip you are tied into the fixed rope so you won’t slide thousands of feet to your death. The Sherpas are usually the ones that lay the fixed ropes which is incredibly difficult work because of the altitude and extreme weather. Most Everest climbers would not be able to ascend the mountain without the use of fixed ropes.

Fixed ropes?…Ueli Steck don’t need no stinking fixed ropes! Here is how I believe things went down. Steck and his trio were attempting to set a new route on Everest (climbing a route for the first time). To set new route on Everest is the pantheon of badassness and if one guy can do it, it’s Steck. The Sherpas were in the process of laying down fixed ropes when Steck and his team came upon them. I don’t know who the other climbers in Steck’s trio were but if they were climbing with Steck then they must have been world class climbers. Rather than waiting for the Sherpas to finish, Stecks team crossed over the fixed ropes to continue their climb. That is where I think things got out of hand. The Sherpas probably saw Steck and his team below them tearing up the mountain like a trio of banshees. The Sherpas no doubt said something like “hey fuckers, slow down we are laying rope here can’t you see that?”  Considering that Steck is not just any climbing fucker…but the best climbing fucker in the world he led his team over the fixed ropes and motored right by the Sherpas. I’m sure the Sherpas took umbrage with this abrogation of their absolute authority and became angry. They became so angry that a shouting match ensued at 21,000 feet between the Sherpas and Steck’s team. You have to appreciate a group of men getting into a verbal altercation near the top of the world. Men…will we ever learn? Here is how I think the conversation went:

Sherpas: Hey fuckers, slow the fuck down. We are laying rope here wait until we are done.

Steck does not reply but he thinks “What the fuck, I’m not using the fixed ropes. I don’t need the assistance of the Sherpas…so I’m climbing past these dumb fucks”.

Sherpa’s: “Hey ass wipe we are NOT going to tell you a second time. STOP and wait for us to finish”.

Now Steck is pissed and he responds with something like this: “Hey listen, we are not with you guys, we won’t get in your way or step on your damned stupid sissy fixed ropes…so YOU shut the fuck up and mind your own fucking business. We will be out of your way in a few minutes!”.

O.K. so now the Sherpa’s are boiling mad. They are so mad that they momentarily lose their ability to speak English and start screaming at Steck and his team invectives that if translated into English would closely resemble this: You white round eyed mother fucker! Who the fuck do you think YOU are coming to OUR mountain and bossing US around?! Do you see this ice axe that I’m holding? Well I’m coming over to you and I’m going to bury this fucking ice axe in your left eye then I’m going to do the same to your little pals as well. Your families are going to have to set up a memorial on this mountain next to your frozen one eyed dead bodies!”. Of course this is all said in whatever is the indigenous language of a Sherpa….so Steck and his team have no idea what was said to them and they blow right past the screaming Sherpas.

The Sherpa’s are mad as hell that Steck and his team did not obey them AND climbed right passed them. That is when the Sherpa’s said among themselves, “ohhh ok, ok…so those fuckers are gonna pay later tonight in base came. We are gonna give those foreign devils a good old fashioned Sherpa beat down”. That is pretty much what happened later in the day when a group of about 100 Sherpas set upon Steck and his group back in base camp 2. Oh yeah it was great Sherpa fun. There was some pushing and shoving and in fact a bit of rock throwing. Now listen…if a guy was so angry at me he threw a stone at me I’d probably laugh…or at least chuckle, but if a mob of a hundred men were throwing stones at me…well in that case I’d shit myself and that is exactly what Steck and his group did…they shit their fancy sponsor labeled expensive climbing suits. Hey listen…Steck might be the best climber in the world…but those Sherpa’s are some tough mother fuckers. I’m sure the average adolescent male Sherpa could beat Steck’s ass because no doubt Steck’s probably not much of a fighter. So Steck and his team followed the age old adage of “discretion is the better part of valor” and fled the mountain so fast that they left a wake behind them. Click here to watch a classic Monty Python video. My guess is that Steck and his group high tailed it off of the mountain in much the same fashion as the Knights in this clip.

Well…that’s pretty much my take on this little incident. You can click here to read a press release by Steck regarding his near death by Sherpa on Mt. Everest.

I believe in always looking for new challenges.  To remain always in your comfort zone is to accept mediocrity and complacency.  Most people are afraid of the “unknown” and as such are perfectly content to accept the status quo. I do not want to be ”a big fish in a little pond“. Here is a short list of some of the things that I tried within the last year and what my fears were going into them and the subsequent results:

• Learning how to rock climb. Fear going in-Death. Results-I’m alive to write this and have become a very good novice climber. Tomorrow I’m going out and am going to rappel down a 200′ cliff and solo climb it.
• Climbing Mt. Washington solo in the Winter. Fear going in-Everything, I solo climbed the tallest mountain in the North East with exactly 8 weeks of climbing experience. Results- It made me a better person because the experience was incredibly difficult both physically and mentally. I think about the experience at least once or twice weekly.
• Competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after a 6 year hiatus from competition. Fear going in- Failure. Results- I won three tournaments within a four month time span.
• Refereeing a NAGA grappling tournament. Fear going in-You name it. Competing is one thing officiating is another. Reffing was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried. I was totally demoralized after my first day as an apprentice referee. Results-My mediocre first outing made me more determined to improve my officiating skills. I never quit anything on a “down note”. I’ve been asked by NAGA to apprentice referee the NAGA World Championships and NAGA Battle At the Beach.
• Learning how to ice climb: Fear going in-Falling and breaking my legs, knees, ankles and pretty much every bone in my body. Results-Great day on the ice. On one climb called “The Green Pillar” I was pushed to the absolute limitations of my physical and mental endurance. I finished the climb albeit in a technically crude and completely unaesthetic style. But you know what? I did not F*****g quit!
• Getting ready to compete in a Karate tournament after a 15 year competitive hiatus. Fear going in-not being able to execute the way I did a decade and a half ago. I fear that I’ll bomb doing my Kata live in front of judges. Results-Unknown, the event is in May.

I think that it is very important to grow, learn and experience new things regardless of your age. Being the best at something does nothing to stimulate me. When I start new things I usually suck at them. The pay off for me, the thing that stimulates me is knowing that one day, not only will I no longer suck, in fact I’ll be among the best.

Imagine a tribe of Paleolithic hunters that are attempting to take down a grizzly bear during a bear hunt. Primitive hunters wielding nothing more than crude spears against a 500 pound bear that is 8’ tall when it stands on its back legs and has razor sharp claws and teeth. Imagine the fear and trepidation preceding the hunt. The likelihood of one or more of the hunters getting killed or injured is great. Getting seriously injured during the Paleolithic period was a death sentence especially for a hunter. A crippled hunter cannot hunt and as such is useless to the tribe. The hunt goes well, the bear is dead and no hunters have been killed or injured. Imagine the raw visceral rush of emotion the hunters must have felt as they pounded their chests and screamed at the sky brandishing their crude spears in victory!

Humans are no longer subsistence tribesmen. We don’t depend on game animals to survive and for the most part technology spares us from the tribulations of survival that our Paleolithic ancestors had to endure on a daily basis. Paleolithic man had to compete to survive. They had to compete with nature and each other for the basic necessities of survival…food, water and shelter. Failure to attain any of those elements could be catastrophic to say the least.

Modern man no longer needs to compete to survive, but we must compete none the less. Competition is coded into us at the genetic level. Without the “competitive/survival” gene we would not be the dominant species on earth. Competition is good for you. It tests you, it sharpens you. It drives you to become the best that you can be. Simply put, competition makes you a better-stronger person.

I don’t care if you play tiddlywinks, hopscotch or are a martial artist, you should compete. Many people are afraid of competing. They fear being embarrassed. They fear the possibility of losing. Losing for our Paleolithic forebearers was critical and problematic and in most cases catastrophic. For modern man losing has no serious consequences. In fact losing can inspire and motivate one to become better.

The most common excuses for not competing that I hear are:

• Fear of injury
• Fear of not winning
• Don’t like to compete

I’ll address all three. Not competing because you fear injury is bullshit. Hey bud…you risk slipping in your shower and fracturing your skull every time you step into your bathtub. Not competing because you are afraid of not winning. Let me hip you to something, 50% of all competitors don’t win they lose…join the club. Every and I mean every competitor experiences loss at some point. Put your big boy pants on and suck it up…you lost so what…start getting ready for the next competition. “I don’t like to compete”. Don’t like to compete…WTF? Let me see if I can understand this. You train at something all the time, weeks and weeks and perhaps even years and you don’t want to test yourself against your peers? Shame on you for playing it safe. Perhaps some people are willing to live their lives not knowing how good they actually are. Saying that you are afraid to compete is the pantheon of excuses especially for martial artists. If you are a martial artist how can you be afraid of anything?

I’m trying to put together my next climb. I’m hoping to get up to Mount Washington in the next few weeks to try climbing one of the technical “Alpine” routes. I climb solo. Solo Alpine climbing is ehhhh dangerous to say the least. One can certainly get killed doing it. Climbing a technical route and not getting killed or critically mangled is a “competition”. I’ll be competing against the elements such as snow, ice and the weather. Most importantly I’ll be competing against myself. Can I work past my fear? Do I have the technical climbing skills to do an “Alpine” climb? I’ll only find out by trying…by competing.

For me, half the joy of achieving has been the struggle and the fight, the pitting myself against the world and all its competition – and winning.~Conrad Veidt 

In the summer hiking to the top of Mt. Washington is a challenge. In the winter hiking to the summit can be deadly. I found this on rockandice.com

James Watts, 24, of New York, died on March 1 while soloing Pinnacle Gully  on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Watts was swept off the route by an avalanche and fell approximately 1,000 feet down the WI 3 route. His body was found by a hiker around 3 p.m. The Pinnacle Gully area including Huntington Ravine has been the scene of numerous avalanches and accidents. In late January, three climbers were injured when they triggered an avalanche and were swept down central gully.

Next winter I’d like to get up to Mt. Washington to solo one of the alpine routes. I continue to train my vertical rope skills and have started ice climbing. All summer long much to the chagrin of the rock humpers at High Rocks Vista, I’ll be dry tool climbing the rock routes training for next winters ice climbing season. Even if Watts was not swept 1,000 feet to his death there is virtually nothing he could have done if he was buried alive in an avalanche. It’s like being entombed in wet cement. I’ve climbed Mt. Washington three times. Once with a guide in December (fun climb), once solo in February (a horrible sufferfest) and once with a partner in early June (fun-beautiful climb). Each of those climbs/hikes were up the traditional hiking routes. Next year I’d like to push the envelope a bit and try the Pinnacle Gully route that Watts attempted.

I was listening to Howard Stern this week and heard that Sam Simon the creator of the Simpson’s has terminal cancer. Simon is  very wealthy to say the least and he’s been dealt the cancer card. What’s he to do now? Sit around and wait for the inevitable end? I’d rather go out like James Watts did…on my terms.  I’ve head it said that “you can’t choose when you die, you can only choose how you die.” 

Climbers approaching Pinnacle Gully
Photo by Brian Post.

Ha Ha…this funny Zoosk video describes me perfectly. I climb mountains, like cats…but DON’T drink hot coco! For all of you readers that are “outdoor” types click here to watch this funny as hell video.

Note: I know that both climbers and non climbers will be reading this. For the non climbers I’ve linked to explanations and images of things that I refer to such as gear and techniques.

One of the belay stations that Marty set up.

I went ice climbing last Friday with Guide Marty Molitoris. Marty is the founder and director of Alpine Endeavors in New York. I was actually supposed to get together with Marty last summer for some aid climbing instruction but because of my schedule it took nearly seven months to finally climb with him. It’s ironic because prior to meeting Marty I thought that I was a wicked good climber…for a beginner. I’ve only been climbing for about 14 months and in that span I’ve climbed Mt. Washington three times (once solo in February) and have done all kinds of rappels including a crazy train trestle rappel. I’ve spent the last year pouring over climbing manuals learning the proper use and application of climbing equipment. I’ve read every major book written about climbing including the seminal classic “Into Thin Air”.  I felt very confident indeed of my climbing ability! However within 15 minutes of climbing with Marty I realized how very little I actually knew about climbing. Marty has been climbing for around 25 years. In the martial arts anyone who trains for that long is usually at the Master level (fifth degree black belt). I was in total awe watching Marty build complex anchoring, rappel and belay systems and the absolute control he had over the climbing environment. As I watched him set up I thought to myself “damn I don’t know spit compared to this guy“. It was very humbling. Sometimes when somebody is at expert level in a trade or craft they can be absolutely boorish in their demeanor. Not so with Marty, he was easy going and extremely pleasant to be around. I asked many questions and he always took the time to answer them. He was never terse or abrupt with me. A couple of times I’ve worked with local guides that did nothing more than take me climbing. Marty took the time to explain to me what he was doing. Not only was I climbing but I was getting a seminar about ice climbing and climbing in general. He has a genuine enthusiasm that is fun to be around. You can tell that he loves climbing and is very passionate about it. His love of climbing is infectious.

Upper Bridal Veil Falls

The first climb that Marty took me to is called Upper Bridal Veil Falls, it’s literally a frozen water fall about 75′ high. We started at the top of the falls and had to rappel down. Rappelling down a frozen waterfall…how cool is that? At the bottom Marty explained to me how to my kick my boots into the ice so that my crampons would stick and he showed me how to “swing” my ice axe. He also showed me the proper way to coordinate my axe swings with footwork. Efficiency of movement was a concept that he explained to me in great detail. Little was I to know that my lack of understanding of said concept would later be my undoing. Since I climb solo I don’t get a chance to belay other climbers very much, so I was thrilled (tongue firmly in cheek) when Marty asked me to belay him as he did the first climb. Keep in mind I’ve never belayed a lead climber. I thought to myself “yeah, yeah o.k…feed the rope out don’t pull it in…or something like that”. I think Marty asking me to belay him was more a function of his climbing ability, rather than my belaying skills. I watched as he smoothly climbed the ice stopping twice to place ice screws. As I watched Marty placing the ice screws I wondered why he had explained to me how to remove the ice screws, “he’s the guide…isn’t he supposed to take them out I thought to myself.” Once he topped out Marty set the belay system from the top and I began my climb. Notice the picture to the left, it looks like an inverted giant ice cream cone…right? Nice slope to it grainy texture with lots of foot and ice axe holds. As I climbed up I thought “ok, ok this is fun, not scary at all and pretty easy to do.” The axe went in easily and I had no trouble getting the front points of my crampons to stick. I was right about at the first ice screw when Marty shouted down “Jim take out the ice screws on your way up.” Take out the ice screws? Alrighty then I’ll just stand here with my calves on fire because I’m basically holding onto the ice with the tips of my boots. Did I mention that I had to set one ice axe and take the ice screw out with my free hand? Once the ice screw is removed the fun starts because you have to tap the screw to remove the ice from the core and clip it to your harness while trying not to fall off during the process. Despite having to remove two ice screws I topped out and thought “I am an ice climbing badass.”  I would soon learn however that fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

About to top out at Upper Bridal Veil Falls

After climbing the falls twice we packed up the gear and hiked to Subtraction Gully. Hiking to Subtraction Gully on a steep slope, wearing crampons, in the snow was a real treat and I began to sweat profusely. We hiked for perhaps 25 minutes before we got to S.G. Once I dropped my pack I walked over to the beginning of the pitch and looked up at it. I was very different than Bridal Veil Falls. It looked like a frozen stream with a series of ledges and vertical ice, sort of like a giant frozen stairway. Since I had proven my self to be an ice climbing prodigy on Bridal Veil Falls, I assumed that S.G. would be equally as simple. As soon as I began the climb I noticed that this pitch was much different than the falls. The ice was harder and smoother. S.G. was proving to be very difficult indeed but within my abilities. I’d swing the axe and dig it in as deeply as I could to get a good purchase so I could pull myself up. My climbing cadence went something like this; smash, pull up, smash pull up, smash pull up. I was doing a lot of pulling with my upper back and not so much pushing/driving (actually very little) with my legs. To hell with that esoteric “efficiency of movement” claptrap Marty had told me about, I was an ice axe swinging lat rowing ice climbing machine. What I lacked in technique I compensated for by using raw unadulterated power.  I was so focused on climbing that I had totally forgotten about technique. In martial arts power can get you only so far without the proper application of technique. That is to say that you can get away with some stuff by being strong but you get to a point of diminishing returns where the singular use of power alone does not work . There were some very difficult sections on S.G where my Fear O Meter certainly began to rise. Yes Dorothy…things were beginning to get scary. It was at that moment that the dim bulb in my mind finally went off and I realized that all day I had been power climbing not technical climbing. The lactic acid levels began to build alarmingly fast in my forearms and my swings began getting weaker. How was I to muscle my way up the ice without muscle? In any case I managed to finish the climb and was very tired indeed. I thought to myself OK that was tuff, it’s been a few hours of climbing…we should be done, cool. That’s when Marty said “we have one more”. One more I thought, I’m frigging spent! However I never back down from a challenge so off we hiked to Green Pillar.

Things started getting difficult at this section of Subtraction Gully

Green Pillar, how should I describe that unforgiving terrible pillar of ice? A good start would be; about 100′ of vertical, dense and hard as cement ice. I should have know it was going to be a sufferfest when Marty started laughing evilly and said “oh yeah this is going to be fun” when we got to the top of the pitch. We rappelled to the bottom of Green Pillar. I asked Marty how tall Green Pillar was and he told me around 100′. The longest rappel I’d done to that point was 120′ of nice easy flat rock. G.P was 100′ of hard to rappel ice. I’m always scared when I rappel and rappelling G.P had me even more scared. When I train at home the most rappels I do in a day is two. The G.P. rappel was the third of the day plus the fourth climb. Add in all of the hiking between the climbs…you could “stick a fork in me, I was done”. When we were both at the bottom Marty said, “what do you think Jim, climb this one twice?” Twice? Twice? As we were hiking to G.P all that I could think of was crawling into my nice warm bed (after a few beers) and going soundly to sleep. I told Marty that I had a three hour drive home and could only do one climb of G.P. What the hell, that was the only excuse I could think of…the drive home…yeah yeah..the drive home. Truth be told I was dog tired I had spent every ounce of my energy grinding my way up Bridal Veil Falls and Subtraction Gully. It was now time to pay the bill for my poor climbing technique and pay it in spades I would.

Here I was in my own little section of ice climbing hell on Green Pillar.

Marty once again climbed lead and I belayed from the bottom, when he topped out he set up the top belay station and I began my climb. The first thing I noticed about Green Pillar is the ice was perfectly flat, smooth and vertical. I made it up to the first ledge and looked up and saw that smooth pillar of ice rising to the top. How am I going to be able to climb that I thought. Somehow perhaps just on plain stubbornness and my unwillingness to fail I made it to about 10 feet below Marty’s belay station. I looked at the dense ice in front of my face and thought to myself “this is the most technical stuff I’ve ever had to climb”. No amount of raw horsepower was going to get me up that final ten feet. I was tired, was not having fun anymore, wanted to get off of the ice and above all realized that indeed I was not an ice climbing badass in fact I was an unskilled boot rookie. I was nearly broken physically and mentally. If I had been climbing solo I would have bailed on the climb and called it a day. However quitting was not an option. What was I going to do ask Marty to pull me up like a bail of hay? Balls on that. I made it up another five feet and was sitting in my harness totally spent. With a sinking heart, I realized that I could climb no further. I had been climbing all day like a Gorilla and had squandered all of my precious energy. My axes glanced off of the ice and my crampons kicked ineffectually at the same same spot over and over. I said to myself “just one more push Jim, just one more final absolute burst of energy and you can make it.” I dug both of my axes into the top ledge and attempted to grab the axe heads in an attempt to “pull” myself up the final three feet. The tactic actually worked! I was pulling myself up to the ledge…I was going to top out! Then one of the axes pulled out and went sailing into space behind me. Because of Marty’s expert belay I only dropped a bit but I was back below the ledge with only one ice axe. Marty hooked an axe to a rope and lowered it to me. So once again I had to muster up and make it to the lip of the ledge. Somehow I manged it the second time and crawled onto the ledge. As I looked ahead of me I saw another eight feet of vertical ice. What I had thought was the top was in fact not. I had one more section to climb. Would this ice version of water boarding never end I thought. Before I could continue however Marty had to rappel down retrieve my ice axe from the ground and climb back up. He set up this crazy ass belay station with me tied to a tree leaning backwards over the ledge which scared the hell out of me. Marty did the rappel and climbed back up that 100 feet of ice in less than 10 minutes. Ten minutes! What had taken me nearly 30 minutes of crude and clumsy climbing Marty did effortlessly in a third of the time. That concluded our climbing day…and what a day it was!

Marty managed to get this shot, just before I grabbed the axe heads and tried to “pull” myself up. The axe on the left is the one that pulled out and went sailing into space.

What did I learn from my day out ice climbing? I learned that I am a powerful albeit unskilled ice climber with much to learn about ice climbing and climbing in general. I learned that I don’t quit…never have and never will, that one section on Green Pillar taught me that. I believe that I’ve found the direction that I want to go with my climbing. I’ve always been fascinated with mountaineering but the cost is simply too prohibitive for me. However there is a life time of great ice climbing within driving distance of where I live. Watching Marty set up the rappel and belay stations I realized that I have to learn to “trust” my gear more. That’s the biggest thing that scares me about climbing, gear failure. Within the next two or three months I’d like to work with Marty again and have him teach me about anchor systems. I do all of my anchoring from pre bolted anchor bolts. I want to learn how to make multi point anchoring systems from natural things like trees and Rocks. Once I’ve done that I’m going to buy Marty’s guide book to ice climbing in the Catskills return next winter to the Catskills and do some solo ice climbing!  Climb On!

Much thanks to Marty for suffering my clumsy but amusing climbing style and taking the time to teach and work with me. Thanks to my friend who through a generous Christmas gift funded this climb and thanks to God for giving me the health and fitness level to spend time in an incredibly beautiful environment and ice climb for the first time at 52 years old.

The funniest moment of the day: Marty yelling at me “no knee’s Jim! Knee’s don’t work on Ice!

The scariest moment of the day: When my ice axe ripped out of the ledge and flew into space on Green Pillar.

The coolest moment of the day: Rappelling down Green Pillar.

Who climbs ice anyway…?

I’m going Ice Climbing this Friday with Marty Molitoris from Alpine Endeavors. Ice Climbing is a specialized form of climbing where one literally climbs up a wall of ice. I’m really excited. Ice climbing is pretty badass and requires the use of special equipment. One of the things that I like about climbing is the gear and it’s uses. Ice climbing involves some pretty unique equipment like ice axes, ice screws and crampons. I do all of my climbing solo which means that I’m somewhat conservative in my climbing style (when rock climbing) because I’m not on belay*. On this outing I’ll be belayed by Marty, which means that I don’t have to worry about falling to my death (in theory anyway), so I’m looking forward to being able to open up my climbing technique a bit.

I’ve spent all last summer and this winter practicing my vertical rope work, anchor building and gear placement so hopefully I don’t look like a total noob this Friday. I’ll try to shoot some video for you guys of my latest adventure. Look for a blog post about it over the weekend.

*When I climb solo, I self belay myself using a Grigri 2, so I’m not actually “free soloing”.

For some life after 50 might be the beginning of a slow side into physical decay and decline. Not for me. I turn 52 today and am in the physical prime of my life. In fact if I could get into a time machine and go back 30 years I’d find me and kick my own ass at 22 years old! I am fitter and feel more self confident now than at any other age of my life.

The catalyst that pegged my swag-O- meter into the red line was climbing. Climbing is dangerous and can kill you. I willingly put myself into situations while climbing, that are incredibly scary and can absolutely result in my death. I must find a way of dealing with and work through those situations. The ability to do that has made me very confident. Yesterday I was solo rappelling and doing vertical rope work on a 150′ cliff. As I climbed up the rope, I knew that if anything went wrong like an equipment failure the consequences would be catastrophic. At that moment my life literally depended on two anchor carabiners and my climbing harness and rope.

Look closely, in the middle of the picture you can see a climber climbing one of the ice falls.

This Friday I’m going Ice Climbing for the first time. Ice climbing is literally climbing a wall of vertical ice with specialized climbing equipment. I’m told that ice climbing is very dangerous. Even a small fall of 10′ feet can result in broken legs and ankles. The equipment you use while ice climbing is very sharp and pointy so it can stick into the ice. You can impale yourself with this equipment if you fall. I’m looking forward to this new experience with relish and am eager for a new and difficult challenge.

On the weekend of March 2/3 I’ll be doing what’s called a “24 Hour Lock In”, that is where you stay up and workout for 24 hours straight. It’s a real test of ones strength and endurance. It tests your ability to muster through an incredibly difficult mental and physical challenge. This summer in addition to Jiu Jitsu tournaments and rock climbing, I’m hoping to climb Mt. Rainier.

Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park but it has the longest line! Woooooooooooo

2012 was my “break out” year for fitness. In the summer of 2011 I was a fat slovenly mess. By December of 2011 I had lost about 50 pounds. By the summer of 2012 I was in the fitness “zone”. I was down about 60 pounds and was working out about 5-10 times per week. Following is the story of the fitness activity that pushed me to my physical and mental limits.

Mount Washington deep winter solo attempt:

Yep I’m in the S***

My first mountaineering experience was December of 2011. I summited Mt. Washington (the tallest mountain in the North East) with a guide. It was hard but nothing out of the ordinary as far as suffering. However only two months later in late February of 2012 I made a solo attempt of Mt. Washington. That solo attempt was the hardest most frightening thing I’ve ever done. The winds at the base of the summit cone were gusting up to 95 miles per hour and the air temperature was negative 50 degrees! The month before my summit attempt a climber fell 600′ to his death. In march the month after my solo attempt a hiker fell into a crevasse and died. The point is that at any time of the year Mt. Washington can be dangerous. In the deep winter it can be very dangerous. I had exactly four weeks of climbing experience when I tried my solo attempt.

Mt. Washington is not an incredibly tall mountain at 6,248 feet, but it’s a very steep mountain. The trail to the summit is only about 4 miles long but in that four miles you gain nearly 4,000 feet of vertical elevation. That means that every mile you hike you are 1,000 feet higher. The weather on Mt. Washington is notoriously unpredictable as well. I’ve been to the mountain 3 times (December, February and May) and each time the weather was very different. The morning of my summit attempt the winds were gusting to 120 miles per hour! By 9 a.m. when I started the climb the winds had “settled” down to around 95 mph. FYI 95 mph winds are equal to a force 2 hurricane. Yes, I tried to climb that mountain by myself in a force II hurricane!

I had never worn a pair of crampons in my life or used an ice ax for that matter before my solo attempt. Don’t get me wrong, I had done significant amounts of research about mountaineering, so I had a very strong theoretical knowledge of mountain climbing. All the theory in the world was no substitution for practical experience as I would soon find out. In retrospect the most dangerous thing I had going against me was my lack of mountaineering experience combined with raw enthuasiasm. I made the following mistakes:

1. I wore way too much clothing. What was I to think? I heard the air temperature was -50. How would you dress for weather that cold? Probably the same way that I did with multiple layers of clothing. I had no idea at the time but I was sweating profusely under all of those layers. When the climb was over and I was back in my hotel room, every single layer of clothing I had worn was wringing wet with sweat. In that sweat I had lost very crucial electrolytes but more on that later.
2. I carried too much in my pack. I had stuff in my pack I thought I’d need but would not use. I thought that since I was climbing solo I’d bring enough gear and clothing to sleep on the mountain if necessary, more on that issue later as well.

Within 20 minutes of starting the climb I was already getting tired. I was hiking up a mountain trail covered in snow, wearing crampons, carrying a mountaineering pack with way too much gear in it. The wind was so strong the trees were bending and making weird creaking sounds. I actually thought that a tree was going to fall and crush me. In the winter time the main trail (Tuckerman’s) going to the summit is closed because of “avalanche danger”. You have to climb a trail and I use the term loosely, called Lion’s Head Winter Route. LHWR is an incredibly steep trail that goes right up the side of the mountain. It’s not very technical climbing at all but it’s very hard physically. Many times it’s so steep that you can reach straight ahead and touch the trail in front of your face. In many spots on the trail I had to use my ice ax to continue the climb up the trail. Climbing up that trail was like climbing up a ladder covered in snow, wearing layers of winter cloths, carrying a big ass pack. It was very taxing physically to say the least. What I had no idea of at the time is that I was sweating profusely very early in the climb.

Climbing LHWR was physically demanding but since I was in the lee of the mountain the wind and cold were not a factor. That

Click this image to see the video I shot at the base of LHWR.

was soon about to change. I was making very good time and was on schedule to summit at between noon and one o’clock pm. Very good time indeed considering the climbing conditions and my 9 am. start time. Just before I broke tree line (4,400 feet, 2,000 feet below the summit) I felt great physically, I was in the Zone! I had started the climb full of trepidation but just before I broke tree line I knew I was going to summit! Fate has a strange sense of irony…

As I crested tree line everything changed! I went from climbing a steep and balmy winter mountain trail and thinking I was the second coming of Reinhold Messner to realizing that I was in over my head and was light years away  from being a world class mountaineer! When I broke tree line I felt as though “Scotty” and beamed me to a Jupiterian moon, I was in hell. The winds were blowing at 95 mph. The snow was hitting my face so hard it felt like my face was being sand blasted. Something as simple as taking off my pack in those conditions was extremely difficult. Want to get a drink of water in negative 50 degree air temperature and 95 mph winds? Good luck with that. First off, you have to secure your gloves somewhere to keep them from blowing away into the atmosphere. No gloves in -50 equals frost bitten hands! Just getting a drink of water took me 10 minutes and was incredibly difficult. At one point I was within 100 feet from the spot where Scott Powers had fallen to his death the month before. The wind was strong, nearly strong enough to blow me off my feet.  There was very little snow at Lions Head, I was afraid that if I was blown off my feet and began to slide toward the 600′ drop from the head wall, that I’d not be able to self arrest with my ice ax and save myself.

I had climbed about 300 yards past Lions Head when my legs began to fail me.  I’m not talking about the kind of failure you get in the gym when you can’t get that last rep. I’m talking about failing at the cellular level. I could actually feel pain deep in the muscle fibers of my legs. In the distance I could see the summit cone and the summit at the top. The wind was absolutely shrieking. The only sound I could hear was my own breathing. It was like I was in outer space. I could see a few climbers making the final push up to the summit and the climbing looked very difficult. I stood frozen in place and thought to myself “I think I can make it to the summit just on plain toughness, but what happens if I summit? Will I be able to down climb?”  I felt so tired and weak, watching those climbers make the final ascent to the summit broke my spirit. I turned around within sight of the summit and began the down climb. (Click here to see a video I shot after I aborted the summit attempt. Beleive it or not there were many teams of climbers pushing for the summit that day. Most of them turned around. I shot this after I had down climbed about 200 or 300 yards, but was still above treeline.)

The down climb was even worse. I had to climb down a deeply snow covered mountain “trail”.  At one section of the trail I slipped and rapidly began sliding down hill.  The section I was sliding down ended with a 15′ drop to the next section below. What happened next is right out of a movie. As I began the slide I figured no big deal, I’ll just use my ice ax to self arrest. However as I began to dig the pick end of the ax into the snow, the ice ax was ripped from my hand (I was not using the leash). I watched helplessly as I slid away from the ax. What started as a “fun” slide down the trail quickly turned scary as I began to accelerate rapidly and could see the 15′ drop off rapidly approaching. I rolled to my back and lifted my feet so my crampons would not dig into the snow and break my legs or ankles. I was sliding to the edge of the drop off at warp speed. At the very edge of the drop off there was a small tree, maybe the diameter of a can of Pepsi. I jammed my left boot into the tree to stop my forward progress. I was moving so fast however that even though I had jammed my left foot into the tree I shot out into the open air above the drop off. As I whipped past the tree into space I reached out with my gloved left hand and grabbed the tree. It was the perfect size for me to totally get my hand around. Once I grabbed the tree my momentum shot me counter clock wise around the tree back onto the trail! The whole thing from losing the ice ax to whipping around the tree took only a matter of seconds. Granted if I had gone over the edge and fallen it was only a 15′ drop, but that could have been an ugly fall resulting in a broken limb(s) to a fractured skull. There is no way I could have gotten off of the mountain without help If I had been busted up from the fall.

The down climb became easier when I got back onto Tuckerman’s trail. It took me about 2.5 hours to finish the down climb. I estimate that I sweat off about 15 pounds of fluid and with it precious electrolytes. That was the reason my legs failed me close to the summit. I had sweat off so much I had lost most of my electrolytes. On my next solo summit attempt I’m going to climb “cold” meaning I’m going to wear way less clothing and let my sweat vent into the air. I’ll carry much less with me and have more confidence in myself to make the summit and get back down without having to bivouac on the mountain. Even with the extra cloths I had in my pack there is no way I could have toughed it out and slept on the mountain because my base layers were soaking wet. I would have gotten hypothermia. Scott Powers died in January because for some reason he was down climbing in the dark, wandered off the trail then fell down the 600′ headwall to his death. My plan was to sleep on the trail if I ran out of daylight. Down climbing the mountain in the dark is very dangerous.

I am nearly 52 years old and with the exception of the birth of my two children the greatest memory I have is standing on the mountain above tree line, caught in the fury and tempest of that incredibly intense weather and thinking, “wow most people only see stuff like this on T.V. and here I am living it”. Thanks to God for giving me that incredible experience.

My personal mantra is:

“I will NOT be defined by what people think I should be. I will NOT be defined by limitations or conventions. I will NEVER ask others to do what I will NOT. In “my world” there is nothing I can’t conceive or achieve. To be the man, you gotta beat the man…WOOOOOOOOO!