alex chiang: web 6.0

An old college buddy of mine is on his annual summer climbing road trip, for the purpose of staying sane between semesters of grad school. He went out to Yosemite for a few weeks and managed to tick Steck-Salathe, Freeblast, Astroman, Serenity Crack, and maybe a few others.

He’s climbing hard. I’m not.

We got on Syke’s Sickle last weekend (after unsuccessfully trying to convince him to do some of the more remote climbs Larry Hamilton opened up).

I wasn’t even going to write a TR, since the day went so perfectly, but here’s a mini…

In bed by 10pm, up at 2am, on the road and driving from Ft. Collins to Estes while fearfully avoiding the nocturnal grazing mule deer. In the Glacier Gorge parking lot by 3:30 to minor dismay at seeing 15 cars in
the lot already!

The hike in is quick and uneventful, and the brisk mountain air is a welcome relief from the summer doldrums. We’re treated to a lovely alpenglow lightshow bouncing off Arrowhead (I think) as we switch our headlamps from bright to dim to dimmest to off.

Rounding the trail and laying eyes upon Spearhead, we’re amazed to be the first non-elk megafauna out and about (although arguably we’re not so charismatic this time of morn). The route is free and clear and we’re climbing in short time.

The weather is perfect — a rarity in the park — and we’re 4 pitches up by the time we see brightly colored, polypro-and-Patagonia-clad ants industriously milling about at the base.

Out of shape am I as it’s been a while since I’ve done anything more than cragging. Michael gets the crux 5.9 roof pitch in two tries, and the “exciting” 5.7R final traversing slab pitch is mine. The lone bolt
in the middle of the slab looks to be forever and a day away. I’m mentally weak, and 10 feet out from the belay, I want to come back to the safety of aluminum and spectra bits that are rated up to 16 kN of
pity and relief.

I’m so out of practice though, that as I attempt to come back to the belay, I step down and right instead of left, and now I’m pretty much committed to the bolt. Michael laughs at my predicament, and I dredge up memories of being a somewhat respectable journeyman climber, and make a few moves to clip the bolt. Only a 5.7, eh?

The summit is a bit of scrambling away, and we converse with the magical ants who’ve blown up to person-sized people. Too soon, we’re off and on the loose descent. The 5.5 mile hike back to the car seems endless, but we can derive our proximity to the trailhead by the density of unhappy looking Texan and Nebraskan children being drug up the trail by their parental units.

Back at the car by 6:30pm, nary a cloud all day, and the Mickey D’s in Estes even has a real dollar menu, made legit by the presence of the double-cheeseburger and hot fudge sundae. Cheap calories by way of
deliciousness. Yum.

Syke’s Sickle, 5.9, 7 pitches. Not a bad weekend for a desk jockey.

So this weekend, I participated in my first adventure race (Adventure Xstream Adventure Race Series, Breckenridge event). Well, first real race of any sort since field day in 5th and 6th grades (kegstands notwithstanding).

Actually, I wasn’t even supposed to be part of the team. About two weeks ago, I was tapped by our captain Julie Kosakowski as a backup to replace Jay, who was out of commission due to an ill-timed LASIK operation. Fine, I’ll do it… who needs to train?

Then, last week, Meg tore ligaments in her knee. So we went from four to three. I asked around to see who else wanted to do it, and my buddy Mike Brown was totally in. That was Wednesday. On Thursday, we get an email from Dave saying that he was out due to a fever. Huh. So we scrambled around, and my other buddy, John Anderson was game. So in the space of 1.5 weeks, I went from not even being part of the team to stacking it with my buddies… So our team looked like this:

• captain Julie -> still captain Julie, of Team Rock Star
• Jay -> Alex “Beijing Bullet” Chiang
• Meg -> Mike “Touchdown” Brown
• Dave -> John “Big Sexy” Anderson

Awesome. None of us had trained at all, let alone training together to build a sense of camraderie or esprit de corps (except for a single day last Saturday when Julie and I went out for an abortive mountain bike / trail running “training session” that ended in cramps and exhaustion).

Anyhow, we drove up to my condo in Silverthorne on Saturday where we met up with another Ft. Collins foursome, with whom we were staying (Ed, Tom, Matt, and JJ = Team MJ & ET). There was a free Adventure Racing 101 clinic that night, so we all went to check it out. Amusing and interesting, but not super pertinent to our actual race on Sunday; it was more of a general talk on how to prepare for such things assuming one was diligent. Which Team Rock Star definitely was not. Looking around at the other AR n00bs and sizing them up, I didn’t see any other teams that looked super intimidating (except for the team of 4 women who all had on giant Paris Hilton sunglasses bigger than the 13″ RamBone and ended up wearing matching hot pink jerseys on Sunday). Still, appearances can be deceiving, and seeing as how Team Rock Star was just a last-minute pickup team, my expectations were decidedly low. Finishing the race without puking was my major concern.

A bit of team bonding over dinner at Pug Ryan’s (where Team Rock Star chose to protein-load on gigundo 1/2 lb. pub burgers with bacon and bbq sauce, while Team MJ & ET went with the more traditional pasta meal), and then watching the last half of Lethal Weapon before passing out, Saturday came to a close…

… and Sunday came way too early, waking up at 7 am. After shoving down a big brekky meal and watching part of Le Tour, we were off to Breckenridge for race checkin. After doing some last minute bike maintenance in the parking lot, we headed down to the staging area to setup our stuff.

The exact format of the race was still unknown, but we knew in general that there would be a lake paddling section, a mountain biking section, and a trail running section. For each section there were a number of checkpoints (say 3 for paddling, and 10 or 11 each for both biking and running). The race officials handed out the first map at 10 am, which showed the paddling and biking checkpoints. After completing the biking section, we would then receive the map with the trail running checkpoints.

The interesting thing was that although the non-kayak checkpoints were all on various trails, there was no mandated order to visiting each checkpoint. So each team got the freedom to figure out what order to visit each checkpoint. Moreover, the trails themselves were not marked with the race course, so we had to figure out where and when to turn at each trail junction or landmark. (For the CS nerds out there, we basically reenacted the travelling salesman problem in real life.) Also, it turns out that except for the paddling part, teams didn’t have to visit each checkpoint. You could have opted to skip a checkpoint or two, but at the cost of taking on a 15 minute time penalty for each skipped checkpoint. So all in all, it wasn’t just a straightforward race.

Anyhow, the first portion of the race was a Run/Paddle/Run, where we had to run from the staging area down to the dock, carrying our PFDs (ie, life jackets), paddles, and any food or water that we might want to have. Although it was only 1K from the staging area to the dock, doing that run first thing in the morning with cold muscles and weighed down with crap was agonizing. We decided that Big Sexy and Touchdown would be in one kayak (which was a 2-man duckie, or inflatable kayak), and Julie and I were to be in the 2nd kayak, since we were closer in weight distribution.

Once Sexy and Brown hit the water, they were doing really well, and just paddled away since they knew what they were doing. In contrast, Julie and myself had a ton of frustration, never having paddled before, and our duckie just seemed to zig-zag around and spin in circles. Although all teammates were supposed to stay within 100 yards of each other, there was no way that was happening on this leg of the race. Luckily for us, John and Mike were able to paddle to the checkpoints way ahead of our boat, and then we would turn around once they passed us, so we probably saved ourselves maybe a few hundred yards of paddling. However, we more than made up for that due to our crazy zig-zagging all around the Dillon reservoir. Julie and I finally got in the groove towards the end and were able to make our boat go in the direction we wanted it to with a minimum of distraction, but thank the gods, that portion of the race was finally over.

Running back to the staging area was hard, as the cold lake water made my already cold leg muscles even colder, but a thoughtful Brown grabbed my paddle (take help, give help) and we made it back without problems.

Next was the mountain biking part of the race. We quickly put on our biking shoes and helmets and we were off looking for the trailhead that we wanted. We’d decided beforehand to ride the course in an anti-clockwise fashion, but had some trouble finding the first trailhead. Once we found it though, it was fine. Biking was the portion of the race where I could actually contribute, and they gave me the little “passport” which we used to indicate the fact that we’d visited the checkpoints.

(quick side note, each checkpoint had a little punch thingy, and the pattern of the punch was different for each CP. Upon reaching a CP, you would take the punch and mark the numbered box on the passport that corresponded to that CP. Once all the boxes were marked, you were done with the stage and could move on to the next stage).

Anyhow, Brown navigated for us, and I got to ride ahead and look for the CP (which was sometimes hidden behind a tree or a boulder), while the rest of the team caught up, and eventually passed. I would then try to ride back up to the team and be told where to go for the next CP. The trails weren’t very technical other than a few rocks, and I was able to ride all sections cleanly, which felt pretty good. Soon enough, the mtb’ing section was over, and it was on to the leg that I dreaded, the trail running section.

Back at the staging area, we changed into running shoes, and I noted with some satisfaction that most of the bikes were gone (ie, still out on the trail). No time to tarry, though, and soon we were off. As we got down the first trail, we saw the other 4-person co-ed team that was dogging us for the entire bike ride, as they were headed back to the staging area to change, probably 5 minutes behind us.

Finding the first trekking CP was an exercise in frustration, but eventually Sexy and Brown found it. By this point, the other co-ed team (Team Three Muskie and a Minnow) was in the same vicinity looking for it, but disappeared after about 5 minutes. It was disheartening to think that we had blown a 5 minute lead into a 5 minute loss, but no matter, we carried on. At this point, I was just trying to survive, getting weird cramps in my elbows and calf, and having to drop a giant deuce to boot. Brown and John took over, and they were masterful at getting us to the CPs, while Julie and I lagged behind, trying to conserve energy.

At one point, we chatted up two friendly guys from the GoLite team who had finished the 24 hr. race the day before and were out filming the sprint race. They seemed pretty impressed that it was our first race, and they gave us a nice navigation tip (although it was a general hint, and didn’t specifically help us find the next CP). After mindlessly (on my part) stomping through the woods for what seemed like eternity, we finally got the last CP and then made a sprint for the finish line.

Imagine our surprise when we heard we were 1st place in the 4-person co-ed division! We were totally psyched, as all our expectations were completely blown away. What’s more is that it turns out that 4-person coed is also known as the “elite division” since that’s the format of all the big adventure races (like Eco-challenge and PrimalQuest), and thus we actually won some money! Our team got $300, which exactly covered our race entry fee, so our $75 “free” t-shirts actually became free. Sweet.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching the other teams come across the finish line. We even ended up beating our erstwhile roommates, Team MJ & ET by about 5 minutes, which was supremely satisfying, considering they were 4 dudes with more experience than us. Of course, it was a friendly competition, so no bad blood there. They ended up taking 3rd place in the 4-person same-sex division.

Team Three Muskie and a Minnow ended up coming in about 20 minutes after us, and it turns out they never even found the first CP, giving up after about 5 minutes. They even went back at the end to go look for it, but to no avail.

All in all, a good time had by all. Today, Monday, everything is sore, and I have no energy, but it was worth it.

Check out all the pics here:

• Adventure Xstream photo set

I’ve read two beautiful books recently that I highly recommend.

The first is Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. This is the book that Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was based on, and it’s a wonderful read because of the way Dick examines the essence of human consciousness.

The 30 second summary is that Decker is a cop whose job it is to hunt and decommission androids, which are getting more and more lifelike as technology progresses. The only way to suss them out is to give them an empathy test, because manufacturers haven’t figured out how to give robots feelings yet. Similar to a lie detector test, there is a range of acceptable responses, and anything that falls outside that range is considered to be an android, which must then be terminated. From this three sentence summary, you can see the basic framework that Dick has setup, which allows him to explore the question of “what does it really mean to be human?” Beautiful.

The second is not quite as easy to read, but still highly recommended: Jose Saramago’s Blindness. On the superficial level, the extremely long sentences and paragraphs, along with the fact that dialogue is given neither line breaks nor quotation marks, is a bit quirky and may be offputting. You soon get used to it though, and it’s no big deal.

Again, a brief synopsis: people in an unnamed country mysteriously start going blind, among them, an eye doctor. The government decides to quarantine them as pariahs, and the doctor’s wife feigns blindness as well so as to be with her husband. The asylum in which they are quarantined soon bulges with hundreds of blind prisoners, and gradually, all semblences of civility and order disappear, to be replaced with chaos and depravity. Throughout it all, the doctor’s wife is the lone person who can see, and she must figure out the optimal survival strategy.

As a thought experiment, it’s fascinating to imagine what would happen if everyone in the world suddenly became blind. Saramago pulls no punches in describing the utter madness that can occur; there’s a rape scene that made me physically ill. Still, it’s a beautiful book with tons of wry wit, profound insights, and interesting characters. Again, highly recommended.

If you can make it through the Saramago book, you get the bonus feelgood points of having read a Nobel prize winning work. Booyakasha.

In life news, I recently bought a condo with a buddy of mine for the purpose of renting it out. We’ll see how this business venture pans out.

It’s located in Summit County, Colorado, in the town of Silverthorne, which is right smack dab in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, about an hour west of Denver. It’s in a prime location for winter skiing/snowboarding, but there are lots of summer activities too, such as hiking, mountain and road biking, boating in Lake Dillon, etc.

The condo details are: 2 bed, 2 bath, sleeps 8 comfortably, full kitchen, and use of the clubhouse, which has a pool and hot tub.

If you’re interested and want more details, please visit:

http://ro-sham.com/properties/

If you visited this blog and decide to make a reservation, you’ll get a 10% discount on the rates. And if you can’t come out and visit just yet, tell your friends and family, and you’ll get a finder’s fee.