quick Mallorca trip

Although I've omitted a few trips lately, I thought I'd share some pics from my recent trip to Mallorca (Majorca), Spain. Beautifully warm, calm, and delicious.  Unfortunately, I went for kiteboarding, but there was almost no wind!

Cool goat hopping around on the rocks on my trip out to Cap de Formentor.

A panorama and a quick video of a great place not to fall down:

(Click image for full size)

Looking back at Port de Pollenca (Pollensa, or Pollentia (Roman town)).

I love markets, and this one reminded me of the markets in Murcia, Spain - check out all the olives!

This island is INNUNDATED with German Ironman triathletes.  This picture captures it all - old but well preserved ruins, Sunday markets, and spandex.  Serious spandex and carbon fiber bikes. Check out this guy chomping down some calories!

 Incredible church from the 13th Century (allegedly by Knights Templar); this was one of more than a dozen side altars:

Incredible ceiling and rear of the church:

Lovely quiet side streets in the old town of Alcudia:

There's a bit of a sepratist movement going on - but they had better figure out a better way to leave graffiti that isn't so easily 'reversed.'

They take their cured ham seriously here; this photo was taken in a typical bar in Port de Alcudia.

Hasta la próxima vez!

Thanksgiving Adventure!

With Utah ranking as my favorite US state for the outdoors, I couldn't very well turn down an offer to backpack Zion over Thanksgiving! After a tortilla-roll filled day on Thursday, we woke up Friday morning in one of the most aptly named National Parks this great land offers: ZION!

My friend Rip is an excellent photographer and has posted some pictures from the trip, and I'm stealing some here. You'll find more stunning photos on his website: RoadTripRip.com or click the photos.

Highlight photos on this post, email or call me for stories.

Sunrise alarm clock. Can't be beaten! Here's my pad on the edge of the west rim, facing east (South and North Guardian Angels just off the photo to the right). Favorite moment of the trip, thanks Rip. (And yes, wine bottles backpack well. And I'm not kidding.)
Gotta love those natural curves! I haven't found the link between me and rocks, but I feel its probably stronger in some of us. They make me melt.

Just gettin' some good use out of Rip's smoked glasses:
The crew on the hike down from the rim (and I do mean down). Clockwise from top left: Rip, Katie, Nick, Lauren, Conor, Caroline, Holden.


Footsoak in the frigid water on the canyon floor was sublime!

And I know it's been a while so here are TWO places not to fall down!


This one's a bit of a vertigo display. (But probably won't look like it on such a tiny computer screen!)

(Yep, the end of the video is Angel's Landing, from the back.)

Monday morning was time for some jumping pictures! Style points for synchronization & also for symmetry:

Excellent picture of a burned AND frozen log. Oh, and that whole lighting thing.

Bodhgaya - town for Buddhist enlightenment

I haven't made time until now to sort through some pictures and video from my visit to Bodhgaya, India. This is the town where the first Buddha (Prince Siddhartha) attained full enlightenment back in 623 B.C. There is a massive monument (54 meters high) and park setup, with tons of burial sites and shrines built by folks from all over the world, known collectively as the Mahabodhi Temple (maha = big, bodhi = tree which buddha sat under). Additionally there is a massive (25 meters high) seated Buddha statue worth visiting. Many sites in the town have been dedicated by the Dalai Lama.



The bodhi tree shown below is, in a manner of speaking, the same tree as the original that the Buddha meditated and reached enlightenment under. A sapling was cut from the original tree for safekeeping and taken to Sri Lanka. As chance would have it, an invading group cut the tree down, and later a portion of the tree was brought back and planted in the original spot.



Lots of Buddhists from all over the world have come to this town and set up monasteries for monks from their homeland to come and study. I was lucky enough to stay in two separate Tibetan monasteries. Others in town were from: Bhutan, China, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam (Full list thanks to Wikipedia).


Some of the monasteries have extra large prayer wheels for those tough times when you've really gotta belt out literally millions of prayers in one day:



Without further ado, I give you the latest "Places Not To Fall Down" installment:



Also there were large collections of tea lamps / candles which are totally awesome, if not unbearably hot in the middle of the summer:

Here's a random (whiplash) panorama of the Gaya train station. This is a plain, small town train station, at 1:30am. There are thousands like this all over India:


And finally, just a picture to capture the vibrance of India, this one shows the various colors, and the intensity, of the powder used in religious celebrations and every day life, all available for a few rupees in every market.

HMI - Part III

To pick up where I left off in my second HMI post, we had finished our main altitude adjustment period as well as completed most of our lectures and practice work on the nearby Rathong glacier. It was time for our final exercise: an altitude gain day with option of summiting a peak, weather permitting. The goal was to reach approximately 18,000 feet (previous high altitude was 15,500 feet on the glacier) -- and the summit of BC Roy Peak.

Panorama, hiking up from base camp to BC Roy Peak (appears at approximately

We set off at the not-so-alpine-start time of a late 6 am, and after crossing a river with tons of yelling and confusion and passing handfuls of sand to step on slippery rocks, started up the peaks north of camp. We hiked at a ridiculous climb rate of 40 ft/minute and continued for about 2 hours. Resting every hour or so, we made it to the snow/ice and put on crampons and other cold weather gear. Ropes were fixed and we used our ascenders (Jumars) as safety as we climbed the final ~2000 ft on snow, in mostly clear, sunny weather. As we reached the final resting spot (and a possible base camp for higher peaks) in a beautifully protected cirque, we organized into teams to try for the summit.

Celebrating at the summit of BC Roy Peak. I have no idea why I'm making the Peace Sign. It seemed like the thing to do. When in Rome, I guess.

I gathered the three remaining members of my team (of originally 10 people) and we picked up two more friends, so 5 of us were roped up together. I led the final couple hundred feet, kicking my own steps apart from other teams that were headed up the same peak. It was really cool to be given the responsibility to pick a safe route and be asked to do the work of kicking steps in the snow/ice. The final altimiter reading at the top of BC Roy peak was 17,765 feet.


(I misheard the altitude reading, and as you can see there was lots of excitement at the top.)

After summiting (er... doing an altitude gain exercise), our time at Base Camp came to a close. We played a few games of soccer and cricket, had a lecture or two more, and then headed out.
Cricket at (allegedly) the world's highest cricket pitch, 14,400 ft.

The solar panel array at Base Camp that I didn't know existed -- I didn't bring my camera battery charger!

My friend liked to cuddle in the hut. He took a particular liking to me because (aside from feeding him), he knew that I, the sole White Dude, would always treat him well. My Indian counterparts were equally divided between petting him gently and kicking him -- confusing for me, let alone a dog! Street dogs in India have it tough.



Up at base camp there wasn't much to do, and because of the altitude we were asked not to sleep more than 8 hours per day -- luckily most of the Indians on the trip enjoyed singing continuously for hours upon hours.


Another nightmarish multi-day trek with 100 people (all hiking together, no gaps, etc.) later, we were back in Darjeeling at HMI.

We had a climbing competition on the outdoor wall (see last post) that I completely biff'd on... but the wouldn't let you study the route before starting your climb, so I'm writing that off as "bad practice." And we all then had a cross country competition. The race, for me, was more of race for the toilets, as my bowels weren't in the best shape. Still, I managed to take second place! The race was about 5 km, at 7000 feet, with hills, and my time was about 21 mins.

Finally, there was a graduation ceremony, where we all dressed up in matching pullovers. The presiding speaker (in addition to the Principal of HMI), was Nawang Gombu(wikipedia). Mr. Gombu(news article) was the first person to summit Mt. Everest twice, and lives in the Darjeeling area.
Each student was presented a pin. Additionally, three medals were given for boys and girls each in the Sport Climbing and Cross Country competitions. Additional awards were for "Best Technical Student" and "Best Overall Student."

Me receiving my mountaineering pin from Mr. Gombu. He also presented me with my "Best Overall Student" and 2nd place cross country awards!

The team I led for a month, with our excellent instructor. "Rope 6" from left: Ashish, Ajeet, Holden, Saikat, Juna Sir (instructor), Hiten (in front), and Tumpa.

With that, the course finished, and we went our separate ways! I have to say that despite my concerns for the safety, organization, and discipline in the course, I am glad that I attended. Though I didn't learn many new things, I really did reinforce and get clarity on those skills I already possessed. I was able to help the other students with their knots, first aid, and mountain skills. I was recommended to take the Advanced Mountaineering Course and will consider that in the future!


And finally, here's a picture of my most-favoritest brillo pad salesman in the world (to date) showing off his wares. You'd think that displaying one of the many identical packs would be enough... and I really do wonder how many pads he sells in one day (in this miniscule town in Sikkim that has 3 streets (named "Street 1," "Street 2," and "Street 3")?

Places Not To Fall Down, Episode 8

Caution: Strong smells ahead.

Kinda self explanatory, if you've heard of an open drain.

Iditarod 2008!

Sorry for the delay, folks, here is my post about the Iditarod 2008! Sorting through a few gigs of pics and movies wasn't easy, but here I give to you some of the best moments captured digitally. I was visiting a college friend (with a few other college friends) who has lived in Nome for the past few years, and it was really helpful to have a local around! Thanks AD!
First off, where is Nome? It's a small town (3,500 people) in western Alaska, on the Bering Sea. This time of year the Bering Sea is frozen there, so the only way to get to it is by airplane.

Places Not to Fall Down Episode 7:

(Joe actually fell through to some liquid water trapped between layers of ice, wetting him up to his calves, necessitating one of the fastest "Run to Nearest Bar" times of our trip!)

(and shown on the back side, 7181 miles from Sydney, where I was 2 weeks ago. I know, I know, carbon footprint!)

Nome is the finish of the 1049 mile Iditarod Dog Sled Race, where mushers and their teams of sled dogs take between 8 and 18 days to cross from Anchorage to Nome. There's not even a road between these two cities, so dog sled is one of the only ways to get around! (Here's me at the finish line)

After a few days in Nome, we got to cheer on the first place musher as he and his dogs crossed the finish line. For a great pre-race story, check out "Iditarod racers set their sights on Nome" in the March 2008 edition of Alaska Airlines magazine (sorry, I can't find one online).


2008 Iditarod, First place finish, defending champion, Lance Mackey!


These guys and gals are as tough as they get, and Lance is no exception. Having conquered cancer, he has won his second Iditarod in a row, as well as multiple other sled races in Alaska. Check out his wikipedia page.

A bit later in the race, we got to welcome Scott Smith to Nome, which was exciting as he was the musher staying with us at AD's place.
One of Scott's lead dogs, Puma:

It's pretty sweet to see a team mushing across the frozen Bering Sea, as JR caught on film so well (click image for full resolution):
Not quite as cool, but still neat to be walking down the street randomly and get passed by an Iditarod finisher on their way to the burled arch finish line:

After the race, we got to go with Scott (in between his much deserved naps) to the dog lot, where the dogs rest before flying back home:
Some dogs wear blankets and sleep in kennels, but others don't. The dogs have slept for a few hours at a time over the past 10 days on just straw in well below freezing weather (in fact many dogs got sick because of the approaching-freezing temperatures outside of Anchorage this year, I heard). They're amazing animals who are just used to the cold!

After a day or so, the dogs are put in their kennels and flown home on Alaska Airlines, on one of their sweet 737-400 "Combi" combination planes, which are half full of seats (back half) and the rest of the space is reserved for cargo (frong half).


One other cool thing I got the chance to do up there is herd a herd of reindeer, on foot and snowmachine (snowmobile). Here's me on a snowmachine (behind the herd):
And a closeup of the herd:

And one random other picture showing this town's 100 year history, from when it was a booming gold town (gold on the beach!) with a population of 20,000 people, to now, when the population is lower, but has better tools for the job. Here's the old truck on the left, and the new one on the right!

Places Not to Fall Down, Episode 6

Shot at Barrys Bay Cheese, on the Banks Peninsula (Akaroa) outside of Christchurch, New Zealand. Mmmmm..... cheese...

Places Not To Fall Down, Episode 5

Wellington, Te Papa Museum, take 2

Outside the museum there was an old Vauxhall in excellent condition, that, apparently, someone had driven that day. Amazing that this would be their commuter car! Email me if you want more pictures of the dashboard or steering mechanisms.

I really should have done a second take with this movie, "Places Not to Fall Down, Episode 4," but I figured enough talking in a museum. Sorry for the bad audio. Transcription below.



"Hi, It's Holden and we're in Te Papa, the Wellington National Museum, and this is another episode of 'Where not to fall down' (sic) and that's on these huge massive bronze spikes that are like (unintelligible) 6 meters high, and you don't want to fall on them. Bye."

Fox & Franz Joseph Glacier

This past week, after a few days of recooperating in Wanaka, I headed up the west coast, by the Franz Joseph Glacier(great article, picture on the right with the fern) and Fox Glacier. While they're not that amazing in themselves, as Glaciers go, they are unique in that they directly border rainforest. This is possible due to the almost constant rain that the west coast of NZ gets.

As the Wikipedia articles (linked above note), Fox glacier sits only 300 meters above sea level at its lowest point (the terminal face that I went to).

Other tourists were getting helicoptered up into the clouds and walked around on the glacier. Since you can't see anything up there, and I had been walking on ice with crampons for free in the past few days, I decided to save my $200.

And now here it is, from Fox Glacier, your "Places Not to Fall Down, Episode 3."