Help save the rainforest!

Who would have thought? I guess it's not much of a surprise that I gravitate to jobs like these.

I am living in Oakland, California and working for Caura Futures, manufacturing gear that will allow people in the tropical rain forest to harvest palm fruit without resorting to cutting down the palms.

The shop.

Tarek Milleron, founder of Caura Futures, filming the new video to demo the gear.

Currently, Caura Futures is running a fund-raiser on IndieGoGo, a site designed to help projects such as this one get off the ground. There are a variety of cool incentives for which to donate, such as 12oz of Fair Trade coffee ($25 donation) or even a set of the palm climbing gear ($150 donation).

Go check it out, donate whatever you can, tell your friends and family, and know that with your help we can help save the rain forest.

Post script: I have been hired by Yosemite National Park and will be working as an EMT in Yosemite Valley this summer. Keep your eyes peeled for some great climbing adventures and tons of photos!

Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician...and more!

If you're wondering why I haven't updated in a couple months (yeah, I know you were counting the days) it's because I've been immersed in a WEMT course just outside of Yosemite, California. Pretty full-on: 50+ hours in class, studying, or doing clinical rotations.

That's me assembling an O2 tank and regulator, blindfolded.

An improvised long-bone fracture splint.

One of the many days in class.

I COMMAND THEE TO GET BETTER!

Our instructor Daniel demonstrating the Trauma Patient Assessment.

The improvised litter.
Ryan gets to be toted around like a piece of luggage.

Rob inspecting the checklist while being double-traction splinted.

The class left me feeling more prepared, medically, than I have from other courses in the past; now, with the right equipment, I have the know-how to effectively stabilize serious medical and trauma patients.

Some other things I learned in the month since the course ended:

First skiing experience ever:
Cross-country for the day in Yosemite

Figured out how to lay a tile floor with my friend Jesse.

OK, that's all for now. I will have some updates soon on making your own energy bars and also an attempt at making noise-cancelling headphones. Keep your eye-balls peeled!

El Portal, California.
New snow at 5,500' while I split wood in a t-shirt at 2,000'.

Beef Jerky

Yes, yes, it's that time...random project season! I mean, now that I am back in New York and it's getting cold, the adventures significantly drop off, but I have some things to keep me occupied and relatively sane.

My friend Abe pointed me towards this episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats where he makes beef jerky...with no heat and no dehydrator! I was extremely interested. I recommend watching the two videos before you continue reading: One Two

I followed Brown's recipe and video as closely as possible, with two exceptions:

1. I didn't add onion powder or liquid smoke (too much work) to my marinade.
2. I put all 2lbs of my marinated flank steak in just one (1) air filter and then capped it with an empty air filter

The set-up (new fan in place, note the distance between fan and filter)

Things I learned from my first batch:

-Putting stuff right up against a fan breaks it. Don't do this. I'm not sure why Brown didn't mention this in the video, he may have just had the freakish luck of not running into this problem.
-The pleated air filters that Brown recommends restrict the flow of air significantly. This batch took 24 hours to dry, on a mixture of low/medium fan settings, mostly on medium.

I was convinced that there was a Better Way. That's probably because there almost ALWAYS is. I decided to create a low-cost alternative that would allow the meat to dry faster, hold more meat, and also be re-usable (by virtue of being washable). Enter...

THE MARK II DEHYDRATOR

What is that thing? Very simple, comrades-in-construction:

-A cardboard box. Mine measures 18"x18"x16.5" and was acquired for free from a friend's garage.
-Wooden dowels. I got the thinnest, least expensive ones I could find. I believe I paid $.55 for each one.
-Materials to build screen windows. This is a simple skill that I had to learn because we kept on walking through our sliding screen door and I figured I could repair it. We no longer have this problem because of some high-tech adhesive butterfly technology.
-High flow furnace filters (the green thing in the picture) that fits over one of the openings on your box. I think this does significant work in keeping the jerky dust free until it is dried.
-All these materials can be purchased at a home depot or found for free if you are clever.

Assembly:
1. I made screen window "trays" that fit in the box. To err on the side of caution, I factored in about 1/2" clearance (total) for the width.
2. I cut two of the flaps off each end of the box. They should be flaps that are opposite to each other. The other two remain in place and will act as outriggers to keep the box open during operation.

The inside of the box; one tray in place

3. After cutting holes ever 1.5" (space between trays) I poked the dowels through the box to act as cross-rails for the trays to rest on.
4. To operate the dehydrator, put a strip of duct tape between the fore and aft flaps; this keeps them from folding and allowing the box to collapse.
5. Place the filter in front of the box, position your fan, and turn it on!


Things I learned from this batch:

-After slicing the steak into strips, make sure it's totally thawed before you begin marinating. Frozen flank steak doesn't seem to absorb marinade very well.
-Watch out for overdrying. This batch (~5lbs) took 9 hours to dry on a high fan setting. Once it was dry, it kept on drying out. This may also have to do with the storage method. I was a bit paranoid about the jerky developing mold, so I stored it in the open. A semi-sealed (NOT a ziplock bag) may be the answer.
-I think I also stretched the capacity of the marinade ratio. Stay as close to 2lbs of steak for the amounts given.

If you try this, let me know of any improvements.

David does... the Lost Arrow Spire Direct!

Well, sort of. I had been looking at this beautiful formation for weeks now-after all, it was in my back yard. It was the end of September, and I had not climbed a bigwall yet this season. The only logical course of action was to hike a heinously large load of gear, food, and water (I think my haulbag weighed 70 lbs) up 1,500 feet of sharp talus and loose sand to the base of a route I was going to climb alone in three days. The route: Lost Arrow Spire Direct, 5.9 C2 V.

It all started reasonably well. My friend and housemate Tommy Rokita helped me hike a couple loads up the night before and also belayed me on the first three pitches of this 15 pitch route. It was Tommy's first time jugging (ascending a rope with mechanical rope clamps) and he was cruising.

Tommy jugging...like a boss.

At the top of pitch 3, Tommy rappelled to the ground and I was on my way. This was my first time hauling a bag on a wall. Dealing with that was enough distraction that I forgot to take more pictures on that day.

My one and only solo night on the wall was anything but uneventful. The first event was the howling wind that nearly turned me into a human kite, the second being a medium-sized rodent that found my sleeping form interesting and was hell-bent on collecting nest material from midnight til dawn. Little sleep was had by me.

The next morning on my spacious stone perch was beautiful, despite the lack of sleep.

Looking down at the base of the (now dry) Upper Yosemite Falls. Can you spot the people?

The view from the top of pitch 5. You can see my haulbag just to skiers left of the large ledge.

My first pitch of the day (#5 of the route) went pretty terribly. The information from the guidebook was incorrect and then once I figured out what was wrong, the rest of the pitch went very slowly. The previous day I had take 50 minutes to lead pitch 4; pitch 5 lasted 3 hours. After a little calculation and deliberation, I decided to retreat.

The guidebook suggested I pendulum off this. No thanks.

Bailing went surprisingly smoothly, until I arrived at the ground. Hiking down with my full haulbag turned out to be horrendous. And then it started raining. Remembering that part of the descent was a steep unprotected slab, I stashed the haulbag in the bushes and took off down the scree with my two ropes. I fixed them on the slabs, scurried down, and ran into Tommy coming up the trail.

The next day I went and retrieved the haulbag.

How can someone bailing look this happy?

Next week, I returned with my friend and housemate Eric Bissell to do some reconnaissance of the upper pitches of the route. This time we had much more success.

Eric scoping pitch 9.

A little bit of rain and the falls start trickling again.

Sometimes all you need is food, cool rocks, and good company.

A privileged view: Rare cloudcover in the Valley.

Playing peekaboo with Half Dome.

Here we are on our first day, enjoying a break in the clouds:

All in all, a few good days of fun.

Chicken wing! Generator Crack, (5.10c).

Incredible Hulk

Sometime in mid-August, while sitting around the campfire in the SAR (Search and Rescue) site, I overheard SAR member Sam Piper mention that one of the other team members, Ben, was in a predicament. Ben was camping in Little Slide Canyon, home to the Incredible Hulk, one of the best backcountry walls in the High Sierra. Situated at the end of the canyon for only climbers and intrepid hikers to see, it stands well over 1000' tall and sports many difficult free climbs on amazing high country granite.

Ben had been camping there for several days, and had lined up climbing partners for every day he was up there, enticing people with the idea that they would not have to hike up any extra climbing gear beyond their shoes and harness. He did not have a vehicle, and so was relying on his partner for the last day to give him a ride back to the SAR site for work. The problem arose when his partner (who shall remain anonymous, despite being a huge jerk) for that day decided to take a rest day and not hike up to meet Ben. This was problematic because Ben was stuck a 2-hour drive from the site and moreover, there was no way of contacting him to tell him the jerk had bailed on him.

Back to the campfire: the idea of someone else going up there to get him was thrown around, but everyone had plans or was working...except for me. Time: 11:00PM. Time I had to get up to make it there with time to climb with Ben: 4:00AM. I packed quickly while Sam drew me a map of the approach hike.

The next morning was a true alpine start. I was on the road by 4:40AM, on my way to Twin Lakes, the start of the approach for the Hulk.

Dawn on the Sawtooth range

The approach went well for the first hour...until I had to find the climber's trail that took me into Little Slide Canyon. I later learned I had severely overshot it. I began bushwhacking uphill into the canyon, across and over boulders. At least the view was beautiful!

I forgot the name of this formation, but luckily you don't need a name to appreciate beauty

After 2 hours of steep, vegetated battling, I found Ben tucked in under some boulders by the base of the Hulk. He expressed a little surprise at seeing me and offered my a quesadilla he had just cooked...how could I say no after the approach?

The Incredible Hulk!

We decided to climb Positive Vibrations (5.11a), a 1200 foot route following exceptional crack systems up the center of the formation.

Disclaimer: The following pictures are the best I could find out of the few I took. It was pretty windy, cold, and taking pictures while belaying is tricky at best. I also did not lead any of the pitches; I was not feeling my best. Regardless, I had a fantastic time on the route.

Ben leading what I believe is the second pitch

One of the final pitches of the route; check out the color of the sky! (Elev: 11,500 feet)

Soon I'll have a trip report of my aborted (but fortunately aborted) attempt to solo-aid the Lost Arrow Spire.

Coffee and offwidth climbing go hand in hand.
Championship Wrestling (5.10a), Joshua Tree Natl Park

Cam Lobe Earrings

I was recently given a haircut from a friend (and what a kick-ass haircut it was). Being a professional hairdresser and all, she required payment, but considering the conditions the haircut were given in, I thought it would be cooler to trade her service for something I could make...

After disassembling an old piece of climbing gear called a Spring-loaded camming device (SLCD), or cam, I went about looking for earring hardware on the East side of the Sierra and came up empty handed...until I found myself in the hardware store (duh). Here is the result.

Lobes removed

One finished earring, 3 lobes, 1/4" threaded aluminum spacer, and cam axle

The goods!

My friend Sarah wearing the earring

I used a 1/4" threaded aluminum spacer, which barely fit into the hole in the cam lobe. I had to gently tap it in with a hammer...and thanks to the malleability of both pieces, the threaded hole did not deform, and the cam lobe did not break. I then placed a small (6-32 x 3/4") machine screw into the threaded hole. The appropriate nut holds the earring in place, much like a threaded barbell.

I risked using both a brass flathead screw (which looks really cool) and a stainless philips screw (which looks a little less cool). The brass ended up being too reactive with Sarah's skin and she can only wear the stainless one. Thankfully in Sarah's other earlobe resides a #3 Black Diamond stopper.

Photos from climbing and foot patrol

I have the opportunity to patrol and protect some of the most beautiful places in the world. Here are some of the pictures from this season:

The view down onto Tenaya Peak (left) and Tenaya Lake (center) from Medlicott Dome


Lots of wildflowers. This is one of my favorites. Any guesses?

Unicorn Peak (left) and Cathedral Peak (right) with their early-season blankets (taken in mid-July)

The Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River

The rare clouds and even rarer storm approaching Tuolumne Meadows.

A good assortment of the Domes and peaks pictured: from L to R, Unicorn, Fairview, Lamb, Mariuolumne, DAFF

A typical trail through the lodgepole forests.

Cloud's Rest (L) and Half Dome (R) in the evening light

The two story composting toilet in Glen Aulin, one of the High Sierra camps

There will be more patrol photos as the season progresses!

My coworker Eric finds a magical door...to where does it lead?