altitude slickness

With the long Thanksgiving weekend bringing us up to the Seattle area, I’d brought along my pack and gear for some kind of outing. Luckily Mark was able to make it out on Saturday and we decided to go snowshoeing up at the Pass. I’d just bought a couple pairs of snowshoes on sale at REI the day before, so that coupled with all the fresh snow promised a good workout that morning. Avalanche uncertainty pointed us towards the Gold Creek area, and with our typical early morning start, we turned on the headlamps and started shuffling up the snow-covered road.

The road was pretty well-packed, so the snowshoes weren’t that helpful for the first little while. Once we hit the deeper trail though, we were glad we’d brought them along. We were only out there for four hours or so, but managed to hike ourselves silly and get some really good photos. It was a good quick outing and nice to be able to pull off considering it had been a while since I’d been out down in Vancouver.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Having started my climbing “career” in Washington probably around 15 years ago, I’d read and heard a lot about one Fred Beckey. Articles in outdoor magazines and the Cascade Alpine Guide series were my only real view into who this guy was and what he’d done, but after some time I discovered a more of his work (Challenge of the North Cascades) and really started to recognise what a unique character he is.

Last night Mr. Beckey gave a nice little slideshow here in Portland that I was lucky enough to attend. He spoke for almost two hours about the mountain ranges in North America and just how lucky he was to be able to get up them with various partners and in various conditions. He’s actually a great photographer and has a good eye. The photos of his slides I snuck don’t really communicate that very well (I wasn’t looking at my settings) but you get the idea. After the slideshow he offered to sign books and chat for a bit, so I went down with my older CAG (the brown one) and had him drop his signature on it. I asked him about his China trip next year and he lit up and said they’ve got a financieer now and if I can talk Nike into getting them some shoes I can come along. I smiled and told him, “Well, I work with Converse, so I’ll see what I can do!”. The folks in line behind me chuckled and I thanked him for his time and shook his hand and that was that.

I had run into Fred a few times before back in North Bend. A few years ago I saw him sitting at Denny’s on our way out, and I walked up to him with Ian in my arms to say hello.

“Excuse me, Mr. Beckey?”

“Mr. Beckey?”

…

“Fred?”

He was sitting there with his little notebook reading and eating an omelette or something and didn’t even budge. I didn’t want to make a big scene or anything, so I just smiled and said “Nice to see you…” and kept on going. I really couldn’t belive I’d been snubbed by someone who I’d always considered a bit of a hero or something, so I was practically laughing outloud as we walked out the door. Amy was totally confused so I quickly explained who he was. Right in front of the restaurant was his red subaru parked almost diagonally across the two handicapped spots, with a ton of gear and stuff in the back. I just laughed again and smiled all the way home.

You have to realize, I had pictures of this old man up on my wall in college, and Fred Beckey was my pen name in my freshman english creative writing class. The fact that his backyard was my backyard was just fun – and made for a lot of good reading and armchair mountaineering, as well as actually following in his footsteps.

The other time I met his was in Marten Volken’s climbing shop in downtown North Bend. Fred had come in and was talking about his new AT skis with the crew there in the shop, and it was the first time I’d considered that the reason I was snubbed back at Denny’s was probably because the man is pretty deaf. You really have to talk loudly to get his attention, and this thought was only reinforced at the slideshow. Standing in line watching people try to ask him questions was pretty funny while they tried to get a straight answer from him, and he’d just smile and repeat himself a few times about something close to what they’d ask, but really not quite. It was just nice to know he’s maybe not as cranky as I’d first thought…

All in all, it was a fun evening and a pretty cool chance to meet someone I’ve admired for a long time. For a guy in his 80′s he’s still hustling and that’s pretty inspiring.

So the whole “pulling plastic” thing has never held a whole lot of attraction for me, but what with work paying for it, and the weather, and the general lack of physical activity over the last few months – it’s looking pretty good. It’s somewhat frustrating to start out with the basics again, but it’s really ok, as it also feels like a chance to relearn habits and really improve, rather than just cruise for the rest of my life at 5.9. I only climbed 4 routes tonight, a 5.7, two 8′s and most of a 5.9 before pumping out. My endurance just isn’t there yet, but it should improve as long as I’m consistently showing up. It was just a good feeling to walk out of there today with a fresh belay card on my harness and some vertical feet under my belt.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to get outside, but that’s not to say I haven’t had my mind on things of a vertical nature.

Last week I signed up for an annual membership to the Portland Rock Gym, and have been climbing all the V0′s in sight after work. With all the rain coming down, it’s been nice to get back into that kind of environment and know that I can get back into shape and hopefully improve some of my withered climbing skills. I’ve purposely been climbing the easiest things out there so as to not hurt myself getting back into this, and I’ve dug up some material about training that will help get some structure into my program and show me some results in time for this coming summer.

Tonight Beetle and I went to see Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell speak at the Bagdad Theater. We ended up behind them while waiting in line for our pizza, but I didn’t bug them. Some guy came up and had them signing a couple of magazines and a bunch of posters, and you just don’t want to be That Guy. They’re both a lot shorter than I thought they’d be. During their presentation Beth said she’s five-foot-one “on a good day”, and that being that short isn’t necessarily a bad thing in climbing. “It all averages out”, she said, as her smaller size allows her to use holds and moves that would tie the taller of us into knots. They both seemed just like really nice people and very much like someone Amy and I would hang out with. It was just inspiring to see them climb together and support each other so much while pulling off some amazingly superhuman feats. The presentation was first a slideshow from their free climb of the Nose on El Capitan, and then a short film about Tommy’s suffer-fest free climbing both the Nose and Freerider in a day. They answered a bunch of questions and tossed out some gear, and just impressed me as a couple of just really nice, laid-back people.

It was inspiring to see what they could do, and just made me a bit more determined to be able to climb how I know I can and dial up the things in my life that bring me joy. I get distracted too easily and I think I’m just tired of being distracted. I really wish I’d have been able to bring Amy or the Boys… They all would have had a good time and come away just as inspired.