On Snow

Ty here again, still in Gunnison, Colorado, posting some lovely photos taken by my friend Nick Meyer on a recent ski tour. Our friends Kevin and Molly Grove (from Bend, OR) flew in on Friday night and we have been skiing up a storm ever since. Molly and Kevin are long time cardiovascular monsters, and Nick is a cardiovascular monster in training (CMIT?), so I have been having a heck of a time just keeping them in sight on the climbs.

The shots posted below were taken during Sunday's excursion up Mount Emmons, a handsome peak which towers directly above the small resort town of Crested Butte. We skied the big bowl (Red Lady) that is clearly visible from town, and then climbed back up and dropped off the back down some really nice north-facing shots into Redwell basin. It has been really warm here this spring and the snow is going fast, which has turned some of the approaches into muddy walks, but there is still plenty of good skiing to be had. There is so much impressive ski terrain in this area!

This weekend, Kevin and Nick are competing in the Grand Traverse, a wild backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen, a distance of over 40 miles. The race starts on Friday night at midnight - madness! They are praying for some cooler weather so they can breeze over a firm crust instead of slogging through rotten mush. So think of them as you settle into your comfortable bed on Friday night...

Anyhow, check out this web album for a few more of Nick's great photos of our day on Mt. Emmons:

Crested Butte Skiing

Childish Things...

Ty here again. After a few days climbing up in the Front Range, I am now in Gunnison, CO staying with my friend Nick Meyer. Anyhow, I just happened to look in a mirror this morning and was shocked at what I saw. It appears that the longer I am on the road, the more I start to look like James McMurtry. Anyhow, I snapped a photo to record my metamorphosis (before I become totally unrecognizable) - as you can see, the resemblance is already pretty scary. Rose probably won't even recognize me in the airport next week.

Ty Mack

PS: For anyone drawing a blank, James McMurtry is an alt-country singer/songwriter from Texas (son of author Larry McMurtry of Lonsome Dove fame). Anyhow, you really ought to give him a listen, and go catch a concert of his if you get the chance - he has written some truly amazing songs and is a damn fine performer. Link to his website: www.jamesmcmurtry.com

And

And speaking of a certain small state in New England, greetings from Vermont, my home for another 12 days, 6 hours, and 45 minutes (not that I'm counting). It continues to be winter here, despite the calendar's insistence that Spring's come; but with the foot and 1/2 of powder we got last weekend I had one last chance to ski out here with Rebekah and enjoyed an abandoned mountain on Saturday, thanks to St. Patrick (and his miraculous serpentine sophistry).

A few of my adventures these past few weeks have been musical in nature, getting ready for a show next weekend. And now for a plug, if you happen to be in Burlington on Sat., March 31st, David Rynhart, Joe Shine, Patrick (whose last name I don't recall) and I, will be playing at the Blue Star. And David's written and arranged a couple of the songs we're doing.

I've also spent some quality time these last few weeks making great new discoveries courtesy of Pandora and my office mate's tolerance for bluegrass, folk, and hip hop. I encourage you all to check out Zap Mama's "Ancestry in Progress" if you like the latter. Check out Dan Reeder's "After Death Update," and Neko Case's "Blacklisted" if you go for the former.

So, don't keep your love so confidential and please let your heart be more influential. Taking that advice, I'm going to return to my shell and continue hibernating until I get to see Ty again.

Rose

Slideshow

Ty here again. I just spent some time putting together a slide show for an fundraising event for the Jim Ratz Memorial Scholarship Fund, which allows two local kids the chance to climb the Grand Teton with Jackson Hole Mountain Guides. Jim Ratz, who died in May 2006, was the former executive director of NOLS, the President of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, and a good friend to so many of us in Lander and beyond. The scholarship is organized by and awarded as part of the International Climbers Festival, a great event which is entering its 14th year (July 11-15, 2007 - mark your calendars).

Anyhow, I put together a slide show for entertainment at the event, which included a fabulous Indian meal cooked by Marcia Sungia (a legendary Lander chef). I digitized a bunch of my old slides (first a blog, then a digital slide show... what is next - a network television show?), so I thought that I would post a few of them here for folks to see. The show was structured to give viewers some ideas of places to visit (and even climb), and may have even featured some cowboy poetry. Unfortunately, cowboy poetry is a performance art and can't really be done justice in print, so I can't post the poem here. Plus, it may have been just a little disparaging of a certain small state in New England (but in a friendly, tongue-in-cheek sort of way of course) and I don't want to get my friends back that direction all riled up.

Anyhow, enjoy the photos. I am heading down to Colorado tomorrow to do some climbing and skiing, visit friends, and anxiously await Rose's arrival in Denver on the 3rd of April. Gotta start having some adventures so this blog doesn't bore everyone silly.

Slide Show

One for the river rats...

Warning: This following essential mass message will probably not very entertaining for most folks, as it is targeted at river rats, that strange breed who shuffle around the halls of Building 10N muttering about attenuation assets, ecosystem services, and pre-disaster mitigation. But if you are a river rat, or have an exceptionally high tolerance for fluvial geomorphic jargon, then forge ahead.

Anyhow, even though I am no longer getting paid to look at and think about mistreated rivers, I seem to be having trouble staying away from them. I was on a rock climbing trip the other week (to Indian Creek, the purest crack climbing in the world) and became acquainted with a small desert stream named Cottonwood Creek. This stream, which is located in Beef Basin near the entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, is such a fine example of how a small dam can disrupt bedload transport and lead to dramatic bed degradation and tributary rejuvenation, that I couldn't help but snap a few photos. The following photo album illustrates the situation pretty well:

Beef Basin Incision

Upstream of the small dam, which can (barely) be seen near center of the first photo, Cottonwood Creek is slightly incised, but not enough to make the tributaries unravel. The dam has been trapping virtually all the bedload carried by Cottonwood Creek. Given how much fine sediment is stored just upstream of the dam, it probably used to create a large pool that allowed quite a bit of the suspended sediment load to settle out also. Downstream of the dam, a small diversion structure spanning the entire width of the channel, all hell is breaking loose. The channel is incised over 20' in places, and all its small, ephemeral tributaries are rejuvenating and carving deep gullies.

Sure is easy to see what is going on without all the damn trees. Anyhow, best wishes to all the folks back in the River Management Program in Vermont - keep fighting the good fight!

Ty Mack

Important Terminology Change

Ty here again. Anyhow, I talked to Rose this afternoon - she said the layout and such are fine - however, she doesn't like the term "blog" (or its variants - blogger, blogging, and yes, even blogosphere). After giving it some thought, I am in full agreement. The term "blog" oozes like a dank, stagnant, mosquito-infested puddle, good for nothing but breeding disease (nothing except for sediment and nutrient retention, flood storage, wildlife habitat, water purification, groundwater recharge...). And "blogging" smacks of violence, sounding like something that there is no use doing to a dead horse.

As far as alternative terms, Rose suggested something with more E's and S's, so I am proposing the following: "Essential Mass Message" It has a nice ring, and a total e+s count of 10. The variants are as follows: essential mass messenger, essential mass messaging, and sphere of essential mass messages (14 e's and s's in that last one!).

Cautionary Note: Care should be taken that this term is not confused with its near-homophone, the "sensual musk massage". Frankly I'm not quite even sure what this entails, and would recommend contacting Dan Savage at the Onion A.V. Club for details before even thinking about trying it.

As a reformed government employee and scientist, I am going to try my hardest to keep from reducing this fine term to a pathetic acronym like "EMM" and I would appreciate it if everyone else would do the same.

Hopefully we can get all the patents and copyrights locked up in the next few weeks, please try not to use this term too widely until we give the official go-ahead.

Thanks for your understanding as we make this important transition,

Ty Mack

Indian Creek

Ty here, with the inagural post on our entry into the blogosphere. A large and painful step for a couple of luddites, so we'll see h0w it works. Rose is still out in VT (until April 3 - only three more weeks!), so I am all by my lonesome, out in the lonesome wide open spaces of the West. I've been keeping myself occupied by trying to fire myself into some sort of climbing shape, hanging out in Lander trying to catch up with friends, and preparing for the travels ahead.

Anyhow, just got back from a quick trip to Indian Creek in S. Utah with my friend Kirk. We had a fabulous time - great weather and splitter cracks in one of the most magical places on earth. We spent a day each at Way Rambo Wall and Pistol Whipped, and then spent our last morning getting beat up by an offwidth at Battle of the Bulge called "Big Baby" Check out the following photo album:

Indian Creek 1