Fashion Friday - It's a pants off!

The last week sawprobably the most exceptional pants wearingThe Cave has ever seen.









Frey Yulepulled off a stunning hibiscus board pant in bluewith a simple lemon chalk bag by Black Diamond and a translucent green denture brush.

jjobrienclimbing votes this look: Flawless





















Matt Walpole went all out Acid with awildPsy-Macaw Board Pant,

Dippers chalk bag in Acid Fluff with a deep pink plush lining (Aussie made too, that's nice)

framed in a Wild Country Syncro (way too many gear loops for practical sport climbing, but the added colour and structure works super, don't you think?)













Remember jjobrienclimbing says:Fashion iswhat separates climbers from monkeys.

Putting in the Glacier Stakes

Good news for climbing this year at Mt. Rainier!

Many of you may have seen the white schedule-40 PVC pipes in various locations on the mountain. These stakes are installed using a steam drill and a big frothing wand to put an 8-9 meter long stake into the snow down past the layer of glacier ice.

When we put the stakes in, the snow depth is measured from last year's late fall layer. This year, all of the way up the Nisqually and even at 11,100' on the Ingraham, we have measured an amount of snow comparable to most years at this time.

This is good news for climbers. Many of the non-standard routes rely on Mt. Rainier's typical snowfall to make the route endure long enough into the summer for climbers to take advantage of the better weather.

The project's aim is to analyze the mass-balance of the Nisqually Glacier. One of the things that we have learned from this project is that the Muir Snowfield at about 9,700 feet has lost about 1 meter of ice each year for the past six years. Many of you may have noticed the rock rib that has been exposed just down from Camp Muir at about 9,700 feet!

The Glacier Monitoring Program is coordinated by the geologist at North Cascades National Park. Many of the Pacific Northwest's glaciers are incorporated into this study. Field crews from North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park are involved in the project.

Pilen Contest Winner and Other Updates

Thank you so much once again to everybody who took the time to create the wonderful images paying tribute to Swedish cinema and the bicycle! After much deliberation I am pleased to announce that there is a winner. Over the course of the past week, I wavered between eight finalists. In the end, I took into account not only the image itself (it was really impossible to choose on that account alone), but also how suitable I thought the Pilen would be for the person.

Without further ado: The winner of the contestis Amanda Hamilton, and this was her picture:

To create this striking image, Amanda cut out a paper silhouette of the bicycle, then shot footage of herself and played it on a loop while filming the cut-out in front of it.



This is the paper cut-out that served as the bicycle model. I was surprised and intrigued by this entry, both in terms of its creative interpretation of the guidelines and in terms of how labor intensive it must have been. It was only one of my favourite images, but when I contacted Amanda over email it became apparent that she and the Pilen would be a good match on many levels. Congratulations!



Over the course of the next two weeks I will be finished with my review, and then the bicycle will be shipped to the winner. I hope it is understandable that this is a demo model that I have been now riding for a month - so there will be some scuffs and other mild signs of use. Happily, the Pilen is very durable and my intense testing has left it none the worse for wear. Many thanks again to Pilen's North American distributor BoxCycles for donating the beautiful bicycle and making this give-away possible.



I would also like to update you on other contests, past and future:



The winner of the Po Campo Spare Pocket give-away, sponsored by Planet Gear, has been named, and will receive this enigmatic item shortly from Planet Gear directly.



The winner of the Bella Ciao Superba give-away is being a good sport and waiting patiently, as the bicycles are running fashionably late and have not arrived in the US yet! More on this soon, and they are on their way as I write this.

And finally, after some delay the Lovely Touring Bike contest is coming up next! I have some ideas for this one, but am not yet sure what the rules for it will be. Requests and suggestions welcome!







Many thanks to everybody once again for taking part in the give-aways and I will try my best to keep them going. And of course, thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle!



Oh, and can anyone tell what that camera is, resting on the Pilen's rear rack, and during what years it was produced? A roll of 35mm film for the first person to post the answer : )

Sunrise at Cobscook Bay

Monday, September 17th - - The State Park at Cobscook Bay has what are known as 'primitive' facilities (pit toilets, no electrical hookups) but the campsites are spacious and private. My site was at the end of an outcropping or small peninsula in the bay. I had my own private rocky beach facing south and a nice cliff that faced west. It was rather remote, being at the end of the road, but I really liked it! Joann had her site in a separate area specifically for RVs and camper trailers.








The late afternoon sun cast long shadows through the campsite.






Only 'tent sites' had a shelter, which contained a picnic table. There was a second picnic table outside the shelter.




Tuesday, September 18th- - Joann was more energetic that I this morning. She got up early and drove the 15 miles to the West Quoddy Lighthouse, near Lubec, to photograph the sunrise. That lighthouse is located on the eastern-most point in the United States. I, on the other hand, took one look at the sky and stayed in bed a little while longer. However, I did manage to get up in time for these pictures...






But then, I would have missed out on these shots... The tide was still going out. Or maybe it was coming in. Not sure. But at low tide there was no water in this little bay and at high tide it was completely filled.






This was the view from my little beach spot, looking south. Oddly enough, the sky was clearer over at the West Quoddy Lighthouse and Joann got some really nice shots. Almost made me wish I'd gotten up and gone over there myself. Almost.






Good morning, sunshine. It's so nice to see you!

Winter Project: a Roadbike for the Ladies Who Fear Roadbikes

The house is full of excitement, as the Bicycle Fairy has visited me again!It was a Japanese bicycle fairy. She spoke through an interpreter, and these were her words:

The bicycle fairies have decided that you need a winter bike project! We have chosen this bicycle for a reason. When you see it, you will know what to do with it...

And indeed I knew exactly what to do once I saw this neglected beauty, her frame an enchanting mixture of mauve and champagne. She is a 1980'sShogun- a Japanese touring bike in double butted cromoly steel.



While I don't need another roadbike, I think that many other ladies out there do - particularly this bicycle, once I get through with it! What's so special about this bike? Well, I will start from the beginning. I hear a lot of stories from women who have tried to ride a roadbike, but felt that it was too aggressive and uncomfortable and gave up - as well as from women who would like to ride a roadbike, but are too nervous to try in the first place. I understand that state of mind, because when I first tried to ride a bike with drop bars, it felt awful and I eventually gave up. What then made me succeed on myRivendell this year? For me, the big difference was comfort, stable handling, and a choice of components that I believe works especially well for women.



As far as comfort and stable handling, this Shogun has that down - whereas the same is definitely not true for all vintage roadbikes. This particular bicycle is stable and fairly relaxed - a vintage predecessor to the Rivendellphilosophy, if you will.Just like I had an easy time learning on myRivendell, I think thisShogunwill be great for that -with the benefit of a much lower price point.



My plan is to give this bicycle a make-over, to learn a thing or two about vintage Japanese bikes in the process, and then to find a new home for it in the spring.I will keep a lot of its vintage goodness, but will replace some of the components with my own mix that I have found especially comfortable and easy to use - and I think that other women will too.As I begin to work on the bike, I will explain what it is I am changing about it, and why. And I will also post a test ride report soon, comparing it to other vintage roadbikes that I have tried.I am excited about this project, because I think this bicycle is justperfectfor a woman who would like to try a roadbike but is not confident about her skills. The right bike can make all the difference!

Winter, dry, both or none?

Obviously, the dry tooling route I did on the CIC cascades under the Ben Nevis north face last week was going to provoke a bit of debate. In my mind it’s perfectly suited to climbing in this style and it’s no threat to the traditional Scottish winter routes because it’s so clearly different from them. It did make me wince when I saw UKclimbing.com include a Scottish winter grade in their headline reporting the route. I didn’t give it a Scottish grade for a good reason! I should have seen that coming I guess, although it was hard to foresee that a casual comment by me comparing it to a similar piece of climbing terrain with a winter grade would mean folk would then take this one as a winter route. A bit like saying an E8 trad route has 7c+ climbing - it’s still different from a bolted 7c+! This seemed to fuel a bit of debate about how it related to the traditional winter climbing game. To me, it’s totally clear the route is a tooling route, not a Scottish winter route. Clear and simple.






Some folk argued that maybe it should be left alone in case it dilutes the Scottish winter conditions ethic. I personally don’t agree with this. My feeling is that a one size fits all ethic for anything climbed is unnecessarily simplistic. It’s a shame not to climb that crack just because it doesn’t get rimed up. It’s an excellent climb.




More so than any other climbing discipline, Scottish winter climbing seems to be awful scared of losing what we have. Of course it’s special and worth defending. Perhaps because I like going for the steepest routes I’ve spent more than my fair share of days walking in and turning on my heel because the project is not white enough. It’s natural to resist any changes (even if they are only additions) to the status quo, but not always good. Balanced against the fear of losing what we have must be a fear of losing what we could have. To me, the diversity of British climbing has always been it’s greatest asset. A strict and narrow focus on what can be climbed with tools is a strength in upholding a strong ethic, but a weakness in undermining the diversity of climbs that can be done. I just don’t see that the threat to the Scottish conditions ethic is real. Rather than diminished over the years I have been a climber, I feel it has strengthened. The ethic is so strong, it has room to accept some ‘outliers’. However, that is of course just an opinion of one and may be outweighed by those of others, which is no problem. If other folk thought the tooling route was a good idea, very few have come out and said so.









Winter condition or not? What do you think?



A further interesting twist came when the other new route I wrote about (The Snotter) was questioned for not being in winter condition. I must say that took me seriously by surprise. I’ve done plenty of mixed routes that were on the borderline, but it didn’t enter my head that this one wasn’t in good condition. Simon Richardson wrote a particularly below the belt post on his blog which is here. For some reason he didn’t mention my name in it, and is was a little weird that he wrote such strong words and then reported another new route of mine in the very next post. Anyway, the reason it took me so by surprise was the focus on the section of overhanging wall to get between the ice grooves below and the hanging icicle above. I deliberately went on the route because the recent sunny conditions has been good for helping the grooves below the icicles to become iced. In the 55 metre crux pitch, around 47 metres was climbed on water ice, with 6 metres crossing a grossly overhanging wall underneath the roof to get to the icicle. The 30 metres of grooves below the roof were climbed on ice, initially stepped iced slabby ledges, then a thin ice smeared rib and groove, apart from a few hooks on the right of the ice. Once on the icicle, there was a long section (15 metres at least) before the angle even started to lie back.The downside of this mix of conditions was that the overhanging wall itself was pretty dry. My thinking was that this is par for the course for this type of route. The sun helps more ice form, but at the expense of the rime. My interpretation (which may be ‘wrong’ if such a judgement can truly be made) of Scottish winter conditions is that basically the route must be wintery in appearance. If it was nearly all dry mixed with a little ice, it would be outside that definition and I would have come back another time. But the reality was the pitch was nearly all ice with a short section of dry rock.




A central view in my own new route climbing has always been that I don’t want it to be at the expense of anyone else, even if I don’t agree with their position or motives. Clearly, some folk feel that way. So I have taken away my blog post about the routes and recommend that folk forget about them, if that is what they want to do. They still exist of course, in my memory as great days out and two of the most fun climbs I’ve done in a while. Nothing more ultimately matters. Anyone else is welcome to climb them as first ascents if they feel those ascents are more worthy.

On the Trail

On the Trail, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Temple Crag looms in the distance, towering above Second Lake.

Big Pine is one of the best hiking areas I've yet seen. There are many trails, lots of lakes, and spectacular mountains.