Busy Busy

Like the previous post stated, it's fully summer. Still. The sun has been out consistently during normal daylight hours and the stars have been seen most of the other time. The cloudy marine layer that covered the Puget Sound area most mornings never even made it close to the park boundary. Summertime and the living is easy!

Saturday Morning, Camp Schurman

The scene up here on Rainier the past couple of weeks has been really busy with climbers making many successful ascents of many routes. The Emmons and the DC are still both in great shape. The Emmons is currently the more direct route of the two, offering stellar glacier climbing from Schurman to the summit. Many people have also been climbing the Kautz, encountering moderate and fun conditions in the ice chutes and moderate glacier travel above. We've even gotten a few reports in from climbers who have made recent ascents of the Tahoma, Sunset Ridge, Ptarmigan Ridge and Mowich Face. The approaches on these more remote west side routes are a bit long and involve more encounters with scree and talus this time of year, but the climbing conditions above 9,000' remain great.

Sunset Ridge, photo by Paul Cook

The past couple of weeks we have seen what appears to be an increase in the number of climbing parties having mishaps and/or full on accidents. We as the climbing rangers just want to remind everyone to stay vigilant, know and respect their abilities, stay aware of current conditions, and be ready and prepared to deal with whatever emergency may arise on your own. Help is definitely out there for people if it is needed, but that help might be a long way off which means self rescue is always required to some level.



Stay Safe. Climb Hard.

Tubing with Austin and Lauren

First on deck is Austin and Lauren! It is hysterical to watch them because their personalities shine through out there. Austin looks like a dog hanging his head out a truck window. Lauren tucks down and holds on tight. They both seem to love it!

Cinematic: The Pilen Give-Away Contest!

As mentioned earlier, I will be giving away the beautiful Pilen Lyx bicycle from Sweden after I finish test riding it for review. One of my strongest associations with Sweden has to do with film. I love Swedish cinema and have seen most films by Ingmar Bergman at least twice. Moody, ethereal, and with an almost fetishistic degree of attention to movement through landscape, Swedish films are aesthetically and emotionally distinct. When I received the Pilen, ahhed over its looks, experienced its nuanced ride quality, and learned that it was built for forest trails, my overactive imagination immediately cast it in such a film.



And so, a contest to win the Pilen's hand in companionship:

Please create and share with us a photo (or digital image capture, if you will) that (1) depicts a person and a bicycle, and (2) evokes some aspect of Swedish film. If you don't know anything about Swedish film, you'll just have to watch some! The deadline for picture submissions is Sunday, June 26th, so there is time.



Details: You can interpret this task as you like. The photo can be serious, or it can be complete parody. The person in the photo does not have to be you, but I think it's more interesting if it is. There can be more than one person and bicycle in the photo. Use your imagination!



Entry Criteria:Due to shipping restrictions, this contest is limited to participants in the USA only. The Pilen Lyx is suitable for persons over 5'7" and/or with an inseam of 32" or longer. I cannot stress enough that this is a large bicycle. I would say that it is ideal for someone 5'9"-5'11". Though men are not prohibited from entering the contest, I would prefer to give the Pilento a woman. Taller women in the US have very few options for step-through bicycles.



Deadline:Picture must be submitted by Sunday June 26th.



Submission Guidelines: If at all possible, please upload submission pictures toflickr or another image sharing site, rather than emailing me file attachments. Then post a comment here with some sort of identifier (does not have to be your actual name), a functional email address, and a link to your photo. Please only email me (filigreevelo-at-yahoo) if for some reason you are unable to do this. Entries for this contest will be public, and I will post emailed entries in the comments myself. Any questions, please ask in the comments.



Thank you for taking part and thank you to BoxCycles for donating this bicycle!

They're Gone!

This morning when we got to The Family History Library all of the pretty flowers had been removed. My guess is they will be planting something soon, but it was such a shock to see nothing but brown dirt in the flower beds. They were so colorful...

Purisima Creek Redwoods

I hope you guys don't mind another redwood shot...

This was at Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve near Half Moon Bay, California. Just 30 minutes before taking this shot, I had been at the site of some of the largest waves in the world, the Mavericks.

A short drive up the road led to this park. I never cease to be amazed at the sheer diversity of environs in California.

Can We See Beyond the Basket?

I have been taking out my Pashley Princess every day since I picked her up a week ago. She gets lots of comments and compliments. The comments come from passers-by, from other cyclists, and even from people in cars (waiting to turn left at an intersection, I heard a man say to a woman in the car behind me, "Don't you want a cute bike like that with a basket?").

And this brings me to my point: Interestingly, 95% of the comments I get have something to do with the basket. "Beautiful basket," "look at that basket," "Oh, and she's got a basket!" Even when people stop and ask about the bike itself, their body language betrays an irresistible attraction to the basket -- they start stroking it lovingly, examining the wicker and the leather straps in great detail, with the actual bicycle clearly occupying only the periphery of their attention. Witnessing this, my husband joked that bicycle sales and usage would increase astronomically if shops made a point of attaching a basket to every commuter bike. It is as if the wicker bicycle basket -- much like kittens and babies -- is genetically pre-determined to evoke a cooing response from otherwise level-headed adults.

To what extent then are we able to see beyond the basket to the actual bicycle? The basket on the Pashley Princess is so enormous, that it does seem to both define and dominate the bicycle itself. And while I love baskets, I am not sure I want that. The beautiful lines of the Princess frame and its countless other charms deserve to be seen. I have now ordered a different basket, which I think will be less overbearing and more unique than the stock one. Will see how that goes. The allure of the basket is a force to be reckoned with!

PS: I know that I have not been very expressive about my impressions of the Princess since having gotten her. That is mostly because I am still not entirely done customising her and getting to know her. Soon she will be in her finished state and I will post a full photo shoot and review. She even has a name!

Local Birds

some of the quail that stop by everyday for a drink of water and then go on their way. You can see the one quail going through the slightly larger space in the fence that we cut for them so they don't have to squish through the smaller spaces.















A raven that stopped by to chat with my mare the other day.