Climbing Back Up The Mountain: Eastern Mountain Sports

I read this article shortly before becoming a part-time employee at one the 85 stores mentioned. I had been a patron of the store for over 7 years and watched the logos change, and saw the shift of the store, and thought the company was heading back into the right direction. After almost two years of working there, I decided to move on, mostly because I switched my day time job back in the city, but where is the passion of EMS?

This article highlights the good changes, but as of December 2006, ripe for the holidays, the company started making "Guides" where Blue lanyards that say Gift-Cards Always Perfect and also attaching a gift card to the lanyard. This may not seem strange in the retail world, but seeing how the last lanyards were about safety in the wilderness Stay Put, Stay Dry I thought this a reversal of the referenced motto of EMS.

My point? I think EMS is heading into the wrong direction with the current merchandise it labels/manufactures. I think that they should listen to the likes of Yvon Chouinard and do more for the environment, like having the managers take care of Recycling in the store (currently not all stores have the ability to recycle more than cardboard). I think they should concentrate on a set of products well and improve them, instead of trying to make everything, especially military/urban style clothing.

Reach out to your local stores, call the 1-800 # and send emails to the company letting them know that they are not going in the right direction. They are heading to the Mall again with some of the current products. I believe that EMS is an awesome company, a great brand for the Northeast, and a great place to work, but I don't agree with everything they are doing in the stores, and with products.

This is just my point of view.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Climbing Back Up The Mountain: "By the time Manzer signed on as CEO in 2003, 'EMS had become a Gap with climbing ropes'.

N. Ireland's decisive move toward peace | csmonitor.com

N. Ireland's decisive move toward peace | csmonitor.com

DRUDGE REPORT 2007®

I almost forgot about this site. I think this is one the most brilliant on the www.

DRUDGE REPORT 2007®

Northern Ice

Northern Ice!

Kick, Kick, Swing Swing. Back in December I posted that I got into the AMC Mountaineering Ice Program, and last weekend I had the chance to do the first leg of the training. I drove with two cohorts from the program from Boston to Glen, NH to stay at the coveted Harvard Cabin. However, a week prior I volunteered to “camp” as there was too many people signed up to stay inside the cabin. So I trucked my trusty one man tent and two sleeping bags and braved the harsh northern winter, for Friday. I mean it wasn’t that bad. I was inside until midnight and slept for 7 hours like a baby. But then the fun began.

On Saturday we trucked to the Glen Junction Diner, and ate a hearty breakfast. Then we were en-route to the famed Frankenstein Cliffs. Day one proved excellent. Yours truly climbed ice in many ways; no hands using feet/crampons only, using one axe, and ultimately a couple of routes utilizing 2 axes and crampons. We also learned how to safely move (ascend/descend) snow and ice slopes, staying warm in 15 degrees, and placing and removing ice screws. The day culminated in a beer or two at Margarita Grill, and dinner with all of the leaders, assistants and students back at the Cabin. So during dinner I struck up a conversation with one of the leaders, and asked about the sleeping arrangements. Apparently even though they thought that we were overbooked sleeping wise, there were actually less people than expected sleeping in the cabin. So I wimped out and went inside to sleep. Making me feel more like a wimp, both nights one guy slept in an OR Bivvy sack. Yeah, I am a wimp, oh well.

Day two was to be a low grade multi-pitch instructional day, however after getting to the parking lot of Willy’s slide, estimated temperature was 0 degrees, and wind speed about 50mph at least, our instructors deemed that we would be “retarded” to try to go up on the exposed route. I didn’t see any actual verification of this weather, but as we drove to Willy’s (Crawford Notch) the wind shear, was blowing my car (a Subaru outback with 3 grown men and equipment) all over the road. Needless to say I was very pleased to be called retarded, and we headed back to the Frankenstein cliffs area right down the road. Instead of going back to where we climbed the day prior, we hiked in to Arethusa Falls. This is an amazing waterfall and a pretty gentle hike in, during the summer. With snow, a heavy pack and mountaineering boots it felt like three miles. Just the same, it was a nice day, sun was out, and when we got to the base of the cliff, there was no wind, just bone breaking cold, 10 degrees by my thermometer, and likely actually colder. I was so cold that I had to keep taking off my boots to rub my toes and “crack” them to get the blood flowing. This was really my fault, not the cold. I wore too thick socks which was cutting proper blood flow. So lesson learned wear thinner socks.

I had been into Arethusa Falls with Kate a couple of years ago, and hiking in I was curious how I was going to climb this monster waterfall. Our instructors set about 3 ropes for us to try, and a couple of folks did multi pitch routes. I do have to say that I rocked that ice! I loved the climb, though I was scared a little shitless when one of my foot placements slipped, but otherwise felt very strong!

All in all this was an awesome weekend. Once my cohorts post some pictures I will add some links.

Everest at any price? Letting a man die?

Everest at any price? Letting a man die?

This is a great article on the toll that personal achievement as taken on the sport of climbing. Most climber would do anything for anyone they are in kinship with. Perhaps this is the point. When you pay $60k to climb something, you feel absolutely no kinship, you don't respect others and you forget that base human instinct to help others. I mean, what the F? If you were walking down the street and you saw someone dying, would you walk past them? If it could be calculated who those climbers were who walked past this man en route to the summit, they should all be made to pay restitution to the dead climbers family, bastards!

This brings up other ethical concerns also. Do morals go out the window, when you engage dangerous sports? I don't think so. I think we all should learn from this tragic trend, and do something to help fix the problems. Even Sir Hillary is denouncing the current state of mountaineering on everest, come on folks, wake up.

Ouray Ice Festival, Damn fine climbing

Check out the description of the "Diving Board" this guy climbed in Ouray this past weekend. It sounds like one crazy climb. For more on the festival, which happens each year, check out http://www.ourayicepark.com/Montrose Daily Press Online

Put off reading this until tax time - Yahoo! News

Procrastination Study, this is right on the money. Put off reading this until tax time - Yahoo! News