Archive for May, 2007
I don’t know how you feel about the doping allegations against Floyd Landis, but check out the drama that went on in the hearing today! It’s a bit complicated, so I’ll try to simplify.
- Landis is having his hearing
- Greg Lamond, former Tour champ, was to testify
- Landis’ manager called and threatened Lamond before the hearing by telling him he’d expose the fact that Lamond was sexually abused as a child
- He told him he’d better not testify
- Then when Landis’ team found out, in true Donald Trump style, Landis’ lawyer walked over to Landis’ manager in the middle of the hearing and said “You’re fired”
And all of this on National Bike to Work Day. For shame!!!
photo by michael david murphy
May 18th, 2007
You know how sometimes you need a haircut, and you just let it grow and grow and finally you say, “enough”! Well the homepage kept getting more and more stuff on it and it was time for a haircut. We kept the same basic style, but here’s an overview of the new “do”.
- Shrunk the hiking image down and added a “join” button at the top to make it easier for new members to see how to join us.
- Took the newest members images and made them larger and rotated them to a horizontal configuration. The members are the most important thing here anyway
- Listing only the top two trip reports and enlarged the pics on those
- Added a section for the newest Outdoorzy Businesses at the bottom
- Included the latest three blog headlines in the upper right-hand corner
- Added RSS to the Gear Reveiws, Gear Lists, and latest Members… Now you can click that button and you will easily see when a new member, trip report, or gear item shows up on the site!
And that’s it. Hopefully it doesn’t confuse you when you show up to find the latest Outdoorzy goodies. Let us know what you think. And as always, keep the suggestions coming in, we love to hear them and consider every one. Have a great weekend!
And thanks Lynn for working so hard on this.
May 18th, 2007
For those of you who cycle regularly, it should be a no-brainer. It is a much more common practice to ride a bike to work or school in other countries and even in some large US cities. But for those of you who don’t commute regularly, or at all, here are a few tips on biking to work. Granted, from a guy who has only been bike commuting for a few months, so chime in with comments if you have more tips.
- Wear a helmet for pete’s sake
- Obey the traffic laws
- Always be mindful of drivers, they won’t always be looking for you
- Slow down at turns and intersections and take your time
- Wear a quick-dry shirt
- Take a clean shirt and maybe a travel size spray deodorant
- Wear bright and/or reflective clothing
- Take a bike lock
- Bring rain gear if needed, and slow your pace down in bad weather
- Take a bike tool and spare tube
So, give it a shot tomorrow. Use National Bike to Work Day as an excuse to try it and see how it goes. If nothing else, cut out a trip to the supermarket or a restaurant tomorrow and ride your bike instead. Have fun, and be safe!
May 17th, 2007
Well we’ve finally made it. We’re in Outside Magazine. We got a quick mention in the June
issue and we’re stoked. We’ve received plenty of good press online, but now we’re getting mentioned in ink. Yay!
My new goal is to make their Best Jobs List for 2008.
May 16th, 2007
For the second selection of Mountain of the Week I’m picking one I summited a few years back with my father and a few of my close friends. Some of my most fond memories are in the mountains.
This week: Olancha Peak (12,123 ft - 3,695 m)
Olancha Peak is one of the 15 emblem peaks of California. These 15 mountains were designated so because they dominate their surroundings. Olancha is not a 14er, and it’s several miles south of the Mt Whitney Portal. These two things mean that it is climbed infrequently compared to many of the other Sierra Nevada peaks. It is believed that the name derives from the Olanches tribe.
Route
Sage Flat road starts from US 395. Sage Flat Road will take you to a trail head on the east side. You can also start from Monache Meadows on the West, but the driving is very involved apparently. I started from the east.
We camped at the trail head and started off the following morning. The first day took us through large pines and a steep desert like terrain. We merged with a cattle road just before we got to the alpine meadow. Once there we went north to the Wranglers Camp. This camp is stocked with a metal bear-proof box (maybe a BBQ), a log picnic table and a stream. In the height of summer I have read that all the streams dry up though so carry in plenty of water if you go.
The second day we hiked around the west side of the mountain and went for the summit. There is no trail to the summit, so some route-finding skills are needed. Getting closer to the summit, the boulders seem to get bigger, until you are doing quite a bit of scrambling. There is also some exposure if you get near the huge wall that drops off the east side. The summit affords a great view of the Owens valley and the ranges to the east near Death Valley.
Here’s a shot of my friend Adam making the final move to summit.
We got a bit mixed up and missed the trail coming back down. That cost us an hour or so and that was enough time to keep us on the mountain another night since we were exhausted when we got back to Wranglers camp. We ate our gorp, powerbars, our emergency meal, and stale cheetos out of the Wranglers stash from the previous year.
All in all, it is a great trip. Olancha is the most southerly “big mountain” in the Sierras, so it’s the easiest to get to from the LA area.
May 15th, 2007
For those who don’t know, Bonnaroo is the biggest music festival on the planet. It occurs in a rural Tennessee field each June. I have attended the last two personally and I can say without hesitation, it’s not for everyone. But I can also say it is an awesome 4 days of music, camping, and is a great escape from the reality of normal life. Today is the 1 month mark before the big concert!
For me the Bonnaroo prep begins a month early. My wife and I start buying extra stuff at the grocery like big jugs of water, zip locks, camping food, etc. We print out our Gear List and start checking items off. As with many trips, it’s almost as fun to plan the trip as it is to actually go.
Bonnaroo hosts around 100,000 fans of varying musical taste. The artists range from bluegrass to funk to hip hop to hard rock to hippy throwback music. It’s a great way to expose yourself to a variety of genres while camping in a field for 3 nights with your buddies. There are also other activities such as a comedy tent. This year Louis Black, Dave Attell, and David Cross will be there cracking our ribs. I’m excited about David Cross since he played Tobias on one of the smartest comedies ever on TV, Arrested Development.
This year’s music line up includes some of my favs, here are the ones I’m looking forward to most…
The White Stripes
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
The Flaming Lips
Tool
Ziggy Marley
and for my wife… The Police
So, good luck in your Bonnaroo preparations, be safe, and if you’re not going… sorry.
May 14th, 2007
I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Zappos.com. I had a great customer experience with them this week. I ordered a pair of Columbia Flops and they were accidentally shipped to the wrong address. They apologized and then gave me a 20 dollar credit on my next purchase. Then UPS couldn’t deliver to the addresses I wanted them to deliver it to because it required a signiture. So I called Zappos to see if they could get it delivered to my house and just left on the front porch. They agreed to do that for me but then also comp’d my order because of all the “trouble” I went through. I thought that was amazing! They didn’t have to do that.
Zappos is a great company and I think you guys should consider buying your next pair of shoes from them. They have great prices and all kinds of hard to find sizes. They also offer free overnight shipping and free shipping back if the shoes don’t fit. I know that Zappos has created a customer for life in me!
May 11th, 2007
According to me… and what do I know.
Backpacking has come a long way in the last 10-20 years. I started backpacking regularly about 10-12 years ago. At that time, all of my gear was bought at an army surplus, from friends, or donated to me. My backpacking buddies and I have since upgraded our cache of goodies, and here are some advances that I think are wonderful.
10. Jet Boil - Your kitchen all in one slick package. As Borat would say “NIIICE”
9. LED lights - Bright, longer lasting, cool white glow.
8. MSR Miox Water Purifier - No pumping, no maintenance, no pumping, no pumping…
7. Digital Cameras - You can get a tiny one now that has 8 Mega pixels - no film, no fuss. And when you get back, all your homeys will have a copy of you on the summit or running that rapid in their inbox… like they really wanted one.
6. GPS - As long as you keep fresh batteries with you, you have a map system and can mark waypoints (still, don’t leave home without the compass and paper map…)
5. Multi-tools - Leatherman and all it’s knock-offs have been around for a while, but they keep adding tools, and getting smaller and smaller. I’m still waiting on the Leatherman liquor cabinet that folds out your favorite libations….
4. Titanium Cookware - Its lighter than steel and stronger than aluminum.
3. Quick Dry - Polyester was on all the dance floors in the 70s but now with a few technical upgrades it is on the body of most every person in the backcountry. And for good reason.
2. Lightweight Shoes - My first serious hiking boots must have weighed 20 lbs and the soles were made of concrete… Now you can slip on a pair of mid-high Montrail, Salomons, or Merrells and float on up the trail.
1. Ultralight Tents - #1 on the list, for me, has to be tents. They are stronger, lighter, windproof, rainproof, have all sorts of cool features. And now-a-days two backpackers can sleep comfortably for under 2 lbs!
Oh, and this is our 100th post… Yay!
May 10th, 2007
The Outdoor Weblog posted a two-part interview with some oddball…. Me. Just wanted to say thanks to Terah for the interview, and keep up the great work with the blog. You should definitely bookmark it or subscribe, she updates often and has good material.
May 9th, 2007
We’re going to start doing a feature called “Mountain of the Week” here at Outdoorzy. Nothing fancy, just featuring a mountain for the mountaineers to consider and the armchair mountaineers to drool over. We won’t be talking about Everest, Kili, or Rainier though. I’ll try to feature those mountains that non-outdoorzy people wouldn’t know.
This week: Mt. Damavand (18,405 ft - 5,610 m)
From Wikipedia:
Mount Damāvand (Persian: دماوند ) also known as Donbavand, is a dormant volcano in Iran. Located in the middle Alborz Range, adjacent to Varārū, Sesang, Gol-e Zard and Mīānrūd, it is the highest point in both Iran and the wider Middle East. The mountain is located near the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, in Āmol county, Māzandarān, 66 km (41 miles) northeast of Tehran. The nearest major settlement is the city of Rineh, located at the south of the mountain.
History
Mount Damāvand has its own special place in Iranian mythology and folklore. In Zoroastrian texts and mythology, the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka was chained within Mount Damāvand, there to remain until the end of the world. In a later version of the same legend, the tyrant Zahhāk was also chained on some cave in mount Damāvand after being defeated by Kāveh and Fereydūn. Damāvand is also significant to the patriotic Iranian legend of Arash.
Damāvand was climbed by Iranians thousands of years ago, by shepherds and such.
Routes
There are at least 16 known routes [1] to the summit which have different difficulties. Some of them are very dangerous and need rock climbing. The most popular route is the Southern Route which has step stamps and also a camp midway at 4000 m. The longest route is the Northeastern and it takes two whole days to reach the summit starting from downhill village of Nāndal and a night stay at Takht-e Fereydoun (elevation 4300 m), a two-story shelter. The western route is famous for its sunset view. Sīmorgh shelter in this route at 4100 m is a newly constructed shelter with two stories. There is a frozen waterfall (Ābshār-e Yakhī), which often causes major avalanches.
May 8th, 2007
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