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Već desetljećima, planinari su testirali svoje snage i znanje protiva i najviših vrhova Himalaja. Ovo proljeće, tri prijatelja će baciti  će krampone i sjekire za led da oslobode svoju groznica na vrhovima na nov način: leteći uz pomoć termalno-pokretanog paragliding krila. Ovo će biti prvi tim koji će pokušati takvu avanturu, a piloti planiraju preletjeti preko 1300 km udaljenih krajolika Indije, Nepala, i Sikkim-a. Kroz 6-tjedna avantura, putem videa i fotografije, tim će zabilježiti veličanstvene trenutke legendi, mitova i način života ljudi u ovoj veličanstvenom "domu bogova" pod nazivom Himalaja. Više na njihovim web stranicama http://himalayanodyssey.org/

There is scepticism this morning about Delta Electricity's proposal to use plant material or 'biomass' at one of its power stations.

Ten farms in the Forbes district will take part in a $1 million trial of using plant material or 'biomass' to produce electricity.

The NSW Police Association is concerned the western region is not receiving enough new officers.

There's been a bunch of discussion over on rockclimbing.com about the last speed post, thought I'd post a few things that answered good questions on there:
-We use a single rope not necessarily to save weight (although if you add up the grams/meter it's a close contest), but because it keeps the belays a lot more organized and is generally a lot faster to deal with at transitions. Using two lead ropes invariably turns into a cluster once the ropes get a little icy or the belay is hanging, especially when block leading where the leader is on the "bottom" of the stack. Add in gloves, cold hands, fatigue, etc. etc. and a single lead line is just better when it's better. I use twin ropes, half ropes and single ropes depending on the situation, all have their place. For long relatively fat ice routes without a major approach (more than a few hours) I use a 70 or 80M 9.2 to lead on and a 7.7 (sometimes much thinner, but that gets technical and often isn't worth the hassle either) tag line. The tag line either goes in the second's pack or is towed by the leader or second depending on what's going on...
-A good belay on an ice climb is often one where the belayer can't even see the leader. A cave, a nook, some place that totally protects the belayer from falling ice is essential, and to not establish sheltered belays while leading a block is a crime punishable by free hotel-priced scotch for the second (if he or she isn't in the hospital). An attentive belay is always good, but ice climbing is a very different game than hard rock climbing... On a 70M pitch you're often run five to ten meters between screws, the belayer's main job is to catch a catastrophic fall and not short-rope the leader. There are of course times when every inch counts, and a good team will recognize those situations and respond appropriately.
-I'd generally rather have a belayer using a gri-gri than the other options while he or she is taking a leak, eating a piece of pizza, drinking, finishing a V-thread, and all the other chores that go into being a good team on a long route. I'm comfortable with that, but if you're not then by all means don't do it. Seriously, no sarcasm, you have to know your partner and the situation. Some partner's I'd trust with just an ATC while doing all of the above, some partners I assume I'm soloing even if they are looking at me the whole time. Definitely do use an auto-lock for belaying the second, no reason not to.
-All these points are about making the transitions and climb faster. There are likely safer ways of doing things; four screws at each belay, a screw every two meters on each 70M+ pitch, etc. etc. These transition ideas work great on relatively fat pure ice routes like Polar Circus, Willoughby routes or most Norwegian ice routes.

The New South Wales Government's refusal to allocate funding to build new hospitals in Parkes and Forbes has raised concerns the project's planning process has also stalled.

New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan denies there are any plans to cut Government services in Forbes.

Has it really been For months? I think the last flight I had was the Northside around the middle of October. This morning I got up at 9am and meandered around the house for a while. With coffee in hand, sat at the computer and clicked on the usual bookmarks across the tool bar of Safari. Yahoo, ksl, Salt Lake meso net.....whooo! It's soarable and over 35 degrees! In 20 minutes I was loaded up, second cup of joe in hand, heading out of the sub-division. It was a great day! Lots of hangs. I remembered how to do it!



Soutside pic from a few years back. John Lindberg in the foreground.

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Danas smo imali dvadesetak letača na našem omiljenom mjestu za letenje, a to je Grobnik. Žanimljiva vremenska situacija dala je ugodan let sa pogledom na Kvarner koji je bio pod niskim oblacima. Par slikica u nastavku.

After a week with my friend Andreas Spak in Norway I've got some things to say about speed on big routes. Andreas climbs faster than most, is always up for a big route, and is tough enough to get the job done, but I always seem to learn or re-learn some stuff when doing big new routes with him in Norway. Here are a few "speed" tricks for big routes that are primarily multi-pitch without walking steps (those steps call for T Bloks etc., not covered here).
-Use a single 70M rope to lead on. This cuts confusion at the belays down hugely. A good lead rope like the 9.2mm Nano has a far lower impact force than using twins (clipped together) or possibly even a half clipped singly (remember that the test for impact forces for half ropes is ridiculous for the way we actually climb on them, read up on it).
-Belay the leader with an auto-lock lead belay device. This allows the second to eat, drink, organize the belay, etc. Impact forces are a big discussion when using an auto-lock, I'll just say it's not something I'm concerned about with a good rope, good belay and decent rope management.
- The leader's belay sequence at the top of first pitch goes like this:1. One super-solid screw in, clove hitch it to the upper hole (BD screws have two holes on the hanger), "OFF!."2. Second super solid screw in higher than the first, clove hitch it the upper hole, tighten up a bit. 3. Pull up rope, belay second off an ATC guide on on the lower 'biner hole on the lower screw (yes, this actually matters!), stack neatly on one foot, or loosely if you've been smart and are using a cave or other feature for protection (which you always do, don't be all British/American and stand right in the way of the leader's falling ice).4. "ON!" can be yelled, but by now you're vigorously yanking on the rope like mad to make it clear you're on belay, the second should already be moving by the second good yank or so. If he's not it's a felony for the second, "Slack belay management," and is payable by one beer.5. While the second is climbing you drill the V-thread. I like to use cord rather than use the ropes to feed the thread when descending, keeps the friction lower (stuck ropes really, really suck at night on the descent), plus the cord gives a nice place to clip into on the descent (saving more time on the route...). Build as much of the V-Thread as possible, normally you can get it all done unless the second is absolutely flying. He finishes it if you don't.6. Second hits belay, clove hitch him to the V-thread with his rope first, then to the lower biner on the upper screw keeping things all neat and organized so the leader's rope will run free and leaving enough free rope so that when you take him off the ATC you have room to clove-hitch him neatly into the lower hole on the screw. Now you have three bomber pieces in the ice.7. Quick switch of gear (second racks screws and draws separately, don't leave draws on screws, slow), leader on belay, gone.8. Once the leader has two or three good screws in the second takes out one belay screw. After four screws the belayer take out all the belay screws, he's still attached to the V-Thread (I use 7mm cord for this).9. When the leader yells "off" or the rope is down to a few meters the second takes off the belay jacket, and is totally organized and ready to move when the rope goes tight. Just unhook the 'biner from the V-thread, gone in way less than 60 seconds, like zero second.
I've spent way too much time thinking about the descent also, I'll cover that next time, but because you've already put the V-threads in most of the work is done and the descent should be very fast but not too fast, ha ha!
No transition should take more than five minutes. On a six-pitch route you waste at least an hour if each transition takes 15 minutes; most ice parties take a crazy long time on each transition, it's painful to watch. It's one thing to piss around on a three-pitch route in the sun, but even on that type of route I like to get up and down quickly if possible, it's good training for bigger routes or bigger links, and you only get better at moving fast by practicing the systems.
The second has to wrestle the rope a bit at the belay, but with an auto-lock that's OK.
I'm starting to use two super light packs on long routes (forgot mine for Norway unfortunately), the leader and the second each have a good light jacket, a little water, a little food, headlamp, etc. Works better than one heavier pack for the second most of the time, plus the second often has the rap line in his pack to keep the cluster at belays lower. I've yet to find a pure ice route where the weight of a belay jacket, 250ml of water and a candy bar makes a jack bit of difference to me on the lead (OK, maybe Spray On, that would be harder for sure!). But normal ice, no.
Repeat to top.
This is based on the leader doing two or more pitches at a time. I basically don't swing leads ice climbing unless it's really warm, the climbing is mellow, and I don't care at all about time. The second should arrive at the belay fully winded and sucking air; this is not the time for him or her to lead again, plus the leader is probably getting cold. In Norway Andreas led all of one climb, I got the two ugly ones, it worked well for us.
Note that there are no slings or cords used at the belay; what normally happens with a sling or cord is the knot in the sling or cord gets totally stuck if it's loaded at all, and is then useless for the rest of the climb. Plus using the rope to clip directly into the anchor reduces the impact forces a lot if the leader pitches straight onto it. Equalization is not something I really believe in anymore (long story, but basically it doesn't work practically for real climbing situations), I like to have two bomber screws as a minimum for a belay, and then back that up with a bomber V-thread. Using the rope allows these screws to be as close as 30cm or as far as 3M, which is a lot more flexible and faster, plus no more messing about with frozen knots in slings!

The Forbes Shire Council is being asked to justify a bid to more than double its annual groundwater entitlement.

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Renegades ..::change::.. from PaulDoppler on Vimeo.

Norway 2010 is wrapping up. It's been a great trip--as always, Andreas Spak and I found insane ice, climbed it, and are destroyed. Christian Pondella came along to shoot some photos, but also ended up climbing a lot--dang photographers climbing our routes!
Link to Andreas Spak's blog, with LOTS more good photos!

Waterfalls are called "Fossens" in Norwegian, so everything has some consonant-colliding letter disaster followed by "Fossen." We climbed Fun, Sketchy, and Freaky Fossen, or at least that's what the real names sound like to us with our horrible ears for the language. We're going to use the "real" name of the waterfall from now on when reporting on it, this should cut confusion down. Full details below.

Yesterday Andreas and I climbed the classiest, the cleanest, the most stellar waterfall line I've ever done. It's the plum line in the Eidfjord area that I've seen (there are probably ten more equally good, the place is that insane). It was an all-day boxing match, a battle between desire, physics and sanity. Darkness started to fall on us while we were 7 pitches off the deck and standing below a 50M+ column of glass soda straws held together by crazy-climber glue. Below us was 450M of difficult, tenuous, downright challenging climbing. Maybe something like doing Sea of Vapors, then Nemesis then Curtain Call but, at least for me, more demanding all the way. You can't call a route an FA until you get to the top no matter how much you want to. Headlight on, shut up and swing. Then the spindrift started. Each placement involved 20 to 50cm of digging, same for the screws. Eight raps in the dark back down. I kissed the last V-thread on the way down that we had put in on the way up. done. Except for the walk down and four-hour drive. Stimulants were abused.
I'm pretty sure all the routes we did were FAs, but maybe Guy Lacelle did 'em, that's happened to me before. And does the FA of a water ice route really matter all that much? It's going to be different again next year, and if you don't know it's been climbed then what does it matter? And even if you do know it's still different every season, totally new ice... FAs are most useful for sharing where the ice goods are so others can go and have an experience on 'em.
Grades are increasibly sort of the same to me; beyond "it's steep, not steep, whatever" ice grades generally have far less to to do with how technically hard something is than what's going on in the leader's head. And, speaking personally, my head is a confused place while leading tenuous water ice... In kayaking we've pretty much given up rating rivers past class 5. All hard rivers are class 5, it's the people, picture and story that matter. For example, if a bud of about your ability and fear capacity runs a waterfall then it's about that hard. If he breaks his back then it's maybe more technical. Drops develop reputations--gnarly, friendly but looks gnarly, gnarly but looks friendly, etc. etc. People keep coming up with technical vs. danger vs. flow size vs. rescue options etc. for rating rivers, but in the end it's about the people, story and photo (I'll post some later, we're failing on that this morning, more coffee required). I think ice climbing grades past, "It's kinda vertical for a good distance and therefore WI 5" are likely useless. Almost all "hard" ice routes are some version of water ice 5 with bad gear. So all hard ice routes, like hard rivers, are "grade 5" plus the stories and photos... Yeah, I just rated something WI10, ha ha!

Photos etc to follow but here are the particulars so people searching the web will know how to get there etc. We found all of these climbs on the web or by looking out the window of our car.

Eidfjord New Routes 2010

Big Rig Across the Lake from Eidfjord ("Fun Fossen," not sure of name)

300M, like "Cascade" but way better.

FA Spak/Gadd/Pondella

February 9, 2010

Skykkjedalsfossen "Sketchy Fossen"

400M, WI 5+ R. A big piece of ice, nice.

FRA Gadd/Spak

February 12, 2010

Skrikjofossen ("freaky Fossen")

500M, (WI grade it whatever you need to feel good about the grade) Gives you everything you need.

FRA Gadd/Spak/(Pondella first three pitches)

February 15, 2010

Parts of central west New South Wales have experienced their best rain in more than a decade.

The body of a woman who was swept down a swollen creek in NSW Southern Tablelands has been found.

Crews will search for a woman who has been washed down a swollen creek in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

There has been flash flooding in western New South Wales following heavy rainfall over the weekend.

Norway! I love climbing in the land of big new routes with my friend Andreas Spak. Yeah!
I've done more ice climbing this season than I think I ever have in a season--Norway is just the latest round. The dZi Endless Ascent effort started it all off, but for some reason I've just been swinging the tools a lot with a variety of partners. I love working on technique and tricks for moving on ice, and thinking about how to do it with a higher safety margin and less effort. Here are a few things I've been thinking and see a lot of:
-If you get a stuck tool regularly you're likely placing them both at the same horizontal level. Don't. It's a waste of effort, time and makes the leader far less secure because they have to wrestle a tool out while it's off to the side. Place tools roughly 30 to 60 cm apart vertically and roughly shoulder-width or a bit narrower horizontally.
-Completely stand up and drive you hips into the ice to finish the stand-up part of a movement. Most climbers don't, which puts more weight on their arms.
-If you're getting pumped and you're not a complete novice it's almost always because your feet aren't at the same horizontal level, and aren't solid. Solid feet make for relaxed hands. If one foot is low when you stand up it will come off, making you out of balance. Kick twice as much as you swing.
-Look at the ice. LOOK at the ice. I can tell within about one swing and one foot placement how experienced an ice climber is; swing at corners in the ice, pockets, spaces between icicles, and kick in roughly the same places. But even if you know this you can't execute it without looking at the ice for every foot and tool placement...
-Swing with your elbow high, and the pick, head and shaft of the tool all in line with your wrist, forearm and upper arm. It's about getting the pick moving fast and accurately; 99 percent of people drop their elbow when they swing, which is a waste of effort, compromises accuracy, and reduces the vertical gain on each swing. Even worse is the "chicken wing" swing, with your elbow out to the side at roughly shoulder level...
-If you want to be a better ice climber go hang a rope on a vertical piece of ice and climb it a whole lot. Like 200 or more times. With crampons off, on, no tools, one tool, etc. etc. Many aspirant ice climbers drop the sport after spending a weekend climbing 4 pitches and freezing their asses off. Go TR like mad, then you lead fast, follow fast, and be secure while doing so.
Back to ice climbing here in Norway, only another 50,000 FAs to do until we run out of ice...

The New South Wales Government has approved an extra bus for a central west boarding school after initially rejecting the application.

Here's a little video sports action of the Endless Ascent effort, shot by my friend Scott Milton. Memories, memories! Nice work Scott and team Arc. There are a whole whack of linked videos if you open the video directly on Youtube to.
I'm looking out the window on Norway, where an epic season is in progress. Jetlagged, over-traveled but still STOKED to get it on!