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Barry Blanchard Receives the Order of Canada

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18 Dec 2024, 23:00

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    Originally published in Guidebook XIII Eric Gilbertson was on the summit of Rainier. Or was he? With the differential GPS set up in front of him, he hopped from foot to foot—it was cold up there, but he was also anxious to confirm his suspicions by applying a more rigorous measuring process to the changes he could see with the naked eye. Funded by the AAC Research Grant, he had used an Abney level to measure the relative heights of Columbia Crest, the traditional icecap summit of Rainier where he stood now, as compared to the actual highest point in the summit area—the southwest edge of the crater rim, which was a rock outcrop. Based on the Abney level, Columbia Crest was distinctly shorter than the southwest rim. With calculations spinning in his head, he noticed the unmistakably dirtier, more trampled quality of Columbia Crest, the way dirt and rocks seemed to muddle the pure snow dome, bringing a wilted quality to the landscape, especially compared to what he could remember seeing in old photographs of Rainier’s summit. He would have to wait to process the data from the differential GPS to be sure exactly by how much the summit had changed. Yet more than the relief of seeing his hypothesis likely confirmed, a bigger question loomed: Were mountains, which so many consider the stalwart indicator of the unmoving, the unchanging, the steady, actually shrinking? And what would it mean if they were? Eric Gilbertson is a man of many lists and projects. Each of his projects coalesces around peakbagging, and now surveying. The idea to research the current heights of the five remaining icecap peaks in the Lower 48, which includes Rainier, started when Mt. St. Helens eroded off the top 100 highest peaks of Washington list. Gilbertson had discovered that St. Helens had been steadily eroding by four inches each year since 1989, and because of that, St. Helens had technically fallen off the top 100 list around 2021. As an exacting, rigorous person who prizes accuracy above all in his life’s work, Gilbertson was intrigued—were there more discrepancy in the heights of the other top 100 Washington mountains? If his goal was to do all the hundred highest, and be the first to do them all in winter no less, he wanted to do it right. Before fact-checking the hundred highest list, before measuring the status of the five historical icecap peaks of the Lower 48, Eric and his brother Matthew had been pursuing what they called “The Country High Points Project.” Though the brothers are each respected alpinists in their own right, with several technical first ascents and inclusions in the American Alpine Journal to Eric’s name, they are peakbaggers at heart. Which is why they conceived of the project to get to the highest point of every country in the world, as defined by UN members and observer states, plus Antarctica. Thus, there are 196 highpoints on their list. So far, Eric has gotten to the highest point of 144 countries and Matthew has ticked 97. Eric says he sees the project as a framework for creating opportunities for really interesting adventures. “[It] kind of requires every kind of skill set you can imagine. It definitely requires high-altitude mountaineering, like K2 is on there and Everest, but it also requires jungle bushwhacking in the Caribbean or hiking through the desert in Chad. There is so much red tape you have to get through—like in West Africa there are so many police checkpoints so you have to navigate those—so many languages you have to speak, logistics to make it interesting, and the other interesting aspect is [sometimes we don’t know which] is the highest mountain, so in comes the survey equipment.” When, in 2018, the brothers determined the highest point in Saudi Arabia had actually been misunderstood all along, Eric became particularly interested in exactness and discovery, and how these elements added an interesting complexity to getting to the great heights of the world. A lot more was unknown than one might first imagine, given our information-overload culture. Not knowing if the mountain you were climbing was even the highest point in the country added a challenge that seemed to surpass even first ascenting. Yet Eric is not always flitting across to the farthest reaches of the world. As an associate teaching professor at Seattle University, he is rooted a good portion of the year, so he is constantly finding ways to feed his passion for discovery and peakbaggi... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/2/10/guidebook-xiii-researchgrant
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    Last weekend I took a couple friends to the local crag for their first time out. Since I was the only one able to clean, others led and set the anchor, but on occasion if the leader were unable to reach the anchors, I would set the anchor and belayed the others up from the top using a grigri. That worked pretty well, though I'm aware that Petzl doesn't recommend using the grigri in such a manner (a redirected belay is preferred.) I did notice that the DMM Pivot set up in guide/auto-blocking mode had a dedicated method for lowering — using a second biner to adjust the angle of the device. Are there concerns with doing so for lowering a second climber all the way to the ground? Whenever lowering is mentioned, it's always in the context is lowering the second "a few feet" or so.
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    Some pics from the Obed last december #climbing #EastTN #tennessee #sportclimbing #film #pentax #35mm #cinestill400d
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    A family illness seemed to dash Harrison’s Olympic prospects. But in November 2023, he fought for a second chance. https://www.climbing.com/people/olympic-climber-campbell-harrison/
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    https://www.climbing.com/videos/new-climber-takes-big-fall-classic-kentucky-route/
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    I’m a beginner climber and I got Evolv Shamans in my street size a few weeks ago since I read good reviews about them and I got them pretty cheap as they were in the discounted section of my local climbing shop, but only in that size. They’ve been great at allowing me to stand on small edges and get better height on my toes due to the thick rand, but they hurt like hell to wear, making the benefits I gain from using them somewhat moot, as I’m not able to climb and improve as much as I’d like to. I’ve been wearing them around the house in addition to the gym in the hopes of breaking them in quicker (I’ve had to wear plastic bags on my feet to prevent blisters on my heels and toes from excessive friction) and I noticed they don’t really seem to have broken in that much and still hurt my toes a lot (especially the tops of my big toes), so I’d like some recommendations for the next pair that I get. I have Morton’s toe/Greek feet and my feet are probably wider and less-arched than average. I’d like to get a more comfortable pair for long gym sessions, so I think I’d prefer lace-up shoes in the future. I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Scarpa Veloce L and the Ocún Advancer LU, both of which are lace-up, apparently suited for Greek feet, and are vegan. I’d appreciate some comparisons if people have experience with them, or if you have recommendations for other shoes that might suit my criteria better, please share them too!
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    https://www.ontarioallianceofclimbers.ca/2023/10/20/fall-news-agm-announcement-calendar-submissions/