delusional ultra thoughts

It's that time of year again when I start obsessing about my various outdoor goals for the year. I've already gone under the knife once for running-related injuries and I still have occasional hip tendonitis, but I enjoy grueling hill climbs and technical downhills. Naturally my thoughts turn to racing again. Having a bunch of very encouraging ultrarunner friends doesn't help. My thought train is somewhat along the lines of: Maybe I could just do 50Ks, but I used to do 50Ks as training runs. I could probably do an occasional 50M. It's training for AC100 that did me in. Or, I could the low mileage plan. It's a slippery slope.

At any rate I promised myself I wouldn't jeopardize my climbing pursuits by trashing myself running, so to kick off my new plan (and last few days of occupational free agent status) I decided to do a "short" run in the San Gabriels. Jascha and I had tried to do this ~14 mile loop (with at least 3700' of gain) before but got rained out. The run/hike starts and ends at Lake Avenue in Pasadena and follows Sam Merrill trail up and over Echo Mtn. to Mt. Lowe, which once housed a tramway. I've been on middle Sam Merrill several times previously, as it's part of the AC100 course, and it's one of my favorite local trails. Unfortunately, Jascha couldn't join me this time because of work and affliction with an intestinal flu, which we will blame on Pez & Pezlet Hansen ;), who were both recovering from the flu during our Sunday visit.

I made good time on lower Sam Merrill, despite getting passed by 2 guys who were running to Echo Mtn. and back. The skies were clear and sparkling blue and I recognized the tree under which we huddled during the downpour and the spot where we'd previously turned around on middle Sam Merrill. It was a bit chilly in the forested section (one of my favorites) that passes several granite outcroppings. I wondered if part of the reason I like this section is that it marks the end of the climb out of Idlehour on the AC100 course that seems to go on forever, known by some as the longest 3 miles you'll ever do. At the junction with the Mt. Lowe I stopped to assist a guy (with a topo map) who mistakenly thought he was at Markham Saddle, then headed over the the Mt. Lowe loop.

I took the E trail first and passed several patches of trail that were dusted with snow. The top of Mt. Lowe has some remnants of the old railway, including a collection of peak location aids. I could clearly see Mt. Baldy in the background. On the 7 mile descent I took the W trail to complete my loop. It was a fun downhill with some rocky sections. I backtracked on Sam Merrill (a most excellent descent) to Lake. I look forward to many repeats.

cutting our losses

Two months into our planned 3 month trip to India and SE Asia we were having difficulties entertaining ourselves. We missed the varied climbing and trails back home, and the steep limestone sport routes on friable rock weren't cutting it. Initially we had hopes that each new city/country would be different, but instead we found similar temples, similar food, and similar people preying on the tourists. We still had Vietnam and Myanmar to go, but we were doubtful we would find anything different. Just before Christmas I started having insomnia. When we finally admitted to each other that we were bored out of our minds it was a relief.

Now we had to figure out our options. In my usual style I drew out a flow chart with the pros, cons and tasks associated with each of the paths. We contemplated skipping Myanmar and heading back to Vang Vieng to help the locals rebolt one of the walls or heading home to climb at Red Rocks or J-tree. I drew out a matrix of what cost we were willing to bear if we could get back to the States at various intervals preceding our original return date (6 Feb). I had purchased return tickets online and we were getting the runaround from our S Korea-based airlines (Asiana) about the ability to change the ticket and whether they would issue a refund. It didn't help that we couldn't get a hold of the online booking service because of the New Year's holiday. Finally we managed to get most of our Asiana ticket refunded (or at least a promised refund) and for a few hundred dollars more a flight home on ANA in less than a week.

Once we got back to L.A. we spent two days adjusting to the time change and pulling together our climbing gear. Then we hopped in the car and headed off to Red Rocks with spring-like temps predicted. I felt like crap for the first 2 days with my jet lag and preceding weeks of insomnia, but on the third day we set off for Olive Oil. After an inadvertent detour on the approach we ended up at the base of the route behind Robyn and Mike. Robyn is one of the few lucky individuals to have found regular employment in Bishop. It was nice to be on towering sandstone again. The first part of the route was uneventful although I overshot the 4th belay and had to downclimb to the ledge. The next pitch had a long chimney. As it narrowed I had to climb the neighboring face to get through with my pack. We took in the views before heading down the descent trail.

The next climb we did was a link-up between Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab. Together they make up 9-11 pitches (depending on where you set your belays), but (as we found out the hard way) with its rope eating cracks and edges it sucks up precious winter daylight. Solar Slab was old school 5.6, in contrast to the more modern (easy for the grade) routes we'd been doing. We ended up skipping the final pitch of Solar Slab when the route became shaded and a frigid wind picked up. This was fortunate, as our rope became stuck multiple times and I had to do some somewhat sketchy soloing to remediate the situation. We ended up at the bottom of the route just as total darkness fell.

The next day we caught up with Masa and Chris at Kim Pho Long, who were visiting from Vancouver, B.C. They were unsympathetic to our whining about the cold, although they too had rope issues on their descent. They were planning to return the next day to extract their rope from the first pitch. Masa was originally supposed to accompany us on our Enfield tour, but hadn't received permission from India's tourism department to write up the story for a Canadian magazine. We filled them in on our Asia adventures. Jascha had booked us at the posh Palms Place for a few nights as a belated b-day present for me, a far cry from my undergrad days of shivering in a tent at the old Red Rocks campground.

Next on our list was Birdland, the same route that had eaten Masa's and Chris'. With our 70m rope the route went quickly. The 5.7+ final finger crack on the last pitch was particularly choice. We were also fortunate to spend the last few pitches and entire rap watching a herd of 5 female bighorn sheep who weren't particularly disturbed by our presence. They remained near the base of the route even after we finished our rappel.

I decided to do something a bit harder, so we set our sites on Armatron, a route on the somewhat remote (N) Brownstone Wall, known for unique tile-like rock formations. I was a bit worried when we left the car at 9:20a, but we shaved 20 minutes off the lower estimated approach time on our topo. There was another party on Rainbow Wall and one on Cat Scratch Fever (S Brownstone Wall). We received our introduction to the tiles on the bolted first pitch. The crux came early on the second pitch. The finger crack preceding it took bomber nut placements and the crux itself (a thin traverse to another crack system) was protected by a bolt. The next two pitches were almost exclusively on the tiles and I doddled trying to find the infrequent solid nut placements. Technically the route ends after pitch 4, but it is recommended that you do the final pitches of Requiem for a Tadpole then top out on Juniper Peak. This has the added advantage of a quick walk-off descent. Even though I was trying to exclusively use nuts for pro, I happily used one of the new TCUs Jascha bought me for my b-day at the last belay. We found a fun exposed class 4 traverse just below the summit and topped out. After locating the correct gully (the cairns had likely fallen during the last snowstorm) we headed down. The party on Cat Scratch Fever looked like they might be at it still as darkness fell, but they didn't appear distressed. I was happy that we were heading down in the daylight as there were still patches of ice on the approach slabs.

I had a job interview in a few days back in L.A., so we got in one last day of climbing in Calico Basin. I'm not exactly back in sport climbing condition, so I picked out Ultraman Wall for its 5.8-5.9 runout slab climbs (which Jerry Handren categorizes as mixed routes b/c they are "too runout to be sport climbs"). They did not disappoint, especially Speedracer, a 140' 5.8+ with ~17 feet between bolts requiring multiple moves off of tiny slopers. We had a fairly lazy last day aside from our worked fingertips. It was nice to be once again be home.

back on the sharp end

After a few uneventful days in Vientiane, the tiny capitol of Laos, we caught the decrepit locals’ bus, along with five bags of pig feed, several stacks of carved railing, and 2 chickens, bus to Vang Vieng. On the bus a youngish looking man handed Jascha his HIV test results, which were written in English, and looked at him quizzically. Jascha tried to tell him the results were good, which he didn’t understand. I grabbed my Lao phrasebook and told him several times in my feeble Lao sans intonation, “Jow bor mee HIV (You no have HIV).” Although he nodded, I’m not sure if he understood, and I lacked the vocabulary to state the correct interpretation, namely: “The results indicate that you do not have detectable antibodies to HIV. This could either mean you do not have HIV or that your exposure was recent enough for you not to have sufficient antibodies to HIV at the moment. If you think you have been potentially exposed to HIV (e.g. through unprotected sex or needle sharing) then you should get tested again at three months from the date of exposure to confirm your status. For the future results to be accurate, in the interim you will need to eliminate any potential exposures (e.g. through the use of condoms or using clean needles).” Oh well.

Vang Vieng is touted as the “adventure destination” in Laos. If by adventure you mean rope swings and tubing down the river from bar to bar then this is your place. The streets are choked with load, drunken Euros, Aussies, and Americans and the bars in town televisions blare episode after episode of obnoxious sit-coms, like Friends. We came here to check out the climbing areas. The local shop informed us that the area we had chosen from our guidebook, Tham Nam Them, was supposedly closed due to corroded bolts, and advised us to go to the popular Sleeping Wall instead. We rented gear from them for $35 (shoes, harnesses, belay device, chalk bag, rope, climbing pack, and rope bag). Amazingly they had size 15 shoes for Jascha.

The following day we headed over to the climbing area unsure of what we would find. We shared a tuk-tuk with a bunch of women who were taking the climbing class. It took a while to get everyone rounded up and into the vehicle, then at our stop we had to wait to get a boat to shuttle us a across the river. The main climbing area sits behind one of the many riverside bars set up for the tubing crowd and it didn’t take long for some frat boy types to arrive.

Once across the river we decided to hit the moderate Secret Canyon, as we hadn’t climbed in over 2 months and we weren’t certain of how the ratings would compare. We headed off down one of the narrow trails into the jungle and before long came to the area. The 5.10s felt easy with the exception of a long route with the overhang just before the anchor where I felt my lack of climbing endurance kick in. The ratings turned out to be as soft as the routes were dirty. Silt covered the less used routes and at times we had to push vines out of our face. The anchors were bolts looped with a ratty piece of climbing rope and a beefy rap ring. At least they were all equalized. I later asked the guy at the climbing shop why they didn’t use chain anchors and he said the rope was better (likely meaning cheaper and easier to replace).

Around 1p we headed over to the main area. One of the guides was leading a route in his flip flops, simultaneously trying to explain to his inexperienced belayer how to use an ATC. We chatted with some Germans who had purchased an entire climbing rack in Krabi. They told us they heard the rock was better in Chiang Mai (where we would be headed in less than a week). As we had read, they confirmed the Krabi pro was suspect with the UV and salt water damage, but they said they enjoyed being able to lie around on the beach between climbing. I smiled politely; I hate the beach.

I decided to push my luck and try an 11a, which was a somewhat contrived route linking up some slung handlebar holds and an easier route with a bolted slightly overhung traverse. I should have known better. The holds on the traverse were sharp and not positive. I tried it twice and Jascha tried it once with no luck. In Dave Hansen style I ended up removing my gear except for the first traverse bolt (which freaked out the Germans), traversed below the bolt line and up the easier route to the anchors, clipping only the anchors. It was a bit of a chore, but with Jascha pulling on one of the ropes I was able to swing over on rap to grab the remaining draw. We did a few more routes in Secret Canyon and headed back to the climbing shop with the group. So it wasn’t spectacular climbing on pristine rock, but it was entertaining nevertheless.

conquering the loop alpine style

Our second visit to Bangkok brought us to the Siriraj teaching hospital's parasitology, pathology, and forensics museums (special thanks to Paul A. for the recommendation). The exhibit included lovely blown glass models of Giardia lamblia and Plasmodium falciparum (unfortunately photography is not allowed). The forensics museum was delightfully morbid and contained a variety of anatomical specimens, crime scene evidence, and mummified bodies of convicts. A special exhibit was devoted to tsunami victim treatment and forensics, including detailed models of septic wounds and the debridement process.That night, after our Lumpini Park runs, we braved the dirty old man/bar girl area one street over from our hotel to find the nam kao tod lady (sadly absent). The scene was surreal - lady boys and bar girls feigning interest in drunk, unattractive (mostly white) men while Muslim families paid money to feed the captive elephants in front of the massage parlors.

The following morning we caught an early flight to Ubon Ratchathani, then caught a bus to the sleepy Thai/Laos border town of Mukdahan. Our spacious hotel room at the newish Submukdahan Grand Hotel was a steal at 500 baht. We lucked out in that our visit coincided with Mukdahan's Red Cross festival. We walked out of our hotel to scores of teenagers performing Thai traditional dances accompanied by a light show, fog machine, and bubbles. The night market was brimming with vendors and behind it was a carnival with rides, a shooting (as in 0.22 caliber) range, lounge singers, and a flashy, Sparkle Motionesque talent contest.

The next morning we left for Savannakhet , Laos, just across the Mekong. From Savannakhet we were blessed with the experience of being one of 19 passengers + 1 driver crammed into a 10 seater van. After a grueling (yet comical) 2 hours we arrived at our destination in Tha Khaek. Our room at the Tha Khaek Travel Lodge was huge, with a palatial bathroom as big as some of our prior hotel rooms. We had come to Tha Khaek like most people to ride "The Loop", a popular 3-4 day motorcycle street/dirt tour popularized in Lonely Planet. Initially I thought we should allocate 2 days for the trip, but after reading the trip reports I thought it would be an entertaining challenge to try and do the 360 km ride in a day. In the hotel log book I read one guy's account of finishing the ride in just under 24 hours, which included an overnight stay en route, but could find no other sub-24 hour entries. We were unsuccessful in finding anything around town better than the usual crappy 100cc Chinese scooters. At least they appeared to start within the first minute most of the time, unlike our Enfields. We attempted to get to sleep early, not an easy task with Laotian lounge music blaring from the bar down the road.

We set out just before 6 am with food, water, a pump, and a tool kit. We had left our riding gear with the exception of our helmets at our hotel in Bangkok, so I donned multiple layers to stay warm. The sun was just rising over the karst towers as we left town. We made good time on the first ~40 km of paved roadway and graded dirt road. On the bumps our bikes rattled like the cheap plastic pieces of scrap they were. We made a brief detour through Ban Oudomsok after missing a turn. The next ~40 km held more dusty graded road. At one point we ended up behind a guy in civilian clothing sporting an AK-47. I decided not to try and pass. Thankfully he turned off after a few kilometers.

After the Ban Tha Long bridge we encountered a long line of trucks. Having recently attending Indian driving school we cruised to the front, hoping to squeeze through on the shoulder. A tree had fallen across the road and a road crew of ~5 people was busy clearing a path through the thick branches. Amazingly, there were at least 40 people on both sides standing around watching. I was timing our Loop attempt, so I decided to help out to get us moving again. Finally a few other bystanders pitched in and a path was cleared. This set us back by an hour. I tried to make up time on the next, more technical section of road and dumped my not so off-road machine twice, breaking off a mirror on the second spill.

Eventually we made it back onto the pavement around Lak Sao and I got replacement mirrors for 15,000 kip (~$1.75), including installation. It was ~1 pm and we knew we had 200 km to go, so unless we encountered some major construction of mechanical failure we would be back in Tha Khaek well before dark. The next section of road was spectacular as we wove through limestone towers dripping with lush vegetation. We wondered whether the huge limestone walls held any climbing route potential. The journey back went swiftly, or rather as swiftly as possible on our underpowered bikes which were lucky to hit 90 km/h on the downhills. Jascha had some difficulties in keeping up with me on a scooter made for 100 lb Asians, not 200+ lb Americans, but we rolled into the guesthouse together 9 hours and 48 minutes after we started. We headed to Fountain Square and treated ourselves to some well-earned nam kao (spicy sausage filled with ground pork, rice and glass noodles served with shredded cabbage, fresh herbs, and piquant dressing) and a crepe-like dessert made from a pan fried thin dough wrapped around a scrambled egg, topped with sweetened condensed milk and banana slices.

cambodia's bloody past

Today is our last full day in Cambodia and I must say that I am very much looking forward to being back in metropolitan Bangkok. We started off the day by visiting another huge market, Psha Thmey, otherwise known as the Central Market. The market contained everything from food and housewares to jewelry and clothing to motorcycle parts. From the great variety of food stalls we selected pan fried glutinous rice cakes with chives (similar to those we had in Bangkok). We also picked up a colorful tray of jellies, sticky rice with jack fruit, and some sort of sweet dough.











Afterward we paid a visit to the Choeung Ek Genocide Center (a.k.a. The Killing Fields), a former longan orchard where 17,000+ men, women, and children were executed by the Khmer Rouge after being accused of treachery. The small area is littered with excavated mass graves, from which ~8,000 skulls have been collected and placed into a memorial stupa. Targets included Buddhist monks, Muslims, educated people, the handicapped, and ethnic Chinese, Laotians, and Vietnamese. Ironically, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, attended technical school in France (although he was forced to return to Cambodia after failing his exams for 3 consecutive years) and was of both Chinese and Khmer ancestry. To avoid "wasting bullets" prisoners were beaten to death with hoes and iron bars or buried alive. From 1975 to 1979 Pol Pot's regime attempted to transform the society into a fully agrarian state and implemented strict food rationing. As a consequence ~26% of the Cambodian population died, mostly due to poor nutrition, overwork, and inadequate health care. The Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge government in 1979.

On the way back we passed the building containing the hideous xmas light display (including an animated volcano shooting snowflakes) we saw the night before and whose name was was not visible in the dark. That's right, your tax dollars are hard at work to run the light show at the US Embassy.

the hunt is over

After days of fruitless searching and having to resort to Indian food, yogurt with muesli, and European style baked goods, we finally hit the Khmer food jackpot today at the food stalls next to Psha Toul Tom Poung (a.k.a. Russian Market) in Phnom Penh. We were pleased to find babar (congee) and num banh xeo (rice pancakes) with bean sprouts and ground pork, along with excellent Vietnamese style iced coffee and the usual shaved ice treats. For once the savory items were not loaded with sugar. After sampling a number of dishes I convinced Jascha to walk the 8 km back to our guest house to burn off some extra calories.

angkor death march

We came to Cambodia for pretty much the same reason everyone visits Cambodia, to see the ancient Khmer ruins north of Siem Reap. The day before the guesthouse guy told us there was no way we could walk there (even after I told him we did 20 mile walks for fun at home), and if we did there would be no available tuk-tuks should we decide to bail. His feeble efforts at pitching tuk-tuk services failed. We were willing to take our chances with not getting transportation back, as I had checked the distances earlier and knew that at most we were looking at a 40 km day max with minimal elevation gain.

After an espresso/bakery stop we set out at 8:00 am. We took a road that paralleled the highway and came across one of the locals' markets, a pleasant change from the souvenir-laden tourist markets that dominate most of the town. After ~3 km we reached the entrance station where we paid our requisite $20 for a day's admission (the same price as a 7 day pass for Yosemite). I wouldn't have minded the hefty fee had a large percentage of it been allocated for the temple upkeep. I knew instead that ~90% would end up in the government coffers (or worse, officials' pockets). We continued down the dusty road for another 2 km past cleared mine fields until we reached the huge moat surrounding Angkor Wat.

The temple entrance is on the west side of the complex, and as we neared it we got a glimpse of the hoards of tourists we would encounter along the way, most of which rode around in air conditioned buses or tuk-tuks and were dropped off at each of the temple entrances. The temple was well preserved considering it was constructed from sandstone (supported by some type of porous volcanic rock) in the mid 12th century, although the upper levels were under construction and off-limits. The temple was transformed from Hindu to Buddhist in conjunction with the conversion of King Jayavarman VII (responsible for much of the secular and non-secular infrastructure at the time), and not surprisingly, much of the Hindu symbols were destroyed. Afterward we picked up excellent locally made mango and coconut sorbet and headed down the road to the ancient city of Angkor Thom.

At Angkor Thom we encountered the first of the massive gates, topped with giant heads. Large scowling stone figures hold up the many headed serpent that makes up the railing of the bridge that crosses the moat. Within the walls of Angkor Thom we passed through the Prasat Bayon temple, which contained some of the best preserved carvings we found on our tour. The Terrace of the Elephants was easy to recognize with its elephant buttresses. We had higher hopes for the small Terrace of the Leper King. Legend holds that at least two Cambodian kings suffered from leprosy; however, according to historians it is more likely that the statue that tops the terrace represents Yama, the god of death. Personally, I think the leper king story is much more intriguing.

From Angkor Thom we continued northward to Preah Khan, originally a monastery dedicated to the father of Jayavarman VII. The Buddhist imagery was vandalized during the reintroduction of Hinduism in Cambodia. The vendors at the less visited temples were eager for tourist dollars and every tourist exiting the temple was greeted with a chorus of “Sir/Lady, I have cold water for you. Only $1”. Even tiny children were out in full force pushing post cards and trinkets. After the 20th sales pitch, I had to remind myself that the region is very economically depressed and the vast bulk of the locals' income comes from the tourist trade. From Preah Khan we had two options: a) continue on the 26 km grand loop back to the turn-off to Siem Reap or b) head back to Angkor Thom and do the 17 km mini loop. We decided that the mini loop sounded more realistic given the remaining daylight hours.

From Angkor Thom we left the city through the eastern Victory gate and before long came across Ta Keo. Built in the late 10th/early 11th century in dedication to the Hindu god Shiva, it is the first temple in the region to be constructed entirely of sandstone. Unlike the other temples we visited Ta Keo is unfinished. A steep staircase (bordering on Class 3 with its uneven, narrow sandy ledges) led to the top of the highest tower. As we walked along the forested roads we were serenaded by the loud and strangely electronic-sounding drone of cicadas (I think), much like an alarm system. I couldn't imagine what it was like for the road maintenance workers to have to listen to that maddening noise all day long.

We (stupidly) skipped Ta Prohm, not realizing it is the famous overgrown temple complex (although we got a taste of it at Preah Khan), and headed back toward Siem Reap, passing cow fields and tiny villages on the way. One of the local riding a motorcycle asked us why we were walking (we never saw anyone else walking the loop) and couldn't understand Jascha's answer of “for exercise”. At the turn-off for Siem Reap with darkness falling we decided that it was time to cave after 30+ km. We took a tuk-tuk back for the last 5 km.