Denali

srdjan.pajic RSS / 19.10.2009. u 08:35

 

 Guest on the blog today: my wife, Rebecca.

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I hit the summit of Denali, aka Mt. McKinley (though all climbers and most of the rest of the world outside the borders of the USA call it Denali) on June 12th, 2007. It was warmer up there than I expected; one of the warmest summit days on record actually: 0 °F (-20 C). In fact, I'd experienced much colder already on lower parts of the mountains. This was my second attempt: in 2003, I had attempted to climb Denali and failed. Thoughts of how I could have made it, how I should have made it, how I would have to try again haunted me from the time I returned to Seattle in June 2003 until the time I made my next attempt in May 2007. It's a terrible thing to have an enormous mountain lurking over your shoulder, so when the chance came to make another attempt, I took it.

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Full disclosure: both times I climbed with a climbing school and guide service called American Alpine Institute (AAI). The guides lead the rope teams on the mountain and handle the logistics (reserving the airplane, buying the food, etc.). Everyone carries their gear and a portion of the group's gear and everyone participates in digging out the campsites. This is not a trip for people who are new to mountaineering and AAI screen applicants very carefully. The upsides are you don't have to do any planning. The downsides are you have very little control over what happens; you don't even get to pick your teammates. My brother went with me on the 2007 trip, but the other nine people (that includes the three guides) were strangers. For our team, this worked out okay, but that's not always the case.

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So what was Denali like?

Denali is big. It rises right up from sea level, giving it more vertical relief than Everest. It tops out at 20,320 feet (6158 m). Most people who climb it plan to spend three weeks; some go for longer. Climbers see the peak from the river that runs next to Talkeetna (the tiny, no-stoplight town the skiplanes fly out of), and from Base Camp. It's too big to be seen any closer than that. After we left Base Camp, the next time I saw the summit was the day I touched it, and even then I didn't see it until the last half hour or so, when we hit the steep and narrow ridge that leads into it. It is odd. I can recognize places on the mountain. Show me a picture of the Polo Field, a wide flat area at around 12,000 feet (3636 m), I will not only recognize it but I will tell you about how, on the day we crossed it while moving our camp to 14,200' (4303 m), it was so windy that the snow had blown away, leaving a sheet of blue glacier ice, and there were chunks of ice blowing across it, and the bite valve on my Camelbak broke (thank goodness I brought water bottles as a back up) and water sprayed down my jacket and flash froze, covering my front in verglas. But show me a picture of the mountain itself, in all its icy glory, and I might just ask you "What peak is that? It looks familiar..."

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Denali is long. There are three main routes up Denali: the West Buttress, the West Rib, and the Cassin Ridge. The West Buttress is the least technical and therefore the most popular. The West Rib is a mountaineering classic. People who make it up via the Cassin are people who should be worshipped as gods. I went up the West Buttress. There are five camps along that route: Base Camp at 7200' (2182 m), Camp 1 (aka 78 camp) at 7800' (2364 m), Camp 2 (aka 11 camp) at 11200' (3394 m), Camp 3 (aka 14 camp) at 14200', and High Camp (aka 17 camp) at 17200' (5212 m). The Cassin Ridge route diverges from the other two at Base Camp. The West Rib route leaves the West Buttress route at 78 camp, where the West Rib climbers enter the Valley of Death. Climbers at not given to exaggeration or metaphorical language; the Valley of Death won its name for its crevasses, rockfalls, and avalanche hazards.

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The West Rib crosses paths with the West Buttress again at 14 camp. 14 camp itself is in a basin and is one of the few places you don't need to worry about crevasses. At the far edge there is a steep drop-off nicknamed the Edge of the World. From the Edge of the World, you can look down into the Valley of Death. All routes converge at High Camp. You can also camp at any hospitable (and that's a relative term for those caught in foul weather) site between camps, but these sites are the most optimal way of breaking up the trip. The Park Service also maintains a couple emergency bivouacs at 16200' (4909 m) and an emergency cache at High Camp, but I'll get to that later.

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Denali is hard. Not only do you have to deal with the effects of altitude, you have to be your own Sherpa and sled dog. Three weeks of food and fuel in addition to tents and sleeping bags and shovels and stoves and cooking gear and all sorts of warm layers adds up in terms of weight. I was on a team of eleven people, including myself, and at the beginning of the trip we each had over 100 pounds (more than 50 kg) of stuff each. These loads were divided up evenly with no regard to the size or gender of the people carrying them. Women in the audience take note: the fail rate for women is no worse than the fail rate for men (though we do make up a much smaller fraction of the climbers). Of course, no human can or should carry 50+ kilos on their back all at once. That's why we dumped parts of our loads in sleds and dragged them behind us. But, on terrain steeper than the very, very gentle rise from Base Camp to 78 camp, even splitting that much weight between a backpack and a sled is unwieldy. After we made one solid push to 78 camp we started our progression of double carries: move part of a load up the mountain, bury it, flag it (the technical term for burying and flagging the site is caching, and since traditionally a man can be killed for messing with someone else's cache and climbers are an honorable bunch to start with, we weren't worried about thieves), sleep, move camp, sleep, retrieve the cache, sleep, make a new cache further up the mountain, and so on. I basically climbed the whole mountain between 78 camp and 17 camp twice. Also, the mountain gets progressively steeper and icier as you go up. Up to 11 camp, we wore snowshoes. At 11 camp. we traded snowshoes for crampons. At 14 camp we ditched our sleds and carried everything on our backs up a steep face that was protected by fixed lines the Park Service maintains. This fixed lines defeated me in 2004. They almost defeated me in 2007. I hate them.

061807019RM-3.jpg Denali is temperamental. If everything goes smoothly, you'll be up and off the mountain in two weeks, but everyone carries at least three weeks' worth of food and fuel because at some point you'll be forced to take an unscheduled rest day or two or three or four. Bad, unpredictable weather is part of what keeps the success rate on Denali down to 50%. There were a couple days when it started out with a bright blue sky and then by afternoon we were caught out in a storm. And the storms last days. You shouldn't even try to summit on a day that's less than perfect so every climbing team on that mountain is scrambling to get in a position where when the good day comes they can make their summit bids, but the thing is there're maybe four or five good summit days in a climbing season that's two months long. For my team, the first forced rest days happened before we were even on the mountain. Foul weather over Base Camp meant the planes couldn't go in. The next set of forced rest days didn't hit until we were at 14, where we pulled in in the midst of a storm (remember what I said earlier about a place called the Polo Field? That was the beginning of the storm). To reach 14 camp, we had to come around a big rocky arete called Windy Corner. When Windy Corner is living up to its name, no one wants to be there. By the time we realized how bad it was going to be, it was too late to turn around. I almost lost my balance in the wind. A couple other people, a man about my size and a woman smaller than me, actually got picked up off their feet. That storm cleared out in a day, but high winds up high pinned us in 14 camp and sent people at High Camp fleeing back down to 14...if they dared. It's not healthy to linger long at 17200'. It's even less healthy to dare an exposed ridge in gale force winds. And when we went to set a cache at 16,200 feet (top of the fixed lines), the weather did another 180 on us. That was even worse than Windy Corner in some ways because not only was it too steep to safely adjust layers, the fixed lines are slow. You can't pass people and the nature of moving on fixed lines is very stop and go. I was under-layered and couldn't move fast enough to warm myself.

061807019RM-2.jpg Denali is covered in ice. For three weeks, the scenery was white snow, occasionally blue ice, and rocks. It is desolate and it is beautiful and it is deadly. Everything you need to survive must be carried in. There's no improvising; there is nothing to improvise with. There is no running water. We drank snow. There are no campfires to be had up there; no one's going to waste their strength packing in wood. This means that you are your own heat source. A glacier is inherently unstable. Anything taller than you is liable to come down on top of you n the form of an avalanche, icefall, or rockfall. As a result, there is no safe shelter from sun and wind save what you can construct for yourself (if a rock falls on you, that's tragic, if your tent or snow cave falls on you, that's stupid). Anything below you is liable to fall out from underneath you. The crevasses themselves range in size from hardly more than a sidewalk crack to gaping abysses that can swallow buildings. Sometimes, you can see a bottom. Sometimes, you can't. Sometimes, you can step over them. Sometimes, you can jump. And other times, you're stuck with either finding a stable snowbridge or making and end-run. There are no plants and the only animals I saw, other than fellow climbers, were ravens. The glacier is not for humans. That's why we go there.

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Denali is north. Below the Arctic Circle but above the 60th parallel, the sun is not up at midnight but Denali does get what the Russians call "White Nights". That far north, twilight lingers for hours, and at that time of year, the dusk ends right when dawn begins. For three weeks, I was without night. I did not see a single star. I did not see the moon. I did not see the famous Aurora Borealis (though I have seen it in my home state of Washington, but that is another story). All I saw was various shades of blue sky, clouds, and twilight. When I refer to on Denali, I'm talking about that twilight period, when the sun wasn't on us and it got cold. Some people have trouble sleeping as a result. I was sufficiently tired that I never did.

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Denali is crowded. This is not a solitary wilderness experience. At any given camp, there are dozens of people from all over the world with the same goal. Some of them even want to be your friend. 14 camp, where two routes converge and people just get stuck waiting out the weather, is a veritable tent city. Looking at it from above, it even looks like it has streets and squares. 17 camp, where the three principle routes all meet, is also fairly busy but, since no one stays at 17 longer than they have to, it's not as big and sociable as 14. This crowding also happens on the routes, especially on any technical-ish bit where it's either impossible or extremely unwise to pass a slower party. In fact, I witnessed and even felt feelings akin to what people usually experience in traffic jams. I call it route rage. It's a bit disconcerting to hear climbers shouting curses at each other. And, when we hit the summit plateau, there were already around 30 people already there.

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Denali ends with a death march. Once you summit, or your supply clock runs out, you descend. All the way from High Camp to Base Camp in a single go. The morning after summit day, we packed up camp, picked up the cache at 16,200', went down to 14 camp where we dug up our sleds and some other stuff left behind, and sat for a few hours, waiting for day to pass so we'd hit the lower section of glacier at "night". Then we started on down.

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We went down forever. Descending is brutal on the legs. Descending with a sled is brutal on the soul. We picked up our trash and snowshoes cached at 11 camp. At 78 camp we took another break. Sometimes, I'm not sure I dreamed this part or not, but my brother was there and he remembers it too. It was 3 am and just barely light enough for me to read the packages on my snacks. A light snow was falling. All of us had blisters. All of us removed our boots and socks to tend our blisters out there, on the snow. It didn't feel cold to us. And then came the worst bit: the last stretch was a veritable minefield of rotten snowbridges and deep crevasses. Feet punched through. Sleds fell in. I'm not sure what it would have been like to cross that mess during the full heat of the day - when we went, it was supposed to be cold and frozen. I was so tired I lost all sense of direction - I was just walking. And walking. And walking....

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Coming into Base Camp, we had to go up a short distance. This is called Heartbreak Hill. It deserves that name. Fortunately, we did not have to go as far up Heartbreak Hill as we might have; a crevasse opened up near the top of the runway and they moved the whole thing downhill about a hundred feet. When every step hurts, that hundred feet means a lot. Base Camp itself was crowded. People had been collecting there, caught by bad weather. We'd honestly been mentally preparing ourselves to be stuck as well, but as the dawn twilight gave way to morning the snow clouds burned away and the planes started to fly. We got in at 7:30 am and had to wait around for about an hour and a half before the air taxis services opened for business and we could radio for a ride. And then we had to get in line. Around noon, our plane came. When I got off that plane, I could hardly walk.

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Komentari (85)

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srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 08:39 19.10.2009

album

Gomilu dodatnih slika mozete videti na Denali. Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.
marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 15:03 19.10.2009

translate this

Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.

смрзнувачка!
Predrag Brajovic Predrag Brajovic 20:34 19.10.2009

Re: album

srdjan.pajic
Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.

สอง เพิ่มเติม, ช็อกโกแลตยังคง!

นั่ง กับแต่งตัววางรอบ ตูด. ที่มันได้มีสีชมพูกางเก?
ง. ไม่ฉัน ยืน แช่แข็ง ดู. มากับพนักงานเสิร์ฟเครื่องดื่ม. ดื่ม พวกเขา?!?

วิดีโอที่ฉัน.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 20:53 19.10.2009

Re: album

Predrag Brajovic
srdjan.pajic
Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.

สอง เพิ่มเติม, ช็อกโกแลตยังคง!

นั่ง กับแต่งตัววางรอบ ตูด. ที่มันได้มีสีชมพูกางเก?
ง. ไม่ฉัน ยืน แช่แข็ง ดู. มากับพนักงานเสิร์ฟเครื่องดื่ม. ดื่ม พวกเขา?!?

วิดีโอที่ฉัน.


Aaaa, ok, vidim da pises s leva na desno.
Predrag Brajovic Predrag Brajovic 20:57 19.10.2009

Re: album

srdjan.pajic
Predrag Brajovic
srdjan.pajic
Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.

สอง เพิ่มเติม, ช็อกโกแลตยังคง!

นั่ง กับแต่งตัววางรอบ ตูด. ที่มันได้มีสีชมพูกางเก?
ง. ไม่ฉัน ยืน แช่แข็ง ดู. มากับพนักงานเสิร์ฟเครื่องดื่ม. ดื่ม พวกเขา?!?

วิดีโอที่ฉัน.


Aaaa, ok, vidim da pises s leva na desno.

Ма пусти, понело ме...

Желим вам, обома, пуна плућа кисеоника. И на Монт Евересту...
aleksandra1966 aleksandra1966 19:41 20.10.2009

Re: album

Congratulations! My husband went to Denali 10yrs ago, but white out lasted more then he and his friend could afford to wait and they couldn't climb the very summit.But, Denali stays in the same place (or so)....hope he'll try again.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:53 21.10.2009

Re: album

Predrag Brajovic
srdjan.pajic
Predrag Brajovic
srdjan.pajic
Sibajte pitanja i komentare na kom god jeziku zelite, pomoci cu oko prevoda.

สอง เพิ่มเติม, ช็อกโกแลตยังคง!

นั่ง กับแต่งตัววางรอบ ตูด. ที่มันได้มีสีชมพูกางเก?
ง. ไม่ฉัน ยืน แช่แข็ง ดู. มากับพนักงานเสิร์ฟเครื่องดื่ม. ดื่ม พวกเขา?!?

วิดีโอที่ฉัน.


Aaaa, ok, vidim da pises s leva na desno.

Ма пусти, понело ме...

Желим вам, обома, пуна плућа кисеоника. И на Монт Евересту...


Hvala Brajo, ama za mene je to "Neverest"! Mada ne vidim ni da se Rebeka nesto trti da se na isti pentra. Kaze, nije to bre zdravo kad moras na bocu da dises (a i jes' ona komplikovana, jedva sam je na ronjenje dovukao, opet 'tela se razvodi kad joj prvi put usla voda u masku A ovamo, covek bi pomislio da je hard core)


vishnja92 vishnja92 08:16 21.10.2009

Re: album

jedva sam je na ronjenje dovukao, opet 'tela se razvodi kad joj prvi put usla voda u masku



Srdjane, udaj se za mene.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 15:43 21.10.2009

Re: album

vishnja92
jedva sam je na ronjenje dovukao, opet 'tela se razvodi kad joj prvi put usla voda u masku



Srdjane, udaj se za mene.


A kojim setom nepotrebnih vestina i sumanutih hobija ti vladas, draga? Pitam onako, za svaki slucaj .

srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 15:46 21.10.2009

Re: album

aleksandra1966
Congratulations! My husband went to Denali 10yrs ago, but white out lasted more then he and his friend could afford to wait and they couldn't climb the very summit.But, Denali stays in the same place (or so)....hope he'll try again.


E, ma vazno da je muz ziv i zdrav, sto rece ti, nece Denali nigde, a mozda i led i zima malo popuste (glob. otopljavanje), pa ce moci i na mauntin bajku da se popne


rmontange rmontange 16:06 21.10.2009

Re: album

aleksandra1966
Congratulations! My husband went to Denali 10yrs ago, but white out lasted more then he and his friend could afford to wait and they couldn't climb the very summit.But, Denali stays in the same place (or so)....hope he'll try again.

It's pretty big. It's not moving. :)

Lots of people can't outlast the storms. It's a question of timing - when I arrived at 14 camp, there were teams who'd been sitting there for at least a week, waiting for the weather to break. There were also teams that had been up at 17 camp for several days, waiting for the weather to break, only to be forced to retreat to 14 because it was getting too cold and windy to stay up there. My team was lucky - we only had two or three days worth of delay before the big break came.
vishnja92 vishnja92 16:13 21.10.2009

Re: album

A kojim setom nepotrebnih vestina i sumanutih hobija ti vladas, draga? Pitam onako, za svaki slucaj

ja? nijednim. mirna sam ko bubica
samo se malo vrpoljim...

sad sam se ukopala :(
vishnja92 vishnja92 11:11 19.10.2009

bokte

mazo...

savrseno.
myredneckself myredneckself 12:45 19.10.2009

pogledala

na pikasi i ostale snimke, šta reći?
amazing, and respect!
vishnja92 vishnja92 13:40 19.10.2009

Re: pogledala

ja ufavoritilla tvoju pikasu - trebalo je jos onomad, al ajd :)

jeeee kaki ludaci :)))))))))
njanja_de.manccini njanja_de.manccini 16:03 19.10.2009

prelepo

covece ja sam spicles!
nikad se nisam popela na vise od valjda 2500 metara
ovo je fenomenalno, pozdrav Rebeci!
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 16:22 19.10.2009

Izvinjenje

Doslo je do malog tehnickog problema sinoc, tako da nisam uspeo da postavim ceo blog odjednom. Sada izgleda uredu, veoma mi je zao zbog komplikacije (nije tehnologija bas za zvaku dzudzu). Ajd sad ponovo na citanje.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 16:25 19.10.2009

dodatak

Slike su napravljene obicnom (SLR) kamerom, posto digitalije slabo rade na ovim nadmorskim visinama i temperaturnim nizinama. Stoga imaju malo granulacije. I slobodno pitajte sta god vas interesuje, Rebeka je sva ko na iglama da odgovori (ovo joj je prvi nastup "u javnosti".

vishnja92 vishnja92 17:09 19.10.2009

Re: dodatak

pozdrav i dobrodoslica za Rebeku

ps - srki, podesi tekst na opciju "engleski jezik", duze ce da bude vidan :)
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 17:30 19.10.2009

Re: dodatak

vishnja92
pozdrav i dobrodoslica za Rebeku

ps - srki, podesi tekst na opciju "engleski jezik", duze ce da bude vidan :)


E, hvala shnjovi, podesio sam

krkar krkar 16:51 19.10.2009

Congrats

Stunning!

Sometime last night I read the blog and commented, but it had disappeared. I felt deprived being left halfway in suspense, thankfully it is now complete.

As for camelback - it is always a good idea to have a few spare mouthpieces in the cold. Cheap plastic gets brittle in subzero temperatures and a little residual liquid in the mouthpiece can freeze and crack it.

That's a lot of gear to lug up the mountain, a real lot! What do you do with the sleds (or whatever you call them) once they're empty?
krkar krkar 17:04 19.10.2009

Re: Congrats

What do you do with the sleds (or whatever you call them) once they're empty?


Disregard this, it is well answered in the second part that was missing. I wrote my comment last night
rmontange rmontange 05:54 20.10.2009

Re: Congrats

I really wish I could have left my sled buried....

Anyway, about camelbaks. Crapped up bite valves are only part of the problem those things have in the cold. The tubes will also freeze. You can try to blow the water back, and wrap the tube in an insulator, but all the does is buy you time before the thing is frozen clogged. So I also carried a pair of water bottles to use on the upper parts of the mountain, where anything above -10 C is called warm. When my camelbak broke, I had those bottle in an accessible place on my sled, but I can't remember if I moved the water into the bottles while I was en route to camp or after I got to camp.
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 18:44 19.10.2009

Rebecca welcome!

Great blog!



(Srdjan will explain )

One question. I cannot decipher what is depicted on this photo. What are those blue things?

P.S. Take over Srdjan's blog account, our little blogosphere would gain a lot.
vishnja92 vishnja92 19:37 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Srdjan will explain

sipak ce da explain kad nema pojma.

pajz srki vamo: bilo je to jednog cetvrtka, pojavio se blog o preporukama - negde proletos -i izazvao opstu sprdacinu sa mahnitim preporucivanjem po svim blogovima redom. mislim da te nedelje nijedan komentar nije imao manje od 3-4 klika, iz ciste zahebancije. gornji komentar datira iz tog doba.

ova slicka gore znaci "preporuka ko vrata" a doticna su Gilbertijeva Rajska Vrata u Firenci.
krkar krkar 19:41 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Bojan Budimac
Great blog!(Srdjan will explain )One question. I cannot decipher what is depicted on this photo. What are those blue things?P.S. Take over Srdjan's blog account, our little blogosphere would gain a lot.


Nek objasni i nama sa jeftinijim kartama kakve veze ima Porta del Paradiso
vishnja92 vishnja92 20:04 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Budimac, objasni - ja sam izgleda na nevidljivom modu.
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 20:10 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!


Nek objasni i nama sa jeftinijim kartama kakve veze ima Porta del Paradiso

To je "skraćenica" za "preporuka ko vrata" (& prilično je bilo uobičajena jedno vreme na blogu)
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 20:16 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Bojan Budimac

Nek objasni i nama sa jeftinijim kartama kakve veze ima Porta del Paradiso

To je "skraćenica" za "preporuka ko vrata" (& prilično je bilo uobičajena jedno vreme na blogu)


E, ja skapirao, jel' moz da verujes?! A za ove preporuke Rebeki, aaaa, cekaj samo kad stavis nov blog, videces ti boga svoga, pardon, alaha
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 20:23 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

srdjan.pajic
E, ja skapirao, jel' moz da verujes?! A za ove preporuke Rebeki, aaaa, cekaj samo kad stavis nov blog, videces ti boga svoga, pardon, alaha

A hoću li videti odgovor na postavljeno pitanje?
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 20:25 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Bojan Budimac
srdjan.pajic
E, ja skapirao, jel' moz da verujes?! A za ove preporuke Rebeki, aaaa, cekaj samo kad stavis nov blog, videces ti boga svoga, pardon, alaha

A hoću li videti odgovor na postavljeno pitanje?


Lednicka jezera, namcore! E, izvini, zezam se, za razliku od mene, Rebeka je na poslu pa ne moze da odgovara oma. A ja sam na poslu, pa mogu.
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 20:35 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Lednicka jezera, namcore! E, izvini, zezam se, za razliku od mene, Rebeka je na poslu pa ne moze da odgovara oma. A ja sam na poslu, pa mogu.

Pa vidi se po temeljno urađenom blogu da je ozbiljna žena, a ne hebivetar
Sjajno izgleda fotka, skroz apstraktno...
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 20:57 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

Bojan Budimac
Lednicka jezera, namcore! E, izvini, zezam se, za razliku od mene, Rebeka je na poslu pa ne moze da odgovara oma. A ja sam na poslu, pa mogu.

Pa vidi se po temeljno urađenom blogu da je ozbiljna žena, a ne hebivetar
Sjajno izgleda fotka, skroz apstraktno...


Pa neko u kuci mora da bude i hebivetar! Odgovoran je to pos'o!

Pazi ni ja nisam znao sta je to na slici kad sam prvi put video, nego sam morao da pitam. Meni je opaka i ona fotka sa satorima u snegu, peta otpozadi.
krkar krkar 21:31 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

vishnja92
Budimac, objasni - ja sam izgleda na nevidljivom modu.


Ne, ja sam samo pisao pitanje dok si ti već odgovorila. Hvala u svakom slučaju.
dusanovaiivanovamama dusanovaiivanovamama 22:48 19.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!

divne slike, divne planine, stvarno savrseno, ali stvarno-samo za odabrane

rmontange rmontange 05:58 20.10.2009

Re: Rebecca welcome!



The blue things are glacier lakes. I took that picture from the air, on the plane ride off the mountain. On the lower bits of the glacier, melted depressions in the snow fill with water. They look blue for the same reasons the sky looks blue. I'm not sure anyone other than a crazed glacier scientist would ever walk around down there because melting glacier is even more unstable than ordinary frozen glacier, but it's pretty cool to look at. Alaska is the only place I've ever seen that.
talicni talicni 19:19 19.10.2009

Nice

Interesting read and amazing pics.

Denali is hard. Not only do you have to deal with the effects of altitude, you have to be your own Sherpa and sled dog. Three weeks of food and fuel in addition to tents and sleeping bags and shovels and stoves and cooking gear and all sorts of warm layers adds up in terms of weight. I was on a team of eleven people, including myself, and at the beginning of the trip we each had over 100 pounds (more than 50 kg) of stuff each.


I've just realized mountain climbing is definitively not for me.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 20:14 19.10.2009

Re: Nice

talicni
Interesting read and amazing pics.

Denali is hard. Not only do you have to deal with the effects of altitude, you have to be your own Sherpa and sled dog. Three weeks of food and fuel in addition to tents and sleeping bags and shovels and stoves and cooking gear and all sorts of warm layers adds up in terms of weight. I was on a team of eleven people, including myself, and at the beginning of the trip we each had over 100 pounds (more than 50 kg) of stuff each.


I've just realized mountain climbing is definitively not for me.


I've actually seen my wife carrying a 100 pounds pack while she was preparing for the climb. She would load weights, furniture, dishwasher, fishtank and other stuff in her pack and hike around Boulder for days. That is when I realized - climbing is not for me, at least not one without sherpa or other slaves carrying my shit up the mountain.
krkar krkar 21:34 19.10.2009

Re: Nice

I've actually seen my wife carrying a 100 pounds pack while she was preparing for the climb. She would load weights, furniture, dishwasher, fishtank and other stuff in her pack and hike around Boulder for days. That is when I realized - climbing is not for me, at least not one without sherpa or other slaves carrying my shit up the mountain.


Any sensible man would immediately marry a lady who hauls furniture, dishwasher, fishtank... If she can even fix the car that's a bonus that makes cooking irrelevant.
talicni talicni 21:39 19.10.2009

Re: Nice

krkar


Any sensible man would immediately marry a lady who hauls furniture, dishwasher, fishtank... If she can even fix the car that's a bonus that makes cooking irrelevant.


Agreed. Srdjan you lucky S.O.B.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 21:59 19.10.2009

Re: Nice

krkar
I've actually seen my wife carrying a 100 pounds pack while she was preparing for the climb. She would load weights, furniture, dishwasher, fishtank and other stuff in her pack and hike around Boulder for days. That is when I realized - climbing is not for me, at least not one without sherpa or other slaves carrying my shit up the mountain.


Any sensible man would immediately marry a lady who hauls furniture, dishwasher, fishtank... If she can even fix the car that's a bonus that makes cooking irrelevant.


Well, I guess if she could fix a car, that would render me mostly useless ;-). Hey, I am also pretty decent cook!
Actually, you shouldn't judge her based on the climbing achievements and how much she can carry on her back - Rebecca is surprisingly fragile and delicate woman.

rmontange rmontange 06:03 20.10.2009

Re: Nice

Srki, m'dear, you are mostly useless. The last time my car broke you told me to take it to the shop.

Though the last time I broke you did make me a nice cup of tea...

I did not carry the dishwasher around Boulder. I thought about it, but couldn't fit it in my backpack.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:21 20.10.2009

Re: Nice

rmontange
Srki, m'dear, you are mostly useless. The last time my car broke you told me to take it to the shop.

Though the last time I broke you did make me a nice cup of tea...

I did not carry the dishwasher around Boulder. I thought about it, but couldn't fit it in my backpack.




Well, first of all, you car has a self-explanatory and well deserved pre-fix: "S-H-I-T" car. Its normal state is state of being broken. When it works, that is rather unusual, like a snow in July, or Halley Comet missing its period. Second, since you are now driving my precious Audi, I didn't notice you have any inclination toward kickin' my butt to fix your little shit-car. And finally, it is not really broken, just your headlights won't turn on, which unarguably is too simple for my talents to bother with.



Half a century of auto industry: my old Saab (900S) and Rebecca's "shit car" (Subaru GL). Together they passed 3/4 million km. My saab is in a graveyard for years, where Rebecca's car should be.





srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:50 20.10.2009

Re: Nice

srdjan.pajic



A kad Budimac vidi ovo, Rebeka ce mu postati najomiljeniji bloger!


Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 17:04 20.10.2009

Re: Nice

A kad Budimac vidi ovo, Rebeka ce mu postati najomiljeniji bloger!

Ja stavio Rebeku u svoj VIP i pre te fotke, pa ti vidi
leopold_lady leopold_lady 21:08 19.10.2009

Prelepe slike ....

Nećem da te mučim sa prevodom..... Pokušaću sama da prevedem....

Lep je kraj,a shvatila sam da si išao u osvajanje istog....

Dodatak - pozdravi Rebeku za nju ....
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 15:49 20.10.2009

Re: Prelepe slike ....

leopold_lady
Nećem da te mučim sa prevodom..... Pokušaću sama da prevedem....



Hej LL, ma samo kazi ako nesto zaskripi, moja robovska obaveza je prevodjenje ovog bloga. Ni ja pola ne razumem, taj njihov north-western/Sasquatch dijalekat me ubi, ali snaci cemo se
marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 21:33 19.10.2009

well, i'm not impressed

I used to climb mountains that were roughly 3,000 m high in a single day. So, for this Danail I would need at most three days. On second thought, since I would not need to carry up and down the mountain all that equipment and food needed for three weeks I could move faster. Definitely two days.

(In fact, to be honest, there is one thing that impresses me. How does one deal with certain physiological issues in such a cold? Yes, there is nice equipment that might keep you warm, as Srki explained in his earlier posts, when it is dry and nicely layered close to your body. However, certain activities require at least partial removal of all those layers and exposure of the most precious parts of our body to the extreme cold. That's just too cruel. One reason more to do the whole thing in just two days - if one is lucky (read constipated) it might not even become an issue.)
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 22:02 19.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco_de.manccini
I used to climb mountains that were roughly 3,000 m high in a singe day. So, for this Danail I would need at most three days. On second thought, since I would not need to carry up and down the mountain all that equipment and food needed for three weeks I could move faster. Definitely two days.

(In fact, to be honest, there is one thing that impresses me. How does one deal with certain physiological issues in such a cold? Yes, there is nice equipment that might keep you warm, as Srki explained in his earlier posts, when it is dry and nicely layered close to your body. However, certain activities require at least partial removal of all those layers and exposure of the most precious parts of our body to the extreme cold. That's just too cruel. One reason more to do the whole thing in just two days - if one is lucky (read constipated) it might not even become an issue.)


And not only that, since you are not supposed to leave ANY traces on the mountain, what do you do with all those produces of you precious body parts?
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 23:54 19.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco_de.manccini
I used to climb mountains that were roughly 3,000 m high in a single day. So, for this Danail I would need at most three days. On second thought, since I would not need to carry up and down the mountain all that equipment and food needed for three weeks I could move faster. Definitely two days.

(In fact, to be honest, there is one thing that impresses me. How does one deal with certain physiological issues in such a cold? Yes, there is nice equipment that might keep you warm, as Srki explained in his earlier posts, when it is dry and nicely layered close to your body. However, certain activities require at least partial removal of all those layers and exposure of the most precious parts of our body to the extreme cold. That's just too cruel. One reason more to do the whole thing in just two days - if one is lucky (read constipated) it might not even become an issue.)


Hej, Marco, sorry, greskom smo ti obrisali poslednji komentar, ja sam pokusavao da objasnim zeni preko telefona kako da se snadje sa ovim gumbicma na Srpskom, pa je vezbala na tvom komentaru i pade za slobodu! Cuti dobro je, kako je krenula, mogla je da obrise ceo prokleti blog!

bauer. bauer. 02:33 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

what do you do with all those produces of you precious body parts?

They are bio-degradable

But, what puzzles me is, why can't you people stay at home and watch the TV. Just the way everybody else does
rmontange rmontange 06:30 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco, I'm sorry your one post got erased. Long story, my fault, but I did learn what "obrisi" means. Anyway, I have my own log-in now.

marco_de.manccini

(In fact, to be honest, there is one thing that impresses me. How does one deal with certain physiological issues in such a cold? Yes, there is nice equipment that might keep you warm, as Srki explained in his earlier posts, when it is dry and nicely layered close to your body. However, certain activities require at least partial removal of all those layers and exposure of the most precious parts of our body to the extreme cold. That's just too cruel. One reason more to do the whole thing in just two days - if one is lucky (read constipated) it might not even become an issue.)

Okay, since you and Srdjan seem to be expressing interest in this little aspect of mountaineering...

It's bare cheeks to the wind boys. Drop your pants and get it done. It's a pretty quick job and if you're taking a poop your butt's in a plastic bag anyways. If you're a boy you don't have to drop your pants anywhere near as often. Quit cringing and imagine how I felt.

In order to keep the place from looking like a giant toilet bowl, and to keep everyone from coming down with cholera, the Park Service requires all solid human waste to be either packed out or dropped down a crevasse. Think about that next time you buy bottled water fresh from a glacier spring. They encourage us by issuing clean mountain cans (aka CMCs or shit cans) and plastic bags to line the CMCs, thereboy bringina whole new meaning to the phrase "portable toilet". CMCs are group gear. If you're slow picking your load of group gear, you're going to spend a day lugging the shit can. This is especially unfun on the upper parts of the mountain, where there are no crevasses to pitch the loaded bags into and the bags therefore have to be taken down. Piss gets left on the mountain, but people are encouraged to consolidate their piss into a handful of designated areas around the big camps. These pee-holes can get frighteningly wide and deep. You can always tell which pee-holes were established by a bunch of men because they tend to be out on one of the open, more social areas of the camps where people gather to stand, piss, and chat. Since women have to drop their pants to get anything done, we prefer to pee out on the edges. If you need to do a job while you're on rope, you ask for a break and get it done. Only suicidal people unrope completely; everyone else finesses their harness. If you need to poo while on rope, you use a bag that becomes your bag until you find a nice crevasse to throw it into. Privacy doesn't exist anywhere, but it's considered very rude and pervy to watch, so you learn to just not look and you also learn to just assume that everyone else isn't looking. This honor code works. In fact, the whole system, from not looking to the shit cans, works primarily on honor. I am writing this in a comfortable chair in a comfortable apartment and you guys are reading this under similar circumstance and I realize that this sounds horrible and disgusting, but trust me, it's even more disgusting to find a good campsite ruined by a pile of human shit. Or realize that what could have been drinking water and snowblocks for a windbreak has been pissed or pooped on.

Oddly enough, the shit cans weren't even close to the worst parts of the trip. You can pray for constipation, by the way, but most people find that the altitude has the exact opposite effect.

I just feel lucky that no one made me collect and pack out the snack I puked up onto the snow somewhere above 6000 m. 'Cuz that would have just sucked.
rmontange rmontange 06:31 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

bauer.

But, what puzzles me is, why can't you people stay at home and watch the TV. Just the way everybody else does

That would be boring. And our TV doesn't have any means of picking up TV signals and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 06:53 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

...and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.

Priceless!

srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:56 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

rmontange
bauer.

But, what puzzles me is, why can't you people stay at home and watch the TV. Just the way everybody else does

That would be boring. And our TV doesn't have any means of picking up TV signals and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.


Only damn terrorists, hun, damn terrorists
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:58 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

Bojan Budimac
...and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.

Priceless!



Rebecca is banned from my blog until further notice
rmontange rmontange 06:59 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

srdjan.pajic
Bojan Budimac
...and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.

Priceless!



Rebecca is banned from my blog until further notice

It's not working...
krkar krkar 07:12 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

rmontange

bauer.But, what puzzles me is, why can't you people stay at home and watch the TV. Just the way everybody else does That would be boring. And our TV doesn't have any means of picking up TV signals and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.


You should have kept your wife up that mountain
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 07:23 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

krkar
rmontange

bauer.But, what puzzles me is, why can't you people stay at home and watch the TV. Just the way everybody else does That would be boring. And our TV doesn't have any means of picking up TV signals and Srki's always playing some game where he's shooting people on it anyway.


You should have kept your wife up that mountain




Well, she is already threatening me with another blog about caving we went together. That was a disaster of epic proportion, almost got divorced after that.
Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 11:14 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed


Well, she is already threatening me with another blog

Go for it, Rebecca! Go for it!
njanja_de.manccini njanja_de.manccini 14:05 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

rebecca - This honor code works.

I am sure it works. same here for us at this university "a student does not lie, cheat or steal"
and there we are 340 cases of cheaters in the last 2 years. not bad, ha?

rebecca since I will never climb a mountain so high (there was a song like this, right???) I would love to hear from you more on this. I hope this is not your only trip to b92 blog.
pajicu, rebecca rulz!
marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 14:18 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco, I'm sorry your one post got erased.

wow, first day around and she already erases posts without mercy. let us see how my next one fares.

this is the view from the highest peak i went to in the last few years.



don't laugh yet, don't laugh, let me finish first. it just happens that my camera has a terrific zoom. at the place i was standing, far, far above, there was snow, ice, abysses all over the place, and no bathroom in sight. i told you it was not a laughing matter.
maksa83 maksa83 14:35 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

Well, she is already threatening me with another blog about caving we went together. That was a disaster of epic proportion, almost got divorced after that.

Sasquatch popped up and she called him "honey" by mistake, because he looked and smelled just like you?
marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 14:50 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

i have a feeling that this blog will set a new record for the number of erased posts.
maksa83 maksa83 14:55 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco_de.manccini
i have a feeling that this blog will set a new record for the number of erased posts.

Rebecca - "Preporuči" means "Erase".
marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 15:22 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

Максо, па преведи и за наше. Или ево ја ћу. Оно Ребекино
It's not working...

значи Срђан.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 15:40 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

marco_de.manccini
Максо, па преведи и за наше. Или ево ја ћу. Оно Ребекино
It's not working...

значи Срђан.



bulju mi razvaliste, evo ne smem usta da otvorim, sta god da kazem, upropasticu se Ne smem cak ni da obrisem komentare. Moj zivot se pretvorio u pakao!


rmontange rmontange 15:50 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

maksa83
Well, she is already threatening me with another blog about caving we went together. That was a disaster of epic proportion, almost got divorced after that.

Sasquatch popped up and she called him "honey" by mistake, because he looked and smelled just like you?

Predrag Brajovic Predrag Brajovic 16:06 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

maksa83
marco_de.manccini
i have a feeling that this blog will set a new record for the number of erased posts.

Rebecca - "Preporuči" means "Erase".

Maksa is right, Rebecca. I have marked the proper buttons when you want to recommend a post.

marco_de.manccini marco_de.manccini 16:17 20.10.2009

I hope that's not a permanent marker

talking about erasing, how will you erase now those red marks from your screen?

rmontange rmontange 16:57 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

Predrag Brajovic
maksa83
marco_de.manccini
i have a feeling that this blog will set a new record for the number of erased posts.

Rebecca - "Preporuči" means "Erase".

Maksa is right, Rebecca. I have marked the proper buttons when you want to recommend a post.


Oh really...

So why is it when I hit "Obrisi" last night marco's post disappeared into the ether? Anyway, now that I have my own account, I have things set up so all the comment controls (reply, quote, post comment and so on) are in English so that any future mistakes will be deliberate.
krkar krkar 18:35 20.10.2009

Re: well, i'm not impressed

srdjan.pajic
bulju mi razvaliste, evo ne smem usta da otvorim, sta god da kazem, upropasticu se Ne smem cak ni da obrisem komentare. Moj zivot se pretvorio u pakao!


Idi malo u ćošak da se stidiš.

I ne zaboravi ovo da prevedeš i objasniš ženi. Ako te uhvatimo da muvaš biće još!
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 18:08 20.10.2009

srpska ekspedicija

I looked at the photos on picasa, and realized that you may have missed a little peculiarity, due to lower resolution of the uploaded photograph - there was a Serbian expedition on Denali in the same time when Rebecca was there (second to last picture, a tent with a little flag with permit, she took a picture of their tent). I am not sure if they made it to the peak, or gave up, but I was glad to see them there.

Srbija do Denalija!
rmontange rmontange 19:12 20.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

Whoa, dude, I totally forgot about that! Even though I took that picture deliberately thinking of you!

There was a team of crazy Russians who summitted. I know this because I was behind them in the line to get my picture taken on the very tip of the top.
mimi09 mimi09 21:20 20.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

Rebecca, I think you used to climb mountains like this



and now you do it in this hard way only because Srki is not skilled enough to join you.
rmontange rmontange 03:55 21.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

Yeah, I've been trying to teach him how to fly: fall and forget to hit the ground. But he's having trouble with the forgetting.
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 06:55 21.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

mimi09
Rebecca, I think you used to climb mountains like this



and now you do it in this hard way only because Srki is not skilled enough to join you.


Aman, ljudi, sta ste se svi na mene navrzli, ovo je Rebekin blog, ja sam ovde samo za potrebe prevoda i druge robovske tehnikalije.
talicni talicni 22:00 21.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

mimi09


and now you do it in this hard way only because Srki is not skilled enough to join you.


I think he's skilled enough to become Rebecca's personal Sherpa.
krkar krkar 11:53 22.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

I think he's skilled enough to become Rebecca's personal Sherpa.


I fear he is too lazy for that.
vishnja92 vishnja92 11:58 22.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

:)))

siroti Srki, upropastiste ga nacisto, svi u kompletu :)))
glat broji dane do zakljucavanja bloga...
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 00:09 23.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

vishnja92
:)))

siroti Srki, upropastiste ga nacisto, svi u kompletu :)))
glat broji dane do zakljucavanja bloga...


Moderatore, jel ima u moderatostkom panelu opcija da se banuje cela korisnicka lista bloga B92?

Bojan Budimac Bojan Budimac 08:36 23.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija


Moderatore, jel ima u moderatostkom panelu opcija da se banuje cela korisnicka lista bloga B92?

Ima, zaključaj blog za komentare
Uradi to, pokaži kako si se naučio poštovanju slobode govora u land of free
Sad stvarno palim po cigarete (i pivo).
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 22:13 23.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

Bojan Budimac

Moderatore, jel ima u moderatostkom panelu opcija da se banuje cela korisnicka lista bloga B92?

Ima, zaključaj blog za komentare
Uradi to, pokaži kako si se naučio poštovanju slobode govora u land of free
Sad stvarno palim po cigarete (i pivo).


Hehehe, pa za razliku od tebe ja ocigledno nisam nikad zalazaio u te moderatorske panele, postujuci sto zivim u land of free ;-). Al' vi ga bas preceraste, malo batine nikad nije na odmet (jos jedna tekovina land of free) !

I moze pivkan, ali mojne te cigare, ubice te, sta ce ti to?


vishnja92 vishnja92 13:38 25.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

kakvi ste likovi :)

aj, vadi te pracke iz dzepova i daj vamo, i da vas vise ne vidim :)))
srdjan.pajic srdjan.pajic 21:33 25.10.2009

Re: srpska ekspedicija

vishnja92
kakvi ste likovi :)

aj, vadi te pracke iz dzepova i daj vamo, i da vas vise ne vidim :)))


Ko u onom fazonu: ratovali partizani i nemci u sumi, pa dosao sumar i oterao ih.



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