The Latest Rave

I’m a reader, what can I say. Here are a FEW of my favorite books, updated from time to time:

Julia by Sandra Newman

Savage Arena by Joe Tasker

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Good Omens by Neil Gaimon

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Exercise: bouncing Englestead.

Pulling Ropes.

Hiking out.

A full-body workout.

Lotta weakness left the body on this day…

My Second Weekend this year was also very good, more diverse and more political that the First Weekend.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT

150 minutes. The uranium for the Manhattan Project and our subsequent rush to build the Machina Doomsday came from the Belgian Congo. This became awkward in 1960 when enslaving colonies in Africa became too conspicuous and Independence came to the continent. This is the story of the attempt of the Congo to become a self-governing democratic state, and how it was thwarted by the CIA who installed a psychotic dictator who would promise not to sell uranium to the Soviets. Clearly, 70 years later, a lot of shameful material has been declassified. A complex story masterfully told, knitted together with the jazz music revolution here in the USA and the awakening civil rights movement. Just awesome. Totally engaging for 2-1/2 hours!

I am a terrible movie critic, because I really have very little to say about movies after seeing them. And I don't care. What I care about is how engaging a movie is - ie, did it catch my attention and hold it?; Emotions = how powerfully did the movie effect me?; Depth = how important are the themes in this movie - how much does this contribute to my understanding of the world and humans. I like foreign movies as they teach me about life in other countries, and for other people. I am a bleeding heart liberal, so I like movies about social (in)justice, minorities winning. I like biopics about great people that I really don't know much about from Miss Americana to Judy Blum. And unfortunately violence seems to be one of my themes.

(BAD) Example: 10 Days in Mariupol (Sundance 2023)

From inside Mariupol, the first 10 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The toughest film I have ever watched, as Russian bombardment destroyed a city that used to have 400,000 citizens of which about 5% (20,000) people died in those 10 Days.

Finally got down to Hogwarts in North Wash to remove a few (as it turned out) inappropriately placed bolts. I was joined by Tyler from Hanksville, who guides for Get In The Wild, and another guy who had a name… but I am very bad at remembering names. Sorry. (sigh). Another Guy and I were greeted by another beautiful morning in North Wash…

Guest Rave by Scott Swaney: Ghosting using Rock-Pile (Cairn) Anchors

This album is for canyoneers who may be interested in putting in canyon anchors, and leaving nothing behind in canyon places, and anywhere else there are canyons around the world. Leaving no webbing or rappel rings.

Many places you can put in bolts, pitons, climbing nuts, etc, but in some parks like Death Valley, you are required to only use natural material found in the canyons. Nearly all cairn anchors have webbing wrapped around a rock, and then additional rocks are added for additional weight for strength. Many other natural anchors can be done like making Rock-Chocks or Knot-blocks, but they have to using webbing to leave & usually a rap ring. It is not hard to build cairn anchors that leave nothing behind.

Using Retrievable tools like a Fiddlestick, you can drop the rope down without using webbing. But the cairn has to be constructed a certain way where the rope can easily be pulled around a smooth "pull-rock", and not hang up on. And leaving just the rocks you found there as the only thing left behind. These techniques allows you to get down a canyon and cost nothing in man-made materials. I have spent a lot of money building many hundreds of Cairn Anchors and having to carry rolls of webbing and rappel rings. And also not leaving behind webbing that will turn to trash in a year or so out there in the desert heat & sun.

May 22, 2023. Mount Carmel UTAH

A query on the Interwebs prompted me to run an experiment to see how much water a well-used Imlay Kolob Pack absorbs in use. Why well-used? - A. I have several laying about; B. New packs, new fabric, has a DWR coating that minimizes water absorption, but which wears off fairly quickly with use - thus the more-fair test is with a well-used pack; C. If I used a new pack, that pack would no longer be new and saleable as such. So I used a pack from a couple years ago that is well-broken-in.

PROCEDURE

1. Weigh the pack dry.

2. Soak the pack in water for at least an hour. I use an old cooler filled with water, and weight the pack down so it is almost entirely underwater - a small part of the shoulder straps and of the hipbelt were breaking the surface.

3. Pull the pack out and hang it up to drain surface water for 5 to 6 minutes.

4. Weigh the pack wet.

RESULTS

I’m not a big HORROR Movie fan, but I have been doing one H Movie a year at Sundance, and have really enjoyed them, especially ones that do not take themselves seriously.. which after all is one of the tropes of H Movies. In the Horror category:

SUNDANCE SAYS:

RUN RABBIT RUN

Fertility doctor Sarah begins her beloved daughter Mia’s seventh birthday expecting nothing amiss. But as an ominous wind swirls in, Sarah’s carefully controlled world begins to alter. Mia begins behaving oddly and a rabbit appears outside their front door — a mysterious birthday gift that delights Mia but seems to deeply disconcert Sarah. As days pass, Mia becomes increasingly not herself, demanding to see Sarah’s long-estranged, hospitalized mother (the grandmother she’s never met before) and fraying Sarah’s nerves as the child’s bizarre tantrums begin to point her toward Sarah’s own dark history. As a ghost from her past re-enters Sarah’s life, she struggles to cling to her distant young daughter.

I am happy to return to Sundance, my annual brush with culture... though not really popular culture. Living in rural southern Utah is nice, but lacks cultural stimulation. At Sundance I seek out mind-expanding, consciousness-expanding, WOKE films that help me understand what is happening in the rest of the world. So I started with 2 films from Australia – pretty exotic, I hear you say…

Sundance says:

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Shayda

An Iranian woman living in Australia, Shayda finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her frightened 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz (Persian New Year), she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

What is Wilderness?

Think about where you are at this very moment, reading these words.  Think about the land beneath your feet, under your seat, and right outside your window.  Chances are that your current location is like much of the rest of our planet today - dramatically altered and under the direct control of human beings, utterly unrecognizable in terms of its prehistoric qualities.  These changes might have improved your current comfort, but something valuable and increasingly rare has been lost in the taming of where you are now. 

Consider your dependence on technology in your day to day life.  How reliant are you on motorized or mechanized vehicles for your transportation needs?  How long has it been since you’ve been without an outlet to charge your smartphone?  How much do you depend on your furnace when it’s cold and your air conditioner when it’s hot?  How able are you to thrive in the absence of grocery stores and permanent shelter?  Are skills like these even relevant in your daily routine?