Dog days

In the dog days of summer, Jasmine spends a lot of time under the porch. She's developed a bark-in-place policy.

During the daytime she only budges if you open the door to ask, "What in the world are you barking at?" Then she'll take off like a rocket towards the interloper (heron, rabbit, cow).

Lately I've wondered about hooking a walkie-talkie up to her collar so I could ask her the same thing when she's barking beneath the bedroom window at 3:30 am.

Cascade River Waterfalls

Here are a couple of waterfall shots during our outing to Cascade River State Park earlier this week. We had a perfect day for exploring the river and looking for flowers. The sky was overcast which makes for ideal photography of waterfalls and flowers.

Mt Rainier Route Photos

The heavy snowfall from last week slowed a number of teams, many have not made the summit. Since we're lite on route conditions, I'll share these recent climbing route photos. Here is the Nisqually Cleaver taken on May 30th.

There are a number of climbers at Camp Muir this weekend, none have reported successful ascents. One Seattle party spent 15 hours pushing the route in from Camp Schurman, while another team summited on Liberty Ridge Thursday/Friday. The "Liberty" team took quite a bit of extra time and had to spend at least one night on top... They radioed from Camp Schurman on Saturday to report that one member had 7 digits with frostbite! We remind climbers not to underestimate how physically difficult it is to climb Liberty Ridge.

Photo by Mike Gauthier

In Memoriam - Jacob J Phend (1920-)

Jacob J "Jake" Phend (my first cousin twice removed, i.e., my grandfather's first cousin) passed away Wednesday, May 31, .. at Elkhart General Hospital. He was born May 11, 1920 in Elkhart County, Indiana to Jacob J Phend and his second wife Elizabeth Gast Corpe. Jake's father was 61 years old when Jake was born and 63 when Jake's sister, Sophia Elizabeth, was born. His father passed away in 1929 when Jake was 9 years old and his mother died five years later, when Jake was 14.

Jake was another distant cousin that I met while researching the Phend family. He didn't know much about his Phend relations since he was so young when his father died. But he soon found that he had a lot more relatives than he ever dreamed he had. Jake was a regular attendee of the "extended" Phend Family Reunions that have been held on the "even" years since 1992.

He had a great sense of humor, with a streak of orneriness thrown in for good measure. At each of the reunions he attended he brought me a gift - a "puzzle" made of wood or metal. One year it was a small heart with an arrow through it, with no indication of a cut line in the heart. I never have figured out how he got that arrow through the heart! Another year it was a "Quarter Pounder". I saw him coming across the yard with a McDonald's carry-out bag. He just grinned and handed it to me. I tentatively opened it and inside was a small "spring-loaded" clothespin with a miniature "hammer" positioned on top of a quarter coin.... he was definitely one of a kind.

Jake always got a kick out of introducing himself at the reunions... he was Jacob J Phend, his father was Jacob J Phend, and his father was Jacob Phend. He was thrilled when one of his grandchildren named his first child Jacob. Jake had two sons, I don't know why he didn't name one of them Jacob. Two of his grandchildren have the middle name of "J" so that is carried on also. The picture below of Jake, me, and his wife Evadean, was taken at the reunion in Kalona, Iowa in August 1998. That's the "Quarter Pounder" in the upper right corner of the post.

The following is Jake's story, in his own words, written March 23, 1991. . .Dear Becky, I am probably the worlds worst letter writer. When it comes time to write a letter, I can usually find at least ten things that should be taken care of, and a hundred things I would rather do.About my Dad. I don't remember much about him. He was a farmer, and seemed to always have a lot of nice horses around. He had an artificial leg but I didn't know how he lost it until one day, Surelda [1] told me about it. He was hauling material to build the dam in Elkhart and the horses ran away. Some of the timbers fell on his leg and smashed it. They had to take it off. Now, they probably could of saved it. You talked with Surelda, and she probably told you more than I can about Dad.About myself, do you want a long or short story. Since you are not here to tell me, I'll give you a story some where in between a long and short, and you can decide for yourself what to use in your book.I was born May 11, 1920 in Elkhart County, Indiana. Attended a one room school (Oak Grove) in St. Joseph County until the 6th grade. Went to Granger Consolidated school up to the 9th grade. Then went to Washington Clay High School at Roseland, Indiana and graduated high school in 1939. Not much work available in 1939, so I joined the CCC [2]. Went to the state of Washington and worked with the forestry department for two years. I enjoyed that kind of life.After two years I came back to Indiana but was not satisfied, so I joined the Marines and then I started to see the country. Went through boot camp at San Diego Marine Base. After training at San Diego I was put in Fleet Marine Force and sent to Samoa, for jungle training. When the 1st Marine Division was sent to Guadalcanal we went along. This was the first offensive action of American Forces in World War II.On Guadalcanal I got malaria and jungle rot but did not get wounded. When the Guadalcanal campaign was over our unit was put back into the 2nd Division Assault Forces and was sent to New Zealand to re-group and train for the next landing.In New Zealand our unit was formed up into assault teams of four marines to each team. We was trained to use flamethrowers and T.N.T. demolition charges. When we left New Zealand our next assault landing was on Tarawa. During that campaign our team was credited with knocking out 32 pill boxes and machine gun nests. The casualties was very high on Tarawa. The assault troops suffered 60% casualties, wounded or killed. Again I did not get wounded. I'm sure someone was taking care of me.

From Tarawa we went to Hawaii to re-group and train for the next landing. When we left Hawaii we landed on Saipan. This campaign was different than Tarawa. They had caves on Saipan. We used demolition and flamethrowers to get the Japs out of the caves. Again the casualties was high for that assault force.

Tinien was a fair size island south of Saipan and after Saipan was secured we took Tinien. Tinien was a breeze compared to the other landings. The CB's built an air field on Tinien and the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan took off from that air field. After Tinien we went back to Saipan. There was a group in our company known as the "Old Ones" not because they was old, but because out of the 250 original men who had started in Samoa, there was only 35 of the original bunch left.

The Marine Corps made provision for those Marines with over 32 months overseas duty to return to the states. So from Saipan I went back to the states for a 10 day furlough and was then sent to the East Coast to report into Marine Base at Paris Island, N. C. for a refresher course in assault engineering methods. After looking through the training manuals we found that most of the training was what we had developed in the islands through personal experience. So I was sent back up to Norfolk Naval Base, put on a ship that went through the Panama Canal and back out into the Pacific.

We joined up with a task force at Hawaii and left Hawaii. After two days out of Hawaii our task force was joined by another task force, the ocean was full of troop ships, battle ships, and aircraft-carriers, cruisers and destroyers, as far as you could see on the horizon was ships. We landed on Okinawa. This campaign was a real mess. Lots of casualties, but they kept me out of the hot spots. My sole duty on this campaign was advisor to a company of assault engineers. This was the last American offensive action of World War II. I had seen action in the first offensive and the last offensive action of World War II, with a few campaigns in-between.

My assault team has four Presidential Unit Citations from President Roosevelt and two from President Truman. After Japan signed the peace treaty I left Okinawa for the states, and after nearly 5 years in the marine corps, I figured I would get discharged and find out what civilian life was like. I never got wounded, had malaria and jungle rot on Guadalcanal. On Saipan I had dengue fever, but was never wounded. For the most part, I enjoyed my hitch in the Marines. It was a very exciting time, and I did get to see a lot of the world.

After I got out of the Marine Corps I returned to South Bend, Indiana. Got a job in a small factory that made folding cartons and started enjoying a peaceful civilian life. I met a girl at a church supper that they had for returning service men. The girl finally became my wife. My mother-in-law told me later that when Evadean [3] saw me at that supper, my goose was cooked. We lived at Lydic, Indiana and had two boys and one girl, Tom, Jim, and Linda. Eventually the company I worked for transferred me to St. Louis, Missouri. By then I was a supervisor. I worked for Packaging Corp. of America (a subsidiary of Tenneco) 36 years, retired in 1982. The company was good to me and I enjoyed my work, but retirement has been very good, I recommend it for everyone.

I like to camp and travel, hunt rocks, I'm a half way rock hound, and make things with wood. Every other year the "Old Ones" from the Marine Corps get together and talk and talk. Only about 20 of the bunch is left [4]. After all, we're all getting older. Evadean says each time they get together the stories get bigger. Well our memories are getting older too.

Becky, I did not put any dates down because I can't remember them. If you can use some of this in your book, good. If none of it is any good for your book, that's o.k. too. You asked for something about Jake Phend so here it is. Will see you in Osceola this fall [5], and good luck with your book [6]. Jake.

[1] Surelda was Jake's half sister.
[2] CCC was the Civilian Conservation Corps.
[3] Jake married Wilma Evadean Hardy on February 15, 1947.
[4] 20 of the "old ones" were still living in March 1991.
[5] Osceola, Indiana was the site of the 1991 Phend Reunion.[6] The Phend Family History was published in August 1991, and Jake's story was used in it's entirety. It's a story that everyone should read. It's amazing that he made it all the way through the war, through all of the battles he was in, without getting shot. Thanks Jake, for everything.

A fireplace and a reblochon salad, and fitting the snow chains on the car’s tires for almost 3 hours

After my eventful last skiing day in Valmorel, I called the Dutchman who is left at the chalet hotel nursing a hurt arm after a fall the other day. It’s been snowing all day and the roads are covered thick with snow. I knew that it would be injudicious for me to drive the car back to the chalet hotel without installing the snow chains.







So while waiting for the Dutchman to get to Valmorel town centre, I looked for a cosy restaurant to have lunch. I found La Marmite Restaurant located under Hotel du Bourg and the arch. When I stepped inside I was warmly greeted by a glowing fireplace. Outside is snowing cats and dogs and a fireplace is just what I needed at this very moment.



I settled myself quickly beside the fireplace and ordered a ‘Reblochon chaud sur pain perdu’ (salade with stewed tomatoes, French toast and hot reblochon cheese) and paired it with ‘Lapero de maison’ (rose wine with raspberry and blueberry cream) for my drink.



The salad and reblochon French toast was nice, 4 stars out of 5 but the lapero de maison drink, oh, it was a soaring 5 stars. Wonderful drink. Reblochon by the way is a local cheese in the French Alps.



Dutchman ate lunch at the chalet hotel so when he arrived he just ordered coffee.

























Afterwards we went down to the parking lot and saw the car in a snowed-in state. I am really glad I called the Dutchman because there is no way I am driving the car without the snow chains on! That would be suicide, and that is if the French police will not first catch me and issue a ticket. When it is snowing in the Alps, every car (does not matter if you have winter tires on) must have snow chains installed. And I need the Dutchman to help me install them.



And the struggle begins with fitting the snow chains on the tires...



So we began fitting the snow chains on the car’s tires... 10 minutes turned to 30 minutes, then it turned to an hour, then 2 hours… by this time Dutchman and I were covered in snow, we were cold and our hands were freezing, moreover, we were about to pull each other’s hair. Why are these snow chains not fitting on the tires!? Why is it so damn difficult!? ARGHHH. And by the way, it is getting dark.







And already dark here... this picture was taken when we were almost done... after nearly 3 hours!



Needless to say, we were utterly desperate, extremely frustrated and absolutely exasperated. We have no choice but to continue on until we are able to fit the snow chains on the car’s tires.



The light at the end of the tunnel came after nearly 3 hours of struggling to fit them together. WHEWWWW. What a relief! Now we can go back to the chalet hotel and have some drinks to recover from the ordeal.

First time wielding tools again

Manu on the local training route in the Ecrin, France




Last week I was in France, to speak at the Ecrin Ice Festival. On one of the days, I had the opportunity to go and climb with some good climbers. Although I was still uncertain about going winter climbing, it would have been crazy to turn it down. So I turned up and heard from my climbing partners that the plan was to do a very overhanging 6 pitch M9 dry tooling route. This was kind of perfect. The bit I was most worried about was walking in for 30 minutes on snow. But that went fine and my arms proceeded to have a fine wake up call to climbing with tools again. The next morning we did a short ice route with a very rapid retreat due to everything melting around us and making scary cracking noises. I was amazed that my foot was not sore the next day as I expected, and nice to add another first on my list of climbing comeback milestones (or perhaps metrestones).




Obviously I felt quite rusty on the tools. It was quite heartening to see that I could still pull hard, but I’d forgotten so much of the subtlety of the movement in tooling, if I ever knew about it in the first place. I climbed the first pitch in ‘pull up contest’ style with not much weight on my feet. But watching Luca in action reminded me of a lot and by the final pitch I had improved a little.











Luca relaxing on another M9 pitch!




Since then I have stepped up the volume of training a little more, with a 5 days on, one off schedule. This was perhaps a little premature as I can feel my ankle a bit after that. However, it hurts in the context of everything else hurting from the work, so it’s not too bad. I’m still feeling fitter with every session and back up to doing 8a routes indoors. That is pretty much as hard as I’ve climbed indoors ever anyway. Quite soon I may well get the chance to try some hard sport routes outdoors too.




Since it’s rest day time now, I’m back to full on writing of my book..

Visitation Totals for Mount Rainier Park

The last graph got me wondering, what was the general visitation totals for Mount Rainier during the same period, 1991 to 2005. As you can see, there has been a decline overall. I gathered these stats from here.