Little Si

Second trip to Little Si. Little Si, is a 'small' part of Mount Si and gives good views of surrounding mountains - Mailbox Peak, Mclellan Butte, Rattlesnake ridge and maybe even Tiger mountain. Little Si on a sunny day also sees quite a few rock climbers with all the gear climbing up one of the many vertical faces near the Little Si trail.
I went off the main trail and tried one supposedly secret route to the top of Little Si.. It was quite dangerous because of the steep incline and slippery mud/stones. I didn't go all the way up..Might have gone halfway up. While coming down this route, I had my heart in my mouth.. A huge sigh of relief when I touched base. This route is between two steep climbing faces and is kind of hidden by small bushes.

On my last trip here, the wind was howling at the top. Today, with the sun shining bright, everything was peaceful at the top.

Getting there by bus
i) 271 from University district to Issaquah. 209 from Issaquah to Northbend. Get off at the Bendigo blvd and 2nd street. Find the snoqualmie valley trail by taking a left on main avenue and going forward a few streets. Follow the trail east till you get to Mt. Si road. Take a left, cross the red bridge and keep walking till you find the trailhead onto the left.
ii) 554 from Downtown to Issaquah. 209 from Issaquah to Northbend and same as above.

I find it atleast 10 minutes faster and more scenic to go downtown and catch 554 to Issaquah than catching the direct bus(271) from university district!

Summer's coming up

Or I hope so. This year, according to many Seattleites is not a typical Seattle year.
It's been too cold and rainy for too long this past year. I hear June end is where summer starts kicking up and that's when my physical activities should start kicking up too!
I have no plans as of yet for summer. It's going to be a natural transition into lot's of hiking, running, rock-climbing, and maybe some biking.
But off the top of my mind, I wish to hike the following mountains:
1) Mount Si a.k.a the beautiful sigh.
2) Rattlesnake Ridge
3) Mount Pilchuck (Bike + Hike).
4) A kutty mountain in Enumclaw that gives an awesome view of Mount Rainier.
5) One or two back-packing trips into the wild-wild west - oops!, east.

Ofcourse there is also going to be the ramped up running (summer special). And the rock-climbing (outdoor and maybe some indoor too). Rock-climbing is amazing. It's a skill ofcourse, it's a skill you enjoy learning. It sharpens your mind too, I might say, since you need to focus on precisely which thin edge of the rock-cut to rest our hands and feet on.

Also, I am going to bring in more picture/videos into this blog. Since summer in Seattle is particularly beautiful and extremely enjoyable once you are outdoors.

My quarter ends by the end of this week. So my vacation starts next week. Totaal enthu max put its vonly.

More climbing

Today's session was good. Looks like I am becoming a regular here. Don't know how long that will last. I was able to do stuff which I couldn't the last time. People were a little amazed and puzzled that I wasn't using shoes. I just want to see how far I can go on bouldering(rock climbing without ropes or support on boulders or small monoliths as against free-soloing - which refers to rock climbing without ropes on any structure - big or small) without shoes. But it definitely is fun because bouldering as such is a challenging sport and not having 'climbing shoes' (which are especially useful because they are sticky, prevent scratches from sharp edges and give a better grip for small sharp cracks and footholds) is a disadvantage but also a challenge.



Confidence - This plays a big role in climbing atleast. I found that I am able to climb better in front of a group of people than when I am doing it alone. This maybe because when people watch what I am doing, it gets me focussed as I don't want to goof up!
I think the ideal climber is one who can climb the monoliths easily and fluidly as if they were just walking up the monolith. Infact I am starting to see some similarities between our primal ancestors and the pros at the place :).
To illustrate my point in the previous statement, I have included a wonderfully badass video of Dan Osman free soloing Lover's leap, California. (Ignore the music if it sounds like trash metal).

In the end it all comes together: Hatha yoga or yoga (including pranayama), swimming, taichi, kungfu, gymnastics, rockclimbing, running and biking. Though the goals seem to be different (apparently), at the highest level, all the sports aim at one thing: High flexibility and high strength.
Rockclimbing from my experience, not only develops high flexibility and strength, but it also requires high flexibility and high strength if you want to 'decently manage' some climbing routes!!! To elaborate on this, let me give a hypothetical example.
Lets' say that there are 5 levels in climbing skills with the successive levels being better than the previous level. Then the flexibility and strength of level 2 will not be enough to tackle level 3. In that sense higher flexibility and strength is a requirement for level 3. So you are in effect forced to do some weight training or some thing like that in order to do better climbing unlike in running, where one does weight training(to look good) because running (long distance) reduces muscle mass for efficiency!!

I am not done with running yet, though I haven't run in a long time (months). Running real fast or speed training is an altogether different experience as compared to regular running. Even long slow runs come under a different genre of experiences in life. So the memories of these experiences should bring me back to running, though I am not sure when.

Rock climbing near husky stadium

The place is right next to the Husky stadium.
I was actually looking out for a friend who said that he had come by 7 pm to IMA(Intra mural association) building to play racket ball. When he didn't turn up, I did the next best thing, which turned out to be THE best thing!

The place

That is plain vertical!

The plain vertical I was talking about

I went up without much of a hassle. But I was stuck at that place for a minute, as I made some unsuccessful attempts to get down before summoning the courage to do it. Like some one said at that place, its like going to the next level (not really).

Nice moves by an experienced guy.

Gymnastics and rock climbing!

An overall view of the place. Though the place looks small, you can spend a lot of time (months) mastering moves on a single monolith. The experienced climber in the photos above told me that he comes to this place many times a week and never gets tired or bored of doing it. I have tried out successfully (atleast partly) every piece here except the tallest one. It is too technical i.e. not having many footholds and many of them too tiny for my bare foot. If I need to make progress on that big one, I definitely need shoes, but I am yet to replace my worn out running shoes. So it will have to wait. :(

Three things

1) I got my cycle oiled and air filled up in tires and its as good as new (been neglecting it). No creaking sounds from the chain, smooth noiseless transition between gears and last but not the least an awesome riding experience.
2) Tried my hand at free soloing today - Third time so far. Free soloing is rock climbing without the use of ropes. And truth be told, it was fking awesome. Pics wil be posted in due time.
3) I just heard from someone I met at the rock-climbing place that there are some good places at eleven worth and near sammamish river for bouldering. That would probably be a destination that I shall touch upon soon. I mean think about it. Combining biking and bouldering!!! That should be awesomely fantabulous.

Flirting with Death - Dan Osman

The above pic shows Dan Osman lunging upward towards a hold you can see at the bottom of the pic.. He was in the air for a second when he did that...at 200ft asl. (Check 4:20 of the following video for more detailed action).

If this video isn't bad ass, what is? Maybe this one. You look at crazy, insane, wacko, fearless and larger-than-life men like Dan Osman and what do you say? You say nothing. You are in awe, filled with a real deep respect and you wish you could do a minute fraction of what he's done. We are not talking about rock climbing here, we are talking about free soloing - climbing rock cuts or faces without ropes and no other support whatsoever. To be able to do what Dan Osman's done requires transcendence, plain and simple. Even the slightest fear, which reflects a lack of confidence( and how does confidence come in such an extreme max sport?), would invite panic and panic, when you are hanging in space if not immediately brought down will ultimately bring you down...free fall to the ground and death.

P.S. Dan Osman died at the ripe young age of 35 in 1998, not while free soloing but during controlled free fall (similar to bungee-jumping but in a natural setting), when the rope attached to his body got cut. Dan lived life the way he wanted to and to that end I bow down before the man.
The song in the first video is from Metallica's first album (known as Metallica or The black album) called The Unforgiven II

More videos: Fire in the hole
Blues riff

(Sun)day

There was sun out today. A rare event in seattle. And the sun was out on a sunday, what's the probability of that happenening. Assuming independence, Prob(sun coming out)*Prob(a day being sunday). But there is some correlation as I have noticed, so the previous assumption doesn't hold true, its like Seattle telling its people, I may be cloudy on weekdays, but I will clear the turf when you wanna play.
Anyway, I ran in the morning and saw people run the dawg's dash 5k/10k. Post running, I went around green lake (a beautiful place and a hotspot for runners) to check out a store. I met a Pakistani woman, exchanged a few words. I bumped into someone who was looking for a canoeing partner, so I was game and we did that for an hour in Lake washington. And to finish off, I did some rock-climbing at the monolithic structures adjacent to the husky stadium. How much better can it get?(reminds me of metallica's tune for the line 'How sweet are you? How sweet does it get?' in sweet amber, st. anger)