Alpine Climbing

Alpine Climbing is the face of climbing where multiple climbing disciplines intersect: Rock; Ice; Snow; Glacier Travel and sometimes all four at once! Usually practiced in the high mountain areas of the world, a typical alpine climb involves hiking into the snow region; traversing over glaciers (watch out for those crevasses) to the base of a rock wall or ridge; onto the ridge to the summit, climbing rock, ice and occasionally the hanging glacier. Sometimes the route is mainly snow and ice; other times a short walk on snow and the rest is rock. Whatever the combination, its always challenging and fun.

 

Coleman Glacier, 7000 ft, Mt. Baker

Here my climbing party is ascending the Coleman Glacier on Mt. Baker in the Cascade Mtns in Washington State. We're planning to climb up to the rocks bands, stay to the left, but not too far (must avoid the huge crevassed area in the middle), curl around left to under the main face, do an ascending traverse right on the hidden glacier behind the last rock outcropping to intersect with the ridge line and left up the ridge to the summit. While it doesn't look that far (or big), we're at about 7000 ft of elevation and the summit is around 10,800. So we have about 3800 feet of elevation to gain (about 2/3 of a mile). The heavily crevassed area in the middle is an hour's climb away. Notice all three of us are roped together. That's in case someone, usually the heaviest  :) pops through a hidden crevasse.

Mt Baker is an semi-extinct volcano near the Canadian border, part of the volcano grouping on the Pacific Rim of Fire; including Mt. Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt. St Helens. I say semi-extinct, but really it should be dormant as there is still volcanic action in the summit crater, steaming fumaroles, etc. Now I can't personally can't vouch for that fact since I've never made it to the summit. So far my mountaineering buddy Rick Sands and I are 0 for 3 in our attempts on Mt. Baker. My first time up, I was snug in my sleeping bag in my tent. Our camp was high on the glacier, set for a 4am start. About 1am a major storm moved in and huge gusts of wind started battering the tent.. After about 2 hours, the tent had enough and just disintegrated, leaving us high and exposed. We fought our way down and off the glacier and into the woods. And that was that.

On another attempt, Rick's summit bid ended when the case of giardia he contracted on the mountain left him too weak to attempt the summit. This was the beginning of a 3 week climbing trip in the Western US for both of us and for those of you familiar with the side effects of giardia will recognize that the next few weeks together in small tents and rental cars were, shall we say, breathtaking...

Summit Bid 3 got off to a great start. Beautiful weather, excellent conditions, and I was probably in my best shape ever. But inside my left knee was ticking timebomb. High on the mountain, about 5am, after about the 17,000th kick into the ice slope, the little cartilage disks blew apart, halting my upward progress. Luckily I had the presence of mind to "ice the joint" which I did by collapsing onto the glacier So, Mt Baker 3, the Alpine team 0. But as Arnold said "I'll be back!"

(spoiler alert: She wasn't back)

Coleman Glacier, 8500 ft, Mt. Backer

Much Higher up on the Coleman Glacier. A few minutes before, a flock of giant goldfinches descended on us. Quite un-expected at 9000 feet in a vast wasteland of ice. However a closer look at the glacier surface revealed lots of little bugs, flies, butterflies, etc frozen to death on the ice surface. Prevailing winds carry the bugs up from the lowlands to where they're deposited on the surface. So no wonder the goldfinches looked huge, they've been dining on the local equivalent of the Howard Johnson's "All You Can Eat" breakfast buffet.

Crevasse Rescue Practice

Hopefully, when you're ascending into the realm of the mountain gods, you won't do something stupid like fall into an open exposed crevasse. However, not all crevasses cooperate by being visible. You could be hiking up a glacier on nice firm snow thinking about the wonderful freeze dried food you'll have for dinner, when in reality that nice firm snow is really a 1 foot snow bridge over a 100 feet deep ice cavern. Snow is remarkably strong stuff, but you reach a point where it can't support a climber carrying a large pack filled with freeze dried food. (which brings to mind my 3 rules of glacier travel:

1. Always rope up
2. Don't fall in
3. Always put the heaviest climber first (corollary rule: always climb with somebody heavier than you), so if they step on it and don't fall in, it's probably safe

In  case you violate rule 2, it's advisable to know how to get out by yourself, since helicopter rescue is expensive, embarrassing and only really happens in the movies.. 

To practice the rescue techniques, go find a nice big (visible) crevasse, set some anchors and throw yourself over the edge (and hope the anchors hold). Chances are now you are upside down since you're carrying that big pack filled with freeze dried food and it's pulling you down. 1st step is to dump the pack (not literally, since that IS dinner) Grab a sling, clip one end to your harness (kids, this should already been done before you went walking on the glacier) and the other end to the pack. Slip the straps off your shoulders. Wow what a relief! Of course now you're 50 feet down in the largest Kenmore freezer ever built, slowly spinning at the end of  the rope at 10 rpm., listening to the derisive hoots from the other (lighter) members of the party with a 50lb pack dangling below you. But at least you're right side up. Pop out your two Prussik slings (cords wrapped around the climbing rope with a slip/friction knot) that were discretely tucked into your clothing. Struggle to put the bottom part of the sling over one boot and crampon and proceed to the "Texas Two Step" This is where you kick one boot high in the air, take the friction knot attached to the rope for that foot and slide it as high as you can reach. Next stand up on the stirrup in the now higher sling. This removes the weight from the other friction knot whose other end is attached to your waist. Repeat until tired.

In fact this is an exercise that is sure to become popular at the gyms. When at the gym, don't forget the 10 lb boots  and crampons, the several layers of soggy clothing, the sharp pointy objects  (hopefully)  attached to your waist, the 50 lb pack dangling a few feet below you and oh yes for true authenticity, a trickle of ice water down the back of the neck and fogged up sunglasses... 

Once you ascended the rope to the top of the crevasse, you discover an very unpleasant fact: Usually the weight of falling climber (and all that freeze dried food) causes the rope to saw into the lip of the crevasse, burying it several feet deep. Which creates a problem. You can't move the prussik knots up the rope while it is buried into the lip and you can't move the rope out of the slot because your weight is on the rope. Now you become happy that the sharp objects (ice axes) attached to you remained attached to you. Usually you have to ice climb the last few feet to pop over the top. Of course this is also very strenuous. The last time we practiced this, my partner pulled his shoulder trying to come over the top and became stuck, resulting in his rescue from the crevasse rescue practice

* original post 1998

My (Premature) Obiturary

Lots of news organizations maintain pre-written obits so that when a celebrity passes, they open up the file and need to just update a few later details and they are ready to publish. Same deal here. When I look back on my life - I'm a young 70 years old at this writing - I'm amazed at all the cool things I've been able to do.

While I'm far from a celebrity, I'm going to help out anyone who needs to deal with my passing and also put in my 2 cents about my life before people start lying about it. I expect to be updating this over the next 30 years and be doing more cool things but life's not a guarantee.

last update 1/1/25  Hey I made it through 2024. In the words of Monty Python: I'm not dead! So for a little while at least, I can annoy hundreds of people on the internet with puns and memes.

Alright! If you're here that means one of two things. Either I forgot to reset the publish date and I'm still here, or I'm really dead. Both options are equally likely. So if option 2 is in place, first thanks and much love for reading this. I'm dead and won't know about it. But hey, it's a little bit of immortality, at least until Google kills off blogger.com. Lets get started. 

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Zoé with one of her running companions, Neo the Thunder Dog

Cris "Zoé" Brady was born in January 1954 in Rockville, Maryland to John Francis Brady and Dorothy Anne Bauman, both deceased.  She attended Dover High School and the University of Delaware when college was cheap and grades weren't inflated. She is survived by Susan Maggie Bazzel, her wife; Hank Bauman of Wilmington Delaware - uncle; Pete Bazzel brother-in-law, Tammy Peterson sister-in-law of Alexandria VA, and various climbers, runners, racers and bikers who she considered her extended family.

Zoé had an interesting and eclectic life. Workwise, lets get that crap out of the way first. She originally started working in the family business, Brady Transfer - a moving and freight forwarding company, when she was 13. After finishing college she came to help her father manage Wyoming Ice & Cold Storage, an adjacent established business. At the Cold Storage, she learned lots of hands-on skills like welding, electrical work and more including digging holes. When rising electricity prices forced the closing of the Cold Storage, she moved to Brady Transfer, eventually taking ownership. Zoé sold the moving business during the recession of the late 80's and started her entrepreneurial streak. She started Alpine Management Services, a condominium management company, followed quickly by Alpine Enterprise, a software and computer consulting company. Both companies were successful and profitable. In the late 90's, she was enticed to becoming the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of an internet startup, Order-Net.com.  When Order-Net did not survive the 2nd round of investor funding, she joined EnsuredMail, another startup as Chief Technical Architect. EnsuredMail provided secure encrypted email for business and individuals. When the Internet bubble crashed, EnsuredMail was sold off by panicked investors and dissolved.  Zoé joined TreeSoft, a consulting company which was transitioning into a software provider for commercial Real Estate. TreeSoft was acquired and eventually became part of the ALTUS fleet of companies. Along the way she filled many roles, becoming a Director of Product Management; leading international teams;  and leading the Cloud Automation and Deployment teams of the company.  She retired from ALTUS in 2021.

Zoé's Office, squeaky toy not company property

Outside of work she pursued many interests. She was an accomplished rock and ice climber; climbing cliffs and mountains across the US and around the world. She climbed peaks in Nepal, the Alps and throughout the US and Canada. She was still climbing frozen waterfalls in her 60's and 70's.

On the summit of Chapelle de la Gliere in the French Alps

My long time (40 years) climbing partner and friend
Rick Sands, topping out on High Exposure in the Gunks

Leading Standard, NEI 3+ in New Hampshire

In her 30's and 40's she rode mountain bikes with a passion. Riding on trails up and down the east coast and partaking in mountain bike races in the local area. In her late 60's after an injury preventing her from running, she purchased an e-bike and started attacking the local trails again.

Learning how to mountain bike again in her 60's.
Blood was involved.

A chance event led her into another passion, motor racing. Zoé has always had the engineer mindset; always looking to figure out how things work; finding solutions for problems. She had the "Knack". And she loved cars. Motorsports was a perfect place to indulge that mindset. And driving came easy for her. She drove everything from sport bikes up to 18 wheeler tractor trailers. During college she drove school buses and the U of D shuttles. Over the course of her life she drove over 2 million miles often in poor conditions.

School Bus #66. She drove elementary and middle school
 kids while attending the U of D

Getting a knee down with one of her sport bikes - Jefferson Circuit, WV

From 1997 to 2021 she raced mostly Porsches at tracks from Canada down to Florida, achieving moderate success. Since she was self sponsored, she was the team of one; driving the truck and trailer to races; fixing and repairing anything; cooking for the crew and racing of course. She added how to rebuild motors and other skills to her skillset. She had several podiums in the 944 Cup National Championships to her credit along with numerous poles and wins in the regular seasons. She was an enthusiastic member of local car clubs, especially the Delaware Porsche Club. She was the Delaware PCA webmeister for 13 years; newsletter editor for several and the long time registrar for the club's Driver Education event at NJMP.

Her tires were too round, so she fixed that. @ NJMP

Celebrating with her crew chief Maggie, after
her 3rd place finish in the 944 National Championship.

She had a lifelong love of being outdoors. Mountains and trails were her happy space. Many hours were spent hiking, running or orienteering. To stay fit for mtn biking or climbing, she was a runner for 30 years before knee injuries stopped her. After a 20 year hiatus, both knees were replaced and she went back running with a vengeance. She finished hundred of races from 5Ks and more. She was a member of several local running clubs, including Fusion Racing and GRIT (Girls Really Into Trails). She was a finisher of the London and Marine Corp Marathons. She developed a love of UltraRunning - trail races longer than a marathon - doing 50Ks and even a 50 miler.

Virtual London Marathon done
(pandemic times)

Racing with Demon Dog Hana

Typical easy trail run in White Clay Creek Park

Throughout her life she had a love of traveling. She spent a month traveling the width of China in 1982 while in her 20's. She followed that with trips to Nepal and Europe to climb. Eventually she visited over 40 countries. Her favorite country was always the "last one", finding enjoyment in every place she  visited.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

On the streets of Cuzco, Peru. She loved lamas.

Istanbul, Blue Mosque in the background

Havana Cuba

Machu Picchu, Peru

Surprisingly, since she was an "unmotivated" student in formal education, she became a prolific writer in her later years. Her writing followed the progression of the internet, writing car race reports on internet bulletin boards; content for several websites; blogs on dogs, racing and car restoration (https://alpinemotorsports.blogspot.com)  ; tributes to her loved huskies (alpinedogsports.blogspot.com); and frequent sarcastic rants to her track attendees. She was a frequent poster to Facebook and Instagram where she loved to share things that tickled her (broad) fancy.

She was a voracious reader, with usually 2 books and an audiobook open at a time. She thought the Kindle was one of the worlds greatest inventions allowing her to travel with hundreds of books. She was on her 5th Kindle, the others eaten by her puppies along the way, which she forgave them.

A huge part of her life was her love of dogs. Starting with a homeless part-husky, collie mix picked up by one of her moving company crews, she shared her life with a succession of Siberian Huskies. Typically there were 3 at all times, though sometimes the number went up to 4 Sibes. The huskies shared many miles on the trails with her. There was usually a designated "official running dog" who was her companion on her trail runs. She and her dogs were a well known sight on the streets of the local community and trails as she walked them every day, no matter the weather.

Corey Dog, the one who started it all.

The pack on the 'Picture Rock' in White Clay Creek

Bailey, comforting Zoé after surgery. She was "The" Lifetime Dog.
A rescue, she lived to be 14.

Demon Dog Hana (aka Bailey re-incarnated)

Turbo the Love Machine
Her other 'Heart' Dog

She was also a great lover of music from an early age. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, she came of age during the Rock explosion. But early rock wasn't her only love. She was a fan of all types of music. Early country, Bluegrass, Blues, Roots, Reggae, Dub & Ska, Americana, Folk and more. Cooking, coding, driving, walking the dogs and just chilling, music was always present. In her 20's she tried her hand at making music, not just listening. She learned to play the tin whistle when she was doing a deep dive into traditional Irish music. Later, the sound of a resophonic guitar called a Dobro used in Country, Blues and Bluegrass entranced her. She bought a Dobro and tried to learn how to play slide on it. This was pre-YouTube and Internet and everything was self taught. She occasionally jammed with local musicians but after 2 years, she believed she was lacking in talent and sold the Dobro.

But over the years, she lusted after a National Steel Guitar. Every decade or so, she would look for one, and then shocked by the prices, would push that desire back under the covers. When preparing for retirement the question was what's next, and she decided now was the time for the National. She bought a vintage 1934 National Steel Guitar and restarted her guitar journey with a focus on the Blues and slide guitar. Her guitar collection grew to 3 Resophonic guitars, a beautiful PRS McCarty 594 electric and several acoustics, including a nice Martin. She considered herself still very much a beginner after several years but it brought much happiness.

At the beginning of her (2nd) guitar journey. Learning to play slide on a National Tricone.
An Elmore James (King of the Slide Guitar) version of the Robert Johnson classic: Dust My Broom.

While mountains were her first love, she was a fan of beach vacations, especially if they involved snorkeling. She had the good fortune to snorkel in amazing places around the world, including Mexico, Bali, Maldives and various Caribbean islands. A highlight was snorkeling with sharks and rays in Bora Bora.

Snorkeling with the Black Tip Sharks and Rays in Bora Bora, French Tahiti. 
(not my pic, my camera sucked)

The love of seeing fishes had her build a pond in her front yard and populated with Koi, who she called her 'water puppies'. Maggie and her spent many hours enjoying watching the 'pups'. They all had names.

Some of her 'water puppies'. Sparkles (left), Turbo (white & black), Red Spot (middle) and
Demon (black with orange belly)

She loved being an engineer. When she wasn't building virtual structures inside her head as a software engineer, she also applied that mindset in the real world.  Outside work, she could be found doing some project or another. She painted, installed tile, wood flooring, sheet rock (she hated and sucked at mudding the seams). She was also proficient at electrical work, and building networks and working on cars.

Working on the pond landscaping

Zoé met the love of her life, Susan Maggie Bazzel, when Maggie chatted her up in a crowded Deer Park pinball room. Many years later they made it official and were married in 1992 in San Diego. The two brides were wearing matching Big Dog sweatsuits from the local Big Dog outlet. They were still married at the end.

On the way home in 2022 with the new puppy, Stormy.
1600 mile round trip in 2 days.

While Maggie may be smiling, those are Zoé's beers :)

Probably her greatest characteristic - other than her biting sarcasm - was her insatiable curiosity. Whether it was how things work, what was over that next mountain, or how someone was doing, she always wanted to find out. She was comfortable in chaos, willing to say "I don't know, but let's find out!" and then doing so.

A life well lived. Filled with love, dogs (another form of love), friends, adventure. sports,  beer, puns, humor and intellectual challenge. Hopefully she will be greeted by all her Siberians over the Rainbow Bridge and a pint or two of stout. Cheers! She will be missed.

Das Maus (5) - Baby got Back

 

Rear subframe in all its glory. 
Hana Demon Dog is the shop supervisor

When we last checked in with our heroine, we had refreshed/restored the front end including the motor. If I could chop the car in half, we would win Cars & Coffee. Unfortunately, Solomon withstanding, life don't work like that. So onto the rear!

As I mentioned earlier, this is a 1972 Mini, so it doesn't have a unibody. What holds the body shell up is two subframes, one in front and one in back. This is a British car and I think they used wooden rulers for measurements to put the motor together. The front subframe, while nasty, was actually structurally sound and cleaned up pretty well, albeit with a lot of work. It had the benefit of 50 years of oil leaks coating everything up front. The rear subframe .... not so much.

Besides the potential horrors of the rear subframe, there were other issues. Among them the battery box which hangs down below the boot (trunk for you Yankees). Yeah, a bunch of rusty spots, which gave me an excuse to go by a new Welder. 

Front of the battery box. Rear had issues too.

I took my needler and chipped off most of the undercoating to see what nasties lay underneath. Though there were a few spots that I ended up patching, it wasn't crazy bad.

Going at it with my power needler

 

Cutting, welding and grinding the battery box

Before we get to the guesome Rated R portion of the post, here's the bottom of the car all welded up and coated with Eastwood rust preventive paint.

Okay, I've put this off long enough. Time to show the subframe 'as found". Please have your children leave the room, put the dog outside, and make sure you are up to date on your tetnus shot.

Don't quote me on this, but
I don't think that's structurally sound.

Not pretty. Most of the captive nuts were totally rusted and seized

Pretty much all the bits attached to the rear subframe were toast also.

Trailing arm with drum brake. The rear
suspension - aka cone and trumpet

The rear brakes have seen better days

Well, in for a pence (penny), in for a £ (pound ). I bought a new subframe from MiniSpares, one of the big Mini parts distributors in the UK. Shipping was almost as much as the subframe, but had to be done. The trash folks hauled it off to the dump last week.

New, and powder coated. This soothes my heart.

Meanwhile while waiting, I worked on some other areas. 

The boot got the wire brush treatment

And cleaned up and painted.

Gas tank, removed, rust and coating needled off
and painted.

Well this saga has gone on long enough. There's more (lots) to come, but here's a glimpse of the next bit.

Adios!

Das Maus (4) - A Reverse Lumpectomy

 When we last left off, I had finished the subframe. Pretty much everything was replaced: a gazillion ball joints; adjustable control arms, rubber cones and the like. All in all, it was now a thing of beauty.

A lot of work since then and a significant milestone was reached, so time to update the story.

To give you a taste of where we came from, here's some beauty shots.

Subframe with various suspension bits - make sure you have an up to date tetanus shot!

Subframe and motor in all its glory

And as you can see, the motor also needed a large dose of TLC.

That's one bucket of rust there. But it ran and had good compression

New cones vs Old cones

After many hours of labor, I ended up with a clean and refreshed subframe and bits. Looking ready to go back in.

Rated R: Naked Subframe and naughty bits

While waiting for some parts from the UK to finish the subframe, I started work on the motor.

The first order of business was to give the motor a good wash with industrial degreaser. Outside of course.

Surprise! It's not rust colored, but yellow

The head was pulled and sent off to the machine shop for inspection.

The block was then painted with Eastwood engine paint, Austin Mini green

The transmission was painted with an aluminum primer, then with Seymour Alumi-Blast.

Received the final bits, and it was time to put the subframe back - minus the motor at this point.

I should mention that I'm retired, so I tend to work on the car during the day when all my friends and neighbors are out selling their souls from 9 to 5 for our AI Overlords. That means it's just me in the shop without help. Luckily I have a lift in my garage, and I've been a racer for over 20 years. That means I'm real good at McGuyering things  and coming up with creative ways to complete tasks. Nothing like having an off and then having 30 minutes to fix the issues and get the car back to the grid for the next race to focus your mind.

Operation Subframe Installation underway

And just to make it more fun, we're in the middle of a heat wave here in the US, and the garage is about 85 degrees and 80% humidity. No A/C here, just a big fan. I was sweating bullets.

The thing about old cars - this one's 51 years old - nothing lines up properly. Now 50 years, on the assembly line, it was probably closer, but then again, the Brits aren't known for close tolerances on their mechanical bits. They are notorious for leaking oil. On the plus side, that was unintended rust proofing up front. 

So old cars ... I managed to get the subframe in, but the experience was very frustrating. I had to stop after a few hours after I ran out of expletives and had to order some new ones from Amazon. After a nice break I came back and finished it off.

Subframe in and bolted down. I can stop now right?

Ah yes, I see we're missing a motor. Let's go bug the machine shop for my head.

It's back. Only 2 weeks, that's lightening fast for a machine shop. I have always found that when they ask, "When do you need this back?"  Lie, just lie. Otherwise they won't start working on it until 2 days before you want it.

Let's finish up this motor. First some of that Eastwood engine paint. Gotta look good for Cars & Coffee.

The machine shop reported that the head had been worked on before in the past and looked good. The valve springs were binding though and he removed some shims and got it back into spec. He also reskimmed the surface.

The head studs were replaced with new ARP studs.

Jim also reported that the rocker shaft needed to be replaced. I sourced a new one and replaced the rockers.

The gaps were set with the rockers and other than waiting on a new distributor, the lump was good to go back in. 

Setting the rocker gap

I had bought a new A series distributor from MiniSpares but when I went to put it in, it didn't fit. It was too long. Talking with MiniSpares it was determined I had a 998cc A+ series motor, not the A motor I thought. Which was a surprise to me. It's actually a good thing. The A+ motors were built stronger, wiht a hotter crank and some other performance items. It was said a good 998 A+ motor could make a whopping 62 hp stock. A correct distributor was re-ordered.

The cherry picker was pressed into service and the motor was elevated and put into place. <-- a nice short, simple sentence when the reality was it took several hours and a lot of verbal lubrication, all done in the oven of my garage (the heat wave is still ongoing).

Slowly, step by step. Up with the lift, down with hoist. Repeat 
until your life has no meaning.

And finally Success!!! 

The Lumpectomy has been reversed!

Are we done now? Hell no. My punch list is continually growing. But this is a significant milestone. We went from a nasty, ratty looking engine compartment and motor to one I wouldn't be ashamed of bring home to my mother. 

More to come!