mei664587

Took the short 2hr flight from Kathmandu,north face coat, Nepal to New Delhi, India this morning. It is a step up in heat, humidity and pollution from K-DU: 100 degrees F, 100% humidity, 100% smog...
Aside from trying not inhale the fumes and drip sweat on my ipod this part of the journey is all about the "duffle shuffle". This funny expedition dance ritual involves the shifting of heavy gear between bags to fulfill the specific packaging requirements for the different legs of travel necessary to reach the high himalaya. Usually the sequence goes: 2-3 days of planes--> 2 days of 4x4 jeeps--> 7 days of horses/porters/yaks--> then BASE-CAMP. Each stage might require a re-shuffle and its key to conserve your energy during the process.
This leg of the trip my "shuffle" was an attempt to avoid the ever increasing excess baggage charges that have become a large consideration when trying to pull off involved international expeditions. Entering the plane today I was able the carry on about 100lbs of gear including the "New Dome 8", the largest tent northface-shop.org makes.north face coats , In the near future I could see climbers having to pre-cargo ship gear like the old days because of such rising cost. Many someday we could even pull off a petroleum free expedition!
So. I sit here sweating and waiting for Jimmy and Conrad's to arrive........... Just as lassitude strikes, I get a surprise visit from expedition veteran and TNF climber Kevin Thaw!!! He is a great mentor when it comes to all these logistics and is also mid-shuffle on his way to meet up with Peter Croft and Mark Synott. Small world when you run into a friend half-way around the world like this. Their team is aiming for a wild new line on Kishtwar Shivling in the Jammu Kashmir which is a very remote region of the massive mtn range that is the Himalaya. They should have a blog going as well through northface-shop.org site.. Wishing them the best!
northface-shop.org elite athletes Kevin Thaw, Mark Synnott, and Peter Croft tackle the unclimbed 1,300-meter (4,265 feet) East Pillar of Shivling (6,000 meters / 19,685 feet) in the Kishtwar region of Kashmir,the north face coats , India, just south of Zanskar.

Thursday came and Emily and I stuffed the car full of half out worldly possessions and headed east to the Isle of Wight. Bestival has run for the last 5 years and due to is late position in the festival calendar has always enjoyed glorious sunshine thanks to the slightly more stable September weather. north face coat,Not this time...
t had rained a little on Thursday day and the mud was already thick and slippy for our arrival on Thursday night. Then the heavens opened and by morning the whole site was a quagmire, up to 30cm of sludge in some places.
I had planned on glorious sunshine and so had packed my “comfy” tent, a Trailhead 6, instead of anything a little more substantial. The wind roared and the rain continued to fall but as all other tents lay crumpled on the floor, the Trailhead stood strong and true. I was very, very impressed and stepped out each morning with a slight look of smugness and surveyed the carnage around me. Other people were obviously jealous of the mighty Trailhead as one morning I woke to find margarine had been thrown at it during the night,north face coats , the miserable dirty bastards.
The rain continued to fall and there was talk of closing the festival but everyone persevered and had an amazing time. The highlights for me were listening to HotChip go off in front of 20,000 people on the main stage, and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, going crazy to an intense, immense Roni Size after party in the tiny, grimy hidden disco.
6.15 am Monday morning came and my alarm screamed in my ear. We stumbled around and packed up camp whilst waiting for a friend who had gone missing the night before and was due to travel home with us. He eventually wandered into camp looking “slightly” worse for wear but in a very giggly mood and proceeded to giggle his way with us up the long muddy walk back to the bus stop.
A Bus, Ferry, Walk, TGI Fridays and Car brings us up to date and to where I will leave you for now. I had a fantastic time at Bestival which I owe in part to having decent kit that kept me warm, the north face coats ,dry and smiling. Here’s to the next one, but for now it is on to pastures new.
Adios amigos, for now...Thursday came and Emily and I stuffed the car full of half out worldly possessions and headed east to the Isle of Wight. Bestival has run for the last 5 years and due to is late position in the festival calendar has always enjoyed glorious sunshine thanks to the slightly more stable September weather. north face coat,Not this time...
t had rained a little on Thursday day and the mud was already thick and slippy for our arrival on Thursday night. Then the heavens opened and by morning the whole site was a quagmire, up to 30cm of sludge in some places.
I had planned on glorious sunshine and so had packed my “comfy” tent, a Trailhead 6, instead of anything a little more substantial. The wind roared and the rain continued to fall but as all other tents lay crumpled on the floor, the Trailhead stood strong and true. I was very, very impressed and stepped out each morning with a slight look of smugness and surveyed the carnage around me. Other people were obviously jealous of the mighty Trailhead as one morning I woke to find margarine had been thrown at it during the night,north face coats , the miserable dirty bastards.
The rain continued to fall and there was talk of closing the festival but everyone persevered and had an amazing time. The highlights for me were listening to HotChip go off in front of 20,000 people on the main stage, and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, going crazy to an intense, immense Roni Size after party in the tiny, grimy hidden disco.
6.15 am Monday morning came and my alarm screamed in my ear. We stumbled around and packed up camp whilst waiting for a friend who had gone missing the night before and was due to travel home with us. He eventually wandered into camp looking “slightly” worse for wear but in a very giggly mood and proceeded to giggle his way with us up the long muddy walk back to the bus stop.
A Bus, Ferry, Walk, TGI Fridays and Car brings us up to date and to where I will leave you for now. I had a fantastic time at Bestival which I owe in part to having decent kit that kept me warm, the north face coats ,dry and smiling. Here’s to the next one, but for now it is on to pastures new.
Adios amigos, for now...

Trepidation and apprehension, anticipation and the joy of freedom. north face coat,Standing at the start was a bundle of emotions all in one. For me it was just a great privilege to be again participating in the ultra trail - but was I prepared, would I be fit and strong enough for the challenge? Questions that are always in the thoughts beforehand. I missed so much training during the spring with my stress fracture, but now after a long summer of running and racing hard, did I have too much in my legs? I sometimes find myself doubting if even my legs will start to run - a sort of fear I always have at the start of a race. But then the moment to ‘go’ arrives - and then life becomes simple - you have a destination to reach. And the journey to that destination is yours to enjoy, to savour and to cherish every moment of. Perhaps that is one of the special things about a long race like this - it is a journey through good times, through bad patches and you have simply to try to live in the moment with integrity - a mirror to the journey through life itself?
Running far and running high on a beautiful mountain journey. A ‘big’ dream - that needed us to reach deep within ourselves - to be true to what we could do. But perhaps the challenge of reaching beyond what we feel we can do is eased by the tremendous support that characterises UTMB. The organisation, the sponsors, the volunteers, the runners, the supporters and every person who wished us ‘bon courage’ - that is what makes this race so special.
The 2008 edition gave us a tough course - 166km and 9500m of up and down. Having walked it 2 weeks before, it was very fresh in my memory just how long a journey lay ahead. But somehow you forget that when you are running. Feeling good I started fast … just taking one step at a time … from one village to the next, refuge to refuge, valley to col and col to valley. It worked - a beautiful evening gave way to a still night - hard work but the peace of the mountains eased the labour. north face coats , There were moments of camaraderie - with fellow runners and supporters - interspersed amongst the many many moments of being entirely alone. There were moments of feeling strong, and moments of feeling not so good. For me the hardest part was when the signs of tenosynovitis started before Champex. Slowing drastically and feeling like I could manage no more than a walk I struggled in my head with whether I would be able to make it. But then I sort of ran through the pain - over Bovine and down to the Col de Forclaz and Trient. From there you are running ‘home’, strength and determination returned. I relished just being on the move, on my feet and being free. The heat of the day gave way to the warmth and ‘quiet’ of early evening. The last climb up from the Col de Montets and the majesty of the Mont Blanc was before me. Then alone and surrounded by the nature I wished almost that the journey was longer - that the night could continue - that the race wouldn’t end. But then downwards to Chamonix, the final descent … sort of a strange feeling to know I had the distance on the 2nd woman …. I hit the streets of Chamonix and with light heart and feet I ran those last metres back to the Place du Triangle de l’Amitie - for me the journey complete. I won’t forget the welcome - moments like that are to treasure. Wherever your challenge lay, whether you ran, whether you supported or whether you wished us ‘bon courage’ be happy that you were part of the UTMB 2008. Now whatever your journey in life - reach high, seek far and look deep - and dream ….the north face coats , Then you can be who you are. - Elizabeth Hawker

The final day arrived and a festival had been organised by the Red Bull people to take place at Cala Barques.north face coat, It was a fine day, with good conditions, routes, friends and music. I tried a line called Snatch which is an awesome short 8b up a smooth concave wall on one and two finger pockets. The moves were awesome and felt highly improbable. On my flash attempt, I made it to 4 moves from the top and on my next try I got two moves further. Close but no cigar. My hands were feeling pretty sore by this point, salt water and rough rock certainly makes your skin drop off. I decided to call it a day and hopefully recover allow my skin to recover a little before beginning the second leg of my journey.
Again, despite not completing the route, I felt really content. This is unusual for me as normally I cannot sleep until a project is in the bag but with psicobloc things seem to be different.north face coats , I think the real joy of this style of climbing is feeling completely free from the normal constraints that climbing can put on you. This very obviously applies to the issues of rope and gear but why stop there. There is no need to be restrained by existing routes, or lines in a guide book, climb where you want and how you want, do whatever feels the most fun at any particular point in time.
The sun set slowly over the horizon and it was time to party. The Red Bull crew are not known for doing things by halves and tonight was no different. It may have been the atmosphere, or it may have been the never ending supply of vodka redbulls, but the first time I looked at the time it was 4.15am.
We moved to another venue which was surprisingly good for a small little town, good tuned mixed well, what more can you ask for. I finally bailed back to the boat at around 6am for a steady 2 hours sleep and woke fresh as a daisy, well maybe not quite to pack my bags. Just before leaving, I got chance to see the photos from the week, courtesy of Damiano Levati (www.northface-shop.org) and they were amazing. I was blown away by some of the images and found myself feeling sad that it had all come to an end. I said my good byes to friends old and new and headed for the airport. The week has been nothing but a pleasure and has introduced me to the wonders of psicobloc which I can see playing a big part in my future climbing. the north face coats ,And the future is now, because for the net week I will be in the Costa Blanca at the Orange House DWS fest.

Heading toward Nun - Kun. north face coat,With a new permit in hand we'll begin foot journeying. Perfect shift in gears from Jeep Safari! Massively relieving to finally achieve a basecamp scenario and to be able to point our psych toward an objective. Unlike most peaks Nun & Kun seem to be packaged as a unit as per peak permission.
Only real info came from a meeting with some outbound Czech climbers while en route to basecamp, there's was unfortunatly not a successful summit bid but hopefully the knowledge they gleaned will help us? One sad tale did previously leek of a French soloist who passed in his sleep from altitude sickness. Never good news and reason to take stock and be extra self aware! 7000m is not a zone to take lightly. Again I find myself writing this from an airport,north face coats , but this time from the check-in que, which I am in for the second time today due to pea-brained, senseless airport rules regarding credit card security, aye aye aye! Anyway...
Red Bull Psicobloc has come and gone and what an amazing time I have had. Sailing around on a luxury catamaran, rocketing over the waves on jet skis and a wild all night party are experiences I will not forget in a hurry. Oh, and the climbing was pretty good too.
Seriously, good is not the word to describe the DWS in Mallorca, it really is like a heaven. Combine the nicest flame orange limestone you have ever climbed on, with a pleasant air temperature and warm turquoise seas and you will begin to get the picture. Add to that a group of fantastic climbers and great friends, plus a load of awesome perks and you have all the makings of a trip of a life time.
I had heard various people tell of the fantastic sense of care free freedom you get from psicobloc but having only dabbled with it in the past, in less than ideal circumstances, I had yet to experience it myself and to be honest I wasn’t sure they were telling the whole truth. As is often the case, I was mistaken and I can now officially say that psicobloc, or DWS, the north face coats ,or whatever you want to call it is pretty damn cool, that’s right, its OFFICIAL ;)

We bailed back to town for a clean and a feed.north face coat, I asked my friends to take me to the best Szechuan restaurant and arranged to meet them at 6pm. Once everyone had arrived, we all walked to the restaurant of choice, which happened to be right next to my hotel, and a place I had disregarded on a few previous occasions for reasons I don’t actually know. The food was amazing, the best I have had in China so far and I am sure I will be returning tomorrow.
We finished eating at about 6.50pm and I decided to go to my room for some work, a movie and an early night. It is now 01.20 am and I have failed to get to sleep for a second time. It is not fun and I don’t envy insomniacs in the slightest. Today we traversed some of the most beautiful rock formations imaginable in an area know as the White Desert. There were camels, birds, and these little white lizards darting about. The mushroom formations dotting the landscape were incredible. Some of them had extremely slender stems yet were supporting these huge rock caps on top.
The stage began with a difficult section through towering sand dunes,north face coats ， and pretty much got worse from there. The sand seemed to get deeper and softer as the day progressed, perhaps in part due to the rising temperatures which hit 110 degrees today. There was a stream located around the midway point that I was tempted to dunk in, but the piranha situation is quite concerning. Just kidding, there are no piranha’s here. The real reason I didn’t stop is for the very practical reason that the more time you spend not moving forward, the longer you’re exposed to the heat. Instead, I plunged myself in the unique desert landscape that only the Sahara can provide.
As far as the racing element, I’m holding my own. I’ve never had legs so heavy; way too many race miles on these babies this year. I freely admit, I’ve bitten off more than a could chew with my 2008 event calendar. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise, however, because I am able to enjoy myself and immerse more deeply in the overall experience versus focusing too heavily on the racing aspect. Just don’t let Paul pass me again (hee! hee!).
Beginning at the oasis of Farafra, we runners begin Stage 1 in an area surrounded by white rocks in the heart of the White Desert. Temperature’s today climbed over 100 degrees with almost no breeze, making the first day of racing a brutal one. It was the perfect introduction to the Sahara. The sand dunes were remarkable, stretching in every direction as far as the eye could see. Of course, the sand was hot. Many of the competitors suffered from blistering, the north face coats ,making the medical tent one of the more popular destinations post run.