February « 2007 « www.arareko.net

Fixations

It’s incredible to see how a boulder problem possessed our minds during the week. Cova, Aline, Judith, Mau & I returned for some more (should I say “several”?) tries to Jetstream; some on the easy version (V1), others on the difficult one (V6). Here you can see why this magic & apparently “easy” boulder got our complete attention for most of this day:

As far as my brain can recall, I tried it for nearly 50 times, falling every time at the exit moves. Mau managed to link the moves in a display of extreme power and stubbornness, not as elegant as he’d had wished, but somehow he finally got to the top. Everybody clapped his performance.

We also tried some more problems (Judith & Aline becoming extremely stubborn on a very specific one) and had great fun as always. As the sun was going close to the horizon, the place (as well as our temper) got really peaceful. The lagoon becoming an enormous mirror of the blue sky. Simply awesome! We must go back soon…

Making plans

I’ve got this running idea wandering in my head for a couple of days. With a little help from Google Earth and previously recorded running data, I was able to trace a plan for a future run. I’ll post the details when the project comes to life

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is a free service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. The name of the service pays tribute to Unix pipes, which let programmers do astonishingly clever things by making it easy to chain simple utilities together via the command line.

It’s only been a few hours but there are already some articles about Pipes online:

radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.html
www.dashes.com/anil/
jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/008513.html

Finding hope

After looking a this picture from Jack Kirk, the “Dipsea Demon”, who passed away a couple of days ago, all I can feel is the certainty that there are no limits as long as your spirit is alive. Definitely inspiring!

For the whole story, take a look here.

Major new variation on Fitz Roy

When Slovenians Tomaz Jakofcic and Grega Lacen started their way up a new route on the massive—and protected—north face of Fitz Roy on January 27, they were unable to see what might come later that night. The day dawned clear and calm, but unbeknownst to them a hidden bank of cloud was growing over the continental ice cap to the west. It would be carried east by the ensuing winds later that day…

Source: Alpinist Magazine.

Wonderful (but stormy) weekend

Imagine the best way to celebrate my 29th birthday… Well, nothing compares to a climbing camp with the good friends. Just like in the old times!

On Saturday, Aline, Cova & I headed to Peña Bernal and climbed the Northwest Ridge in a cloudy (close to stormy) & chilly afternoon. We reached the summit by 6 o’clock and rappelled the wall just in time before dusk.

After hiking down the trail by night, we devoured some lunch and enjoyed the magnificent view of the mountain surrounded by lots of clouds. Once we finished lunch, we headed to Aculco for camping.

We passed a very rainy & windy night, but cozy & fun enough from the inside of our tents. We had enough mate, wine, cheese, tortillas & ham to celebrate the arrival of my 29th birthday.

The next morning I went to the town for picking up Judith and to buy something for breakfast. Back at the canyon, Gil, Serch & Luis Arturo arrived to join the celebration.

Since all the crack climbs were totally wet, we moved to the boulder zone and spent the rest of the day trying a couple of problems.

We mainly focused on Jetstream, some on the “easy” variation (V1) and others on the “hard & original” version (V6); Cova & I almost linked the hard one.

The place was so peaceful, no other people around and with every rock full of lichens & moss, very beautiful… By 5 o’clock a storm suddenly appeared and we ran to the cars to get some shelter and drive back to the town.

After lunching some gringas & tacos, we called it “a day” and headed back to the city. It was an awesome & exciting birthday weekend, it’s always great to be with the good friends!

Investigating the invisible life in our environment

Microorganisms make up more than a third of the Earth’s biomass. They are found in water, on land and even in our bodies, recycling nutrients, influencing the planet’s climate or causing diseases. Still, we know surprisingly little about the smallest beings that colonise Earth. A new computational method to analyse environmental DNA samples, developed by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] in Heidelberg, now sheds light on the microbial composition of different habitats, from soil to water. The study, which will be published in this week’s online issue of the journal Science, also reveals that microbes evolve faster in some environments than in others and that they rather rarely change their habitat preferences over time…

EMBL Press Release: Investigating the invisible life in our environment