The start was mellow but early (7200ft, 1AM), I pushed mostly with my trekking poles and took it easy on my knee, not really knowing what to expect. We hit snow at 9400ft, put on our crampons, and started up the mountain. I had the lightest snowtravel system of the bunch, especially compared to the hard-shell boots that most of the party was wearing. All the way up people commented about my shoes and crampons, which looked (and were!) much more flexible, comfortable, and light than anything else on the mountain. I found that in normal shoes I would have suffered much more from cold feet. My tried-and-tested 212's give my feet plenty of warm blood, to prevent them from getting frostbitten. If the conditions had been less beautiful, I would have thrown on my extra warm pair of wool socks, but there was no need. Also, I can wiggle my toes even in crampons!

We summited with no problems, took a few photos, marveled at the view, and started back down. We met up with the rest of the crew about 200ft down, whowere a bit behind us. Natalie decided to summit again with her sister, who was suffering from wicked bruises from her hard-shell boots. I waited for them to come down, and we glissaded down over 3000ft of gorgeous snowfields. Needless to say, the way down was a bit faster than up, and we wound up back at camp by 4PM. My feet got really wet for the first time (despite the 212's being non-waterproof) during the glissade. Nobody was spared, though, from wet feet. Luckily, now down, my feet didn't stay cold for long.

The long story short, I am a moron, Jay Freeman (saurik) is a saint, United Airlines is incompetent, and Frontier Airlines is friendly and flexible.

Me, Chelsea and Jason are trying to get to Costa Rica, to do a former adventure race. Our plan was to fly out of SFO (because it was the cheapest), and cross Costa Rica coast-to-coast under human power, hang out for a week or two, and jet back home if we could muster the initiative. All was going according to plan until I realized that I had left my passport in Santa Barbara. I frantically called everybody I knew who I work with, eat with, and hang out with, coming up with a few leads: some craigslist folks who are happy to get the passport up here after my flight leaves, and Anna (yes, she is a plan in and of herself), who will try to arrange for a counter-to-counter transfer at SBA airport.

I had heard about the counter-to-counter transfer (which sounds wonderful) from Jay Freeman (saurik), the brilliant software man behind Cydia, the jailbroken iPhone "app store". Well, it turns out that Jay has just as much drive, initiative, and stick-to-it-ness outside of the computer world as inside it. Before I can say cat-in-a-hat, Jay has initiated himself as a "known shipper" with United Airlines, and is now driving to LAX (3 hours with traffic) to ship a forgotten passport to me, so it'll make it here in time for me to get on my 8:16 flight. He makes it to LAX, with time to spare, and gets the passport to the SPD desk at LAX (that's what they use to ship kidneys, I later found out), with 1:15 until the last flight that can get me the documents in time. I've sent all of my checked luggage with Chelsea and Jason, and I'm waiting until 8:05, when they tell me that my passport didn't make the flight. I was simultaneously heartbroken and outraged at all of this wasted good-will and elbow grease. Too late, and I waited for my passport to arrive on the next flight, which it did (though delayed an additional hour). I rescheduled my flight to Costa Rica to leave at 11AM the next morning (thanks Frontier!), and rode the BART back to Chris & Karla's place in Oakland. Rang their doorbell, and passed out on their guest bed…

Got on the plane the next morning, had a long layover in Denver, and made it to Costa Rica with my tail between my legs.

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The Ritchey Coupling

This is what makes the bike folding. There's two parts: the top tube and the seat tube are held together by the seat post. This means that you undo two bolts, remove the seat post, and that joint comes apart. The second is a sleeve on the down tube, right above the bottom bracket. Both look solid, and neither wiggles or warps during even heavy riding. Clearly some thought went into this.

The Disc Brakes

To facilitate travel, the disc brake rotors spin straight off of the hub, allowing easy removal. This way when you travel, they don't get dinged up by the other wheel that's bouncing next to it. Also, it comes with cable disc brakes, so when you travel, you don't run the risk that the hydraulics get mal-adjusted.

The Cables

All cables that go to the rear half of the bike have twist-release mechanisms, so you don't have a bunch of cables dangling between the two halves of the bike. Another good reason they went with cable brakes (I don't even want to imagine a twist-apart hydraulic line!).

The Stem

The stem comes straight off of the steer tube, which never has to come out of the headset. They have a great system to keep all of your headset parts together when traveling, and also allows you to easily adjust the height of your stem with just one bolt. Again, this is one of the worst things that happens when transporting a normal bike: the plethora of small bits and pieces in the headset all come and go as they please when you remove the fork & stem. I've very nearly been screwed by this…

The Saddle

At first I was dubious about the saddle, it definitely didn't look very comfortable. I was also shocked by the mechanism by which it attaches to the seat post. There's no way to attach any other seat to the seat-post! The mechanism they have designed is far superior to the standard two-rail system, in ease of adjustment, and simplicity of construction. The seat is actually quite nice, but your mileage may vary.

When the bike broke on me, during the Moab Xstream race in Utah, Michael was going a little nutsy. He took off in a huffy, after trying to steal the SPOT device and call for help. I told Bob to chase after him, and Diana and I patched up the bike as best we could. We duct-taped a wooden splint to the break, and I rode it out just like I am in the photo on the right. Luckily, we made it back to the TA soon enough that nobody really got suspicious. Michael realized on the way down that if we had wanted to kill him, we would have done it in his sleep. The house of cards fell from there, and he was fine by the time I saw him in the T.A. This is the incident that forced my hand to getting a dedicated racing bike. I can't have bikes failing during races! It's bad enough for them to fail when I can just call my room-mate to come bail me out, but in a race you ride it, walk it, or you DNF. I'd rather walk a long, long ways than drop out of a race. That's what makes Adventure Racing interesting!

Ibuprofen: for low-level inflammation control during long-term endurance bouts that are hard on joints (running, hiking, strenuous biking). We call it "Vitamin-I" because we take them like vitamins during races and long training days. It's really important to keep swelling down during long exercise, because inflammation changes the biomechanics of your knees, ankles and hips. Your body is trying to heal itself, but you're not done with it yet! This process makes injury far more likely. So, take plenty of ibuprofen for long high-intensity exercise.

Naproxen Sodium (Aleve): this stuff is ibuprofen's bigger brother. Take a few for when you do injure yourself, it'll help you make it home without further injury.

Hammer Endurolytes: these electrolyte tabs help to restore normal electrolyte balance. Take these for when you or a friend feel like cramping is coming on. They also help you stay hydrated in the heat (but you need water for that too!).

Duct Tape: Gotta have a few feet of this stuff. This helps put stuff back together and also prevents blisters. Most recently I used some of this to tape my busted bicycle frame back together.

Super Glue: Take a "single-use" tube of this stuff, I've used it to keep stuff from falling apart on my bike. You can also use it for drastic wound closure if you know what you're doing.

Putting it all together: get a tube of Nuun or U, use it up, and take the empty tube and fill it with the pills & super glue. Wrap the outside of the tube with your duct tape to mark it as a medical kit and store your tape. Bring it with you wherever you go!

I'll get your emails, don't worry! I'll respond hopefully around, maybe a bit before August 27th.

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