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| Photo: Andy Knight |
Uranium is pretty interesting. As far as I understand, most of the uranium ore in the world is less than one percent enriched. For some context, in order to make a nuclear bomb, the uranium is enriched to more than ninety five percent. That does take some work, although it certainly takes much less effort than it did in the 1940's because we already have the knowledge and infrastructure to do so.
When the Manhattan Project was launched, America needed some serious uranium. Most of it was unacceptable to make a bomb with, and to make matters worse, they were racing the Nazis for it. Fascinatingly there existed one mine in the world that was naturally seventy five percent enriched, the Shinkolobwe Mine in the current day Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's fascinating to consider how one obscure mine in the Congo played a part in completely changing the world during a world war.
In a lot of ways, looking for people who like to mixed climb is like looking for that naturally enriched uranium. Despite having an incredible venture for mixed climbing in the Wasatch (Primarily Provo, but also Santaquin, Joes, Maple, the Cottonwoods, and others.), finding people who want to scratch around on rock and thin ice is hard to find. For the most part, ice climbers just "tolerate" it, or do it as a novelty. I can understand that, it's probably because fat ice climbing is so fun! Luckily some people like the scrappy climbing.
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Onsighting La Punta Blanca M6. Afterwards I decided to skip the bolts and do it on gear following in the footsteps of Robbie Colbert on the first ascent. Interestingly enough, when the bolts appeared, the name changed from English to Spanish.
Photo: Andy Knight |
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Pulling onto the free hanging dagger on Right Dagger M7.
Photo: Andy Knight |
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| Coming over the top on Right Dagger M7. |
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| Andy taking his turn on La Punta Blanca M6. |
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| Paul on The Pick of Destiny M9. |
