Climbing with chirality.

Booting up towards the ice. Spacial awareness is important here, as well as with chirality.

****WARNING: science alert. Skip down if you aren't interested, the photos are good.*****

In organic chemistry, one of the hardest concepts to understand includes something called chirality. Now hold on, before you go look at cat videos, lets give this concept a shot. This is hard to explain in words, but is usually visualized better by look at photos. Make sure to check out the ones below. However, more or less, the concept is basically that you can have different kinds of the same molecule depending on how all of the atoms are bonded in relation to each other. A subpart of this idea is something called enantiomers (a big word, stick with me here). Enantiomers are mirror image molecules that are not superimposable; a good example of this is your hands. They are mirror images, but you cannot slide one on top of each other and make it match, your thumbs stick out on either side. Got it?

Don't get worried about the names, the idea is to see how they are mirror images. The blue atom in front and on the right
is now the blue atom in front and on the left. they all have switched positions relative to each other.
Photo: worldofbiochemistry.blogspot.com 

                             

It is hard to see how it all applies. With this photo, you can see how those specific
spacial arrangements matter for the binding sites that are so specific.
photo: http://www.kshitij-iitjee.com/

Now that we have an idea of enantiomers, we can look at biological molecules. Chirality is important in biochemistry since molecules form 3D structures in space and each enantiomer has a unique shape, even while being the same chemical. Weird right? This becomes important because each protein in your body has a specific spot that it will bind with other molecules, and it has a unique shape. So often times, only one enantiomer will work, while the other just will not fit; just like a lock and key.

Advil or ibuprofen is a cool chemical. The ibuprofen you buy comes in a 50/50 mixture of both enantiomers (mirror image molecules), and only one of the them is biologically active. What you say, I purchased the whole bottle and only half of it works!? No, what is interesting about ibuprofen, is that your body will change the inactive version into the other active version when it starts running out. Pretty rad. Cocaine on the other hand is different. When synthesized by humans (natural pure cocaine is the 100% biologically active enantiomer) it comes in a 50/50 mix just like ibuprofen.  What is interesting about cocaine however, is that your body cannot change the inactive enantiomer to another. So you do only get half the active amount.

Why is this relevant? Well, I feel like climbing is more like ibuprofen than cocaine. Climbing is such an undefined sport with countless facets, that whatever you are psyched on, we can find something for you. We can always change our "climbing enantiomer" to another we need or want.  When the ice is good, go ice climbing! When it is not (in Utah the weather likes to keep you on your toes) just go rock climbing! Different styles, different areas, different people, it is never old, if you don't want it to be.

Ice Climbing

The Donercicle in WI6 mode. One of my favorite pillars.

                               

Matt is strong, I am pretty sure it is because his tools and crampon colors match....

    

You have to love CCC falls. I only wish there was a way to
have a mixed route to the right without drilling.

                              

Rock Climbing

The worst part of having so much gear, is deciding if we should take it?

If only there was more ice on the river, we could have walked
there instead of bushwhacking.

What a beautiful place. Even with the La Sals obscured by
clouds in the background, there is an immensity to the area.

We'll do more, we'll deserve success.

A image from the first edition of Joseph Addison's play Cato.
oll.libertyfund.org 

"It's not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it."¹

George Washington was influenced by the play Cato. So much, that he even had it performed for his soldiers. He quoted the above line often and even personified it.

"If [the British generals] and others of like mind thought the war was over and that the British had won, Washington did not. Washington refused to see it that way.... Out of adversity he seemed to draw greater energy and determination. 'His Excellency George Washington,' wrote [General] Greene later, 'never appeared to so much advantage as in the hour of distress.'"²

In climbing a key to the successes I have had, has been this. You have to put in the work and be in the right place to deserve the success since we cannot command success ourselves.

Big Cottonwood Canyon

On Hidden Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon, I was wandering up above the route after climbing it looking for more and stumbled upon some ice. If you walk up the gully and take a left when it forks, you can hike up hill and find this. It is absolutely hidden by a rock bulge and its aspect until you are right at the base of it. Pretty mellow, but cool to make the route just a little longer. This is Hidden Falls, and as author of Beehive Ice, Nathan Smith says "people have been tromping around there forever". So a FA? I don't know, but it's worth doing!

Upper Pitch of Hidden Falls

WI3 M2

Sawyer Wylie and Ezra Wylie

Sunbaked and manky, but who cares? I just
didn't catch it on the right day.

It was actually a pretty steep little section.

Followed by more of the same fun!

American Fork

This was a line I had kept an eye on for a while, often falling down and reforming with the fluctuating conditions. When it formed enough for me to try, I made it a priority. I called Jackson, actually a climber I had never roped up with, and we decided to try for it enough that we deserved success on it. And we did! Who knows if this is a FA as well, but either way, I hope someone else goes and does it.

Faction Friction

WI3 M4

Sawyer Wylie and Jackson Marvell

A three bolt mixed line bolted on lead up the left side and then a transfer to the ice. The curtain could form enough to be a pure ice line I believe, but not when we were there, it was just a dagger. There could be a short 3 to 4 bolt M7 or so behind it leading to the dagger then up the ice that looks cool.

Nice, fat, and growing, I didn't mind grabbing it!

Here is a photo of it all covered in snow helping
 it form the day before we climbed it.

You can really see the position of the line relative to other
 main lines in the canyon like Habeas Corpus and White Lie.

We started the route a little lower than that curtain in the upper photos.
The curtain is actually on step two in this photo. Starting this low though, turned
it into a full 70 meter pitch! Photo by Jackson Marvell

---

1 From the Play Cato.
2 Information and a quote from one of my favorite books 1776 by David McCullough.

Subjectivity in objectivity.

The peaks of a "map" of DNA.
Found at www.newscientist.com

DNA testing and evidence and is often portrayed and thought of as THE standard to be compared too. A sort of holy grail for forensic science, it is commonly idealized as the ace in the hole piece of evidence. Those unfamiliar with it more often than not are convinced that DNA evidence is irrefutable. Wait, isn't it?

Unfortunately, it depends on your perspective. How could that be? Either your DNA matches or it doesn't, it's science. A typical DNA "reading" so to speak, consists of peaks related to repeated pieces of DNA found in specific areas called loci. Problems come in when you have DNA that is not ideal (either partial, mixed, contaminated, or old samples) as well as subjective bias from lab technicians as to which loci should be compared.

Subjective bias? Strangely enough, there are very few standards followed by labs for criminal DNA testing leaving interpretation of the results to the perspective of the technician, and the fate of the accused even varying by lab!¹

As an ice climber in Utah, I learned long ago that personal bias and abilities, expectations, pride, and subjective interpretation comes into play when talking about conditions, just like DNA analysis. Even though I love it, climbing ice here is fickle. So you try to wildly hypothesize what is in, what is climbable, and at the same time, hunt for any knowledge already out there.

I was told "man, it's too warm, you might be able to get on the staples in Provo Canyon, but that's about it." In fact, I went out onto the Great White Icicle afternoon the other day and I didn't even bother going past pitch 3. Why push it through poor ice when we still have months too go?

Still, there is climbing to be had, and we decided we would rally up to "Hell Froze Over" WI5 M5 X on Hellgate in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

My calf's are getting pumped!

How can you not love mixed climbing?

Just think, if this pitch takes more than 30 minutes, it will
count as an ARC session! We must follow the Rock Prodigy training
gospel of the Anderson Brothers!

Never let climbing get in the way of a good training session for
climbing Shad counsels during the final runout.

Back down in time for lunch! A demonstration of the perfect rope toss.
All Photo by Sawyer Wylie

---

1 Pretty wild huh? Should you be interesting in reading more on the subject, please follow the links below: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727733.500-fallible-dna-evidence-can-mean-prison-or-freedom/ http://stories.frontline.org/dna http://www.scienceandjusticejournal.com/article/S1355-0306(11)00096-7/abstract http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/10/Court-to-decide-defense-request-for-secret-DNA-computer-source-code/stories/201510100063

The billion dollar lesson.

The magical Sundial casting its long shadow.

During the 1980's the city of Moscow was a forbidding enviroment. Sure it was physically cold, but more importantly, "Stalin was convinced the World Was II victory over the Nazis demonstrated the unshakability of the Soviet state" and he "deepened the brutal, closed system he had perfected...creating the perpetual struggle against 'enemies of the people' and 'spies'." The CIA during the time was still new to the game of espionage; and with the unforgiving environment that was the capital of the USSR and the brutal KGB roaming the streets carrying out the Stalin purges, intelligence was quite literally nonexistent.

How was it then that during this time the most effective spy in American history, "The Billion Dollar Spy", came to pass? The praise goes primarily to the actual spy, Adolf Tolkachev, but a portion I believe is due to the CIA. Through persistence during their years of attempts of recruitments and operations in Moscow, they picked up on little nuances about the city. One thing they realized was that "KGB surveillance teams almost always followed a car from behind. They rarely pulled alongside. It was possible for a car carrying a CIA officer to slip around a corner or two, momentarily out of view of the KGB. In that brief interval, the CIA case officer could jump out of the car and disappear. At the same time, the Jack-in-the-Box would spring erect, a pop-up that looked, in outline, like the head and torso of the case officer who had just jumped out."¹

The Jack-in-the-Box.
credit: http://www.gizmodo.com.au

Using these skills learned from their tenure in Moscow, including the Jack-in-the-Box, officers were able to dodge their KGB tails, meet with spies, and retrieve information. Since 2009, I have spent my winters climbing in the Wasatch racking up days getting skunked, climbing ice, and generally just learning about my favorite mountains. Keeping an eye on the weather, and comparing it with past year's temperatures, and precipitation Early this month I decided that the Sundial ice, Frozen in Time, should be ready earlier that expected.
Matt and I made the approach with snow still low on the ground and managed to have a great time getting the seasonal first ascent on November 10th. Now that really isn't much to get excited about, but the idea of being first for the year makes things fun and when you are having to hunt for ice that acts like a real Jack-in-the-Box, it amplifies the fun. It is things like this that contribute to climbing being continually interesting (I think) and I only realized there was a chance that it was ready to climb from the experiences I have from my tenure as a climber here.

Starting up it is really hard to believe
that it is a full pitch length.

I always feel I need a good warm up
and refresher to moving on the ice again.

Heading home, all the while laughing at the idea
of breaking trail in waste deep powder to get here.

The mountain with the ice to it's right.
All photos: Matt Berry.

---

1 All quotes came from The Billon Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman

Can anything good come out of there?

Out on an unknown problem somewhere between Triassic
and Joes Valley. Is there anything good out there?
Photo by Ian Crookston

45. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom ^aMoses in the law, and the prophets, did ^bwrite, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

John 1:45-46


The above passage from the Bible is an interesting one. In that current age, the city of Nazareth was certainly not anything special. We can see that Nathanael was incredulous because in addition to the idea of the Savior of the world being raised in such a common place, is that the prevalent view in his day was the idea "that the Christ was to come in a royal state as seemed befitting the Son of David."¹
Philip's answer is admirably simple "come and see."

Something I find beautiful about climbing is the many places to see, experience, and learn from. There is no specific arena you must play in to be a real climber, no designated hitter to call in for you, and always a tomorrow to prepare for and try again. To my perspective, that is part of the soul of climbing. There are always places to explore, new routes to climb, and all boulder problems and routes possess some part of the machine that is climbing. We can then assume that you are capable to appreciate climbing wherever you climb, your local crag or the largest meccas. Am I trying to say that your local crags are as good as the meccas? Well that depends on what values we compare, what I am comparing are many of what I consider core values of climbing (self improvement, friendship, enjoyment, exercise, an excuse to outside, adventure, education). When I do so, I realize they can be achieved wherever you are climbing.

Nazareth aka LCC

In one of my local Nazareths (Little Cottonwood Canyon) exist beautiful slabs of granite made to climb on.

A view from on high of Little Cottonwood.

Jordan reaching for his first piece from an oasis
 that is a classic LCC xenolith.

Whew, no factor 2 falls off friction slab onto
 the belay today. Now where to go?

A view of the thumb, one of the most prominent
landmarks in the canyon, from the Gate Buttress.
Can you really complain?

Rome aka Yosemite

As far as my understanding goes, the big city in Jesus's day was Rome. Starting from the history of climbing, Yosemite is still a likeness of the mecca it once was. Little Cottonwood has smeary feet, flared cracks, and finicky pro. Yosemite on the other hand, has better versions of all three (typically).

With better version of all three, no wonder
it is a Mecca!
Photo: Zeppelin Zeerip

Sorting gear while waiting in line on
The Central Pillar of Frenzy, Middle Cathedral.
Photo: Zeppelin Zeerip

The Captain across the
valleyfrom the same line.
Photo: Zeppelin Zeerip 

Everyone afloat on the
vertical ocean of granite.
Photo: Zeppelin Zeerip

---

1 Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage^↩

Ionic bonding in the mountains.

Looking into Idaho with the shadows of the Tetons extending west
almost to Battleship Mountain, and over Schoolroom Lake and
the South Fork of Cascade Canyon.
photo: Christian Lippert

One of the basic concepts of general chemistry is that of the ionic bond. To demonstrate it in layman's terms, I will explain the general anatomy of an atom, and we will make a few generalizations about their bonding. Stick with me for the next two paragraphs for the full explanation, or just do what my mother does and skip to the the climbing below!

The basic morphology of an atom with protons
and neutrons in the center and electrons around them.
photo from www.iflscience.com 

An atom is, at its simplest, protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons. All basic elements have different numbers of each of those three components, but they all want either eight or zero electrons in their outermost layer of electrons (called valence electrons). If they have a low number of valence electrons (say one, two, or three), it is easier for them to give up those electrons rather than try to accumulate a total of eight valence electrons. On the other hand, if an atom has a higher number of valence electrons (say five, six, or seven), they want to find electrons to add until they reach a total of eight valence electrons.

Now it is easy to see a potential mutually beneficial relationship for different atoms. When an atom with two valence electrons connects with an atom with six valence electrons, the two can be donated, and they both will be happy with either eight or zero valence electrons. This complete transfer from one atom to another is in fact, a ionic bond. Each atom is happy with the arrangement since they both, despite their differences, benefit from this electron transfer.

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
photo from www.chm.bris.ac.uk

In a number of ways, this is easily compared to the situation when you are mentoring another climber. One of you has much greater experience and another is just starting out and learning. My point however is that there are mutual benefits. Benefits don't only exist for the mentored climber even though those are the most obvious like the transferred electrons. So what does exist for the mentor, and what does this have to do with the shadow of the Tetons?

Having spent time every year in the backcountry of the Tetons since I was fourteen (and I climbed my first technical route in the Tetons, the Enclosure Couloir, at seventeen) I am familiar and comfortable with the range. Usually because of this I end up visiting the range about once a year not for myself, but helping friends get their first taste of climbing in these mountains. I was lucky enough to do so again this month.

With these trips, I often times feel like can be a good reset button. Not only do I get to spend some casual time in such a beautiful place, but I also get to view it from a set of eyes who have never been there. As such, they are blown away and I end up valuing the location and my relationship with it even more.

Walking up to the Lower Saddle.
photo: Christian Lippert

Looking back down beautiful Garnet Canyon.
photo: Christian Lippert

Putting on our puffies and gloves for
the last cold and icy section of scrambling.
photo: Christian Lippert

Ezra looking towards Lake Solitude.
from the O.S. route

Thumbs up for the summit! Christian, Sawyer,
 Ezra, and Brad loving life.
photo: Christian Lippert

Inside the white wilderness.

The classic book on exploring the greater ranges.
Why have designated areas of white wilderness
when you have all of the Karakoram range?

The idea is not proprietary to Reinhold Messner, although I do like his alliteration. "White wilderness" is a concept where areas are designated for adventure. Places where there are blanks on the maps, there are no topos, no mountainproject, no beta. White wilderness is were you go to experience unknown.

Santaquin

Santaquin Canyon is a place that is really not considered for rock climbing by most in the Wasatch. This is not from a lack of climbable rock, but from the white wilderness effect. This is a canyon that was designated by the "wasatch climbing founding fathers" as an area where there would be no guide books. No topos, no nada.  As such, it is not as easy and comfy as just sport climbing up American Fork. Beta passed by, and learned, from mentorship, campfire talk, and exploration.  As such, I wouldn't want to put forth much information, but some photos shouldn't hurt.

The best way to swap stories, over a campfire.
Somewhere in the Utah desert gathering more Santaquin beta.

The gem in hiding.

Tyson warming up my
projects as usual.

L. about to start cruxing.

R. on his valiant onsight attempt.