Best Kebab in Geneve?

On our third night in Geneve, I, together with a few colleagues searched for a restaurant in the city that is not Italian. Swiss cuisine is like Dutch cuisine, they are not famous for it, except for the fondue of course which is best eaten after skiing. Because of this, the Swiss tend to embrace their neighbour’s gastronomic abilities, surprisingly not from the French but from the Italians.

Geneva in my opinion is flooded with Italian restaurants and I am not exaggerating when I say flooded, because literally, in every corner, there is a restaurant that is serving Italian cuisine or related to Italian.

We have had enough of Italian, and this time we were looking for something different. While walking on Rue de la Servette, we saw this Doner Kebab place called ‘Saveurs D’Orient’ located right across Lyon metro stop.

It’s actually a very humble place, more like a cafeteria and they do not even accept credit cards, just cash. Cheap as well and since we were so hungry from searching on foot for a restaurant other than Italian, we settled for this homey kebab place—easy, fast and a bonus point, it smelled good.

When the kebabs arrived my mouth was watering looking at the crunchy meat. I don’t like to eat meat much but when they are thin, crunchy and well done, I can compromise.

The verdict? 5 stars! I’ve never had kebab this so good! My male colleagues ordered a second round even. This is definitely a runner-up to the best shawarma I had in Wadi Mousa, Jordan. We were told by the locals that the place is one of the best in Geneve.

Here is moi during the day having a ciggy break before we had the kebab at night. Foto taken by a colleague via iPhone. I am a social smoker. I do not buy cigarette packs though. I just leech one or two when the company is right.

Still Climbing

So as many of you might have noticed our updates have been kind of few and far between lately. We've had some pretty hard times this summer and this site has felt the effects of tired rangers. We as a group definitely want to extend our thanks to everyone that has supported our program and what we do here at Rainier throughout this summer. Your positive support is greatly appreciated!



As we enter the backside of August, a time when climbers start to shy away from Rainier for many reasons, we just want to say that Rangers are still up there climbing, staffing high camps, training (still) with some new and very exciting rescue techniques and pretty much around to serve you for a while still. The standard routes are holding up great right now, with the DC staying as direct as it can for late August and the Emmons holding solid all the way up the Winthrop. Many of the non standard routes such as Mowich Face and Edmunds Headwall, to name a couple, seem to be in really good shape up high still, access over the bergschrunds seem to be the major cruxes. The weather looks good for a late summer adventure, so come on out and get some!

Even More Washington DC

Assateague Island :: Adieu

It was with some degree of sadness that I bid farewell to Assateague on Saturday morning (October 24th). It had been so peaceful and quiet the previous four days but when Friday evening arrived so did more people. The campground loop where I was staying, which had been nearly vacant, was now filled with weekend visitors. The spell was broken, it was time to go. Besides, rain was in the forecast for the next few days!

The golden glow of the sunset over the marsh. My last night at Assateague.

Not as colorful as the morning's sunrise had been, but quite lovely. Indeed.

A critical look at crampon fit and design (repost)

I wrote thisAprilof . With the current thread on "your crampon fit" I think it worth revisiting for anyone that hasn't seen it.



Jan



In the past8 months we have seen the situation get worse not better imo. Scarpa delivered both the Phantom Ultra and the Phantom 6000, the late summer and fall of . Exceptional boots no questionbut with some of the lowest profile soles in mtn boot history. The Phantom Guide is not far behind them.Scarpawasn't the only ones off the charts on innovative boot design last year.



Next week is the Winter OR Show. Products displayed there will first be delivered in the fall and winter of . It will be interesting to see what is new this year. At the moment the only company I know working on the issue is Black Diamond who has a new bail (and a new mono point crampon!)in the works.























April



There are many different crampon manufactures. I am not so much interested in manufacturer or style of crampon as I am in the actual boot to crampon interface, in other words the "fit" of the crampon.



If you have ever lost a crampon on technical ground you know the surprise and general helplessness that goes right along with it. That is if you live through the experience.



I've only done it once. For the sake of documentation I was attempting to show a novice climber what not to do and some how literally kicked my right crampon off. As I watched it tumble down the waterfall I too started to topple over and slide.



The only thing that caught me was the dumb luck of catching my tool's pick on his buried pick as I went buy. Thankfully his placement held and I didn't knock him off as well. Other wise? It would have been a 500'+ foot tumble and most likely death, certainly serious injury.



Humbling and just as sobering. I had soloed some difficult terrain in those same boots and crampons. To this day I am not sure if my set up was bad or just my adjustments on the straps.



I was damn lucky and it cooled my jets for soloing (or just climbing) ice for awhile.



Either way it is not something I ever want to repeat.





Not everyone will recognize the crampons in the picture. But in 1980 they were one of the models that were putting up the first of the WI6 routes. They were a rigid model by SMC. Chouinard's rigid design while revolutionary always had a durability/reliability issue. The earliest clip on Salewa/Chouinards were the crampon of choice for many of us who disdained the weight of Lowe's Footfang. Foot Fangs were a quick glimpse into the future of crampon and not all of it was good news imo.



Back then we used Beck neoprene coated nylon straps (also sold by Chouinard) to hold the crampons on. Clip on crampon bindings were still new to climbing. While that turned out to be a great idea 10 years years later. (mid 1980s) I had seen two different brands of a single crampon with the early clip on binding still attached before we hit the first ice field on the Eiger in '78. Crampons sitting in the rumble mid way up a big north face gives one a moment to pause and consider the consequences of that gear choice.



Part of the fit process on the older crampons (not Foot Fangs however) was to adjust the crampon to the sole pattern of the boot. And most importantly it seemed to me was to make the fit tight enough that you were unlikely to loose a crampon if you broke a strap or a crampon post.



The more rigid the crampon and boot interface the better the combination will climb. Actually let me go farther in that comment, the more rigid the boot sole and the more rigid the crampon the better the combination will climb on pure ice given a solid interface between the boot and crampon.



Looking at currently available equipment with 7 pairs of La Sportive boots (Spantik, Baruntse, Batura, Nepal Evo, Trango Extreme Evo, Trango Ice Evo and the Nepal Evo GTX all size 45) and 4 different brands of crampons ( Camp, Black Diamond, Petzl and Grivel and 7 models) ) it is interesting the observations you can make on crampon fit and how the difference in boot construction even between models in the same brand affect that fit.













































With the popularity of mixed climbing I am actually shocked at the sloppy interface between boot and crampons across the board. I don't claim to be a "M" climber but I understand how to hook a tool on rock and what it takes to climb at Hafner or on hard alpine mixed.



If you weigh in at 125 and have a size 7 foot not a lot is going to ruffle your gear if it is fit right. Hit 200# and have a size 12 foot and you can easily do things to a crampon that a 125# M12 climber has yet to dream of. An example is a front bail that turns into a shock absorber and can literally bounce off the lip of a boot. That might get anyone a little cranky. Add to a bad design, as a way to fix, the other bad design...with bail "laces" and you go from bad to worse.



I replace the Grivel "round" bails with something else and simply cut the additional retaining straps off the front bail of the BDs.



On the mixed terrain pictured below I noticed more than once I was climbing on the "ring" of a Grivel front bail. Not a comforting feeling. Just as bad I think is the large diameter wire and over size bails that BD uses. Bails hitting rock before your crampons do is a bad thing. Yes most every boot will fit BD crampons but precise they aren't. Of the three big manufactures only Petzl seems to have the front bails fit squared away. But then Petzl has the only front bails I know of that break. So may be "squared away" is a not really the right word. Crampons need to stay on the boot. Black Diamond has never had a breakage problem. I'll take reliability first, thank you! Everything is a trade off. And that is just a quick look at the front bails!



DT photo credit to DanielH and DaveB.







To be fair the crampon manufactures are hamstrung when it comes to boot fit. What is really needed is a DIN norm for rigid soled climbing boots. Then every crampon manufacturer would know exactly what they have to design to/with. After all the hard-goods guys are only half the real product on ice/mixed. You have to clamp a crampon to a boot sole to make a usable tool. I have 7 pairs of boots, all the same size and from differentmanufactures. None of them fit the crampons I own exactly the same. Imagine the nightmare the crampons manufacturers go through every season as the boot technology and sole profiles change. Is it no wonder they build on the conservative side?



I'll repeat myself. We need a rigid sole mountain boot DIN norm.



I'll let you decide what is a good front bail/crampon fit for your style of climbing and what is not. My answer was to add Petzl bails to my BD crampons for a better fit and trust in the Petzl spiel that their bails are now reliable. It is a trim set up that fits all my boots well and drops a few oz. in the process.

















There is nothing easy. cheap or guaranteed in all of this. I understand that. But I also get to point out the bad designs and ask that it be done better. More of us should! Speak up!



















These are just shots of the front bails. While some front bails might not be the best set up, we should also be looking at the bottom of the crampons. To be specific just what the crampon covers on the bottom of the boot.



















Most of us don't want to be climbing in "fruit boots" with no heel piece and only front pointing. It is a good direction for design to get lighter gear as long as we don't forget its real use. As important as the attachment system is and how much clearance the bails have from the boot, the real reason we use crampons is to "stick" us to ice and snow. How many points you have going down is even more important as those going forward if you want to climb with the least amount of effort on difficult terrain.















To my way of thinking the more down points the better. I'd rather have the weight and additional of traction that is the end result of skipping down points in a design. To lose weight, crampons have also lost "sole". By that I mean the crampons have lost surface area on the front half of the crampon generally. Less and less of your boot is being covered by the crampon. A quick look at the old Chouinard/Salewa rigid shows a crampon that almost perfectly covers the entire sole outline of the boot. Makes climbing on the crampon precisely, a lot easier.







More importantly we use a alpine/ice climbing crampon to "cut" steps when you want to rest from a front pointing position or help clear out a chopped ledge by kicking. How the down points are positioned and how many of them are on the crampon define how you can use your crampons to accomplish "cutting". Down points facing backward tend to skate your foot off when driving the foot forward with power to "cut" and don't allow you to kick efficiently to clear a step or a ledge.



(My perspective from Jan is there are some really messed up crampon designs from all the major players. It is like the knowledge simply dissappeared as to what is really needed here)



The next selection of pictures is a grab bag of old and new crampons. Double click the photos and take a look at the difference in boot sole surface area coverage, the number and location of the down spikes and their obvious resulting traction or lack of traction.



















































































































































































The difference between lever lock heel bails is small but not without need for comment. Black Diamond and Grivel use a fairly large plastic lever. Both are comfortable on the back of a soft boot like the Trango Series from Sportiva. The Petzl lever? No so much. Painful in fact. Bad enough that I don't use the Petzl lever on anything but the heaviest boots. Nepal Evos and my dbl boots don't have an issue with the Petzl levers but I can't wear them on any of my Trango Series boots. It is just too painful.



Grivel and Black Diamond also use their retaining straps to give an extra safety feature by locking the levers in place with the added leverage and a tight strap. Not Petzl however. Hard to image a worse design for a crampon lever lock than what Petzl uses. Not only is the lever hard to get off when required but the retaining strap will"retain" the crampon only if you are extremely lucky. The "safety" strap DOES NOTretain the lever against your boot. Take a look at the last picture in the next series. The lever down is with a TIGHT safety/retaining strap in place and you can still flip the lever into a down and unlatched position. Both Grivel's and Black Diamond's heel piece will retain the lever in the correct up position until that "safety strap" is unbuckled orcut completely into. It is a simple leverage issue. Petzl missed that. Black Diamond and Grivel did not. Weak......on Petzl's part. However you can fix the Petzl rear bail to make itmore reliable. You'll have to cut the adjustment ball on the top of the lever and then thread the safety strap through the top of the flip lever. Solves the problem but why are we required to fix it?



Their is an easier answer. Thankfully both Black Diamond and Grivel heel levers and locks will fit easily on the Petzl crampons. You can order up a pair from BD's customer service for a small fee and they snap right on.





























With miles of ice climbing it is easy to look both backwards and forwards. The majority of pure ice lines were climbed with basic boots, ice tools and crampons. Some times I laugh at what we are using now and not in a good way. Most pure ice lines could be climbed with a club with a nail through it and hob nails.



What we have now for ice tools, boots and crampons makes ice climbing trivial in comparison to 30 years ago technology. The newest ice climbing gear is stellar in comparison so while I may sound like I am simply bitching, I am not. Ice tools are amazing these days. I am the perfect example of just how good they are. No question I am climbing harder ice now than I ever have because of the current hand tools. But boots and crampons have fallen behind the advances in ice tools. And in many ways boots and crampons have fallen behind some of the 30 year old technology! My 30 year old plastic boots and chromoly crampons will climb pure ice as good or better than anything available currently and they weight LESS!



Lucky for the manufactures that almost any crampon will work, as will almost any boot.



Call it a wake up call to the industry. And a invitation for you to join me in asking for better products. If nothing else take a critical look at your own gear and sort it out as required.



I'd like to see lighter weight boots and lighter weight crampons. Both with better over all traction all the while keeping the ability to front point with less effort. I'm not asking for much :)



To do that it is going to take a rethinking of basic designs and may be a critical look back to look forward.

Daydreams

Cycling through the city yesterday, I almost felt as if I was being shown one of those videos of "How Boston Could Be 5 Years from Now"... except it was real.

Passing through a stretch of the Charles River trail, it seemed that almost everyone sitting by the water had arrived there by bicycle. And the majority of the bikes looked to be personalised and well-ridden - rather than the sort of bicycle that is either a rental, or ridden once in a while on a sunny weekend. The velo-atmosphere is distinctly different from last summer.

Having crossed the BU Bridge, which is now under construction, I then looked at it from the trail and thought about the Charles River Bridge Campaign that I had mentioned in a previous post. This campaign aims to ensure that along with the scheduled repairs to the bridges, practical improvements will also be made that will make the bridges more walkable, more cyclable, and generally more enjoyable. The possibility of benches and shady promenades was mentioned.

Can the huge, dangerous bridges over the Charles really be made to resembles these lovely smaller ones? That would be utter Utopia.

And Utopia is not necessarily impossible.

At least the bicycles of Boston are hopeful.

Back to Williamsburg Outdoor World

We headed back to the Outdoor World in Williamsburg today. This is the first and only Outdoor World we have visited so far. We think it's a very nice park. There is not much activity in the park, but it makes for a very peaceful experience.

Gary is the manager of this park and he seems very on top of things and very nice. There was not a pickleball court here, and I guess Diane talked to him about putting one in. I can't imagine anyone saying no to Diane, so thanks to her there is one here now. On top of him putting in the court, Gary has also become a fellow player and will come join us if we are playing!

We like it here. We're hoping this is a sign that we will enjoy Outdoor World parks as much as Thousand Trails.

Hand Brazing a Bicycle Frame

I was visiting Bryan at Royal H Cycles yesterday and was able to get some shots of the brazing process in action. Please don't interpret this as step-by-step instructions, but here is my attempt to explain how it's done:



The frame being built here is a lugged stainless steel beauty ordered by JP. The "main triangle" (seat tube, head tube, top tube and downtube) had already been finished before my visit, and Bryan was working on attaching the seat stays - the thin parallel tubes that connect the seat tube to the dropouts.



Here are the dropouts without the seat stays.



And here is Bryan applying flux to the dropout sockets, where they will connect to the stays. "Flux" is a protective chemical mixture that is part of the brazing process, and it is applied to the joints beforehand.



The dropouts are ready for the seat stays.



The seat stays are prepared.

And attached, with more flux added.

The same is done with the seat cluster.

Here is Bryan carefully arranging everything so that it stays in place.

It is crucial that everything is aligned perfectly.

Really perfectly.

More perfectly still.

And there we go.

With more flux added for good measure.

But now, the good part. Fire!

The joint is heated with a hand-held torch, then brazed together using silver or brass (silver is shown here).

Close-up of the process.

That little wire you see is the silver; it is melted into the joint by the torch.

Same procedure for the dropouts.

The process is quite beautiful - though best observed through a camera lens that allows you to stand back while enjoying a close-up view.

I lose track of time when absorbed in something like this, but the brazing did not take long. The key is precision - having steady hands and a good eye, so as to align all the parts perfectly, heat the joint evenly and distribute the silver properly.

The dropouts post brazing. There is still a lot to do here, such as cleaning and finishing work, but this is the joint. This bicycle will have an internally geared hub, so these are technically "fork ends" rather than dropouts - but nice either way.

I hope this gives you some idea of how lugged steel frames are built, and a Thank You to Bryan for allowing me to photograph him working. If you want to learn more about the hand brazing process, a good place to start is here, as well as this nice video from MAP Cycles. There is also a Framebuilders subforum on bikeforums that is quite helpful. While I have no plans to build frames myself, I enjoy learning how it is done and seeing the process up close.