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Originally posted by Ned Flanders


Well find them and I'll post pictures of myself in a Tinkerbell costume.

What? Again??

C. Elegans!

Lovely pictures! *sigh* Makes me home sick for Colorado! There’s nothing better than climbing through the clouds wondering if this rock is the summit or that one....

I see the ice axe, but why did your Russian friend steal Sir Edmund Hillary’s flag from Mt. Everest?

I’ll have you know that the “Gwally 2” picture is now my desktop wallpaper on my computer at work! You’ve displaced a picture of my kids!

I was once on a steaming volcano, but it had been inactive since 1953… Did you see any flowing lava?

That canyon looks a little barren..

Thanks for the great shots! If I can, I’ll try to dredge up some similar ones of the Colorado Mountains, but I’ll have to go back a few years….

P.S. Make sure Ned posts his tinkerbell photo before you reciprocate!

Thanks Gwally I'm proud you have my pic as wallpaper, although it's not a good pic artistically speaking. I'm not an all bad photographer, I have some reasonable shots from some of my expeditons although they are older than the pics I've posted here, there are from 1.5 years ago. I could post tons of pics from various mountain areas, but I'm afraid the rest of the SYM community would be bored to death

We didn't steal Hillary's flag, it's a Russian flag, that's why it looks so old

My hubby is the black spot on the path between the cliffs

No, I didn't see any lava flowing, this volcano is a stratovulcano, so unlike the Hawaiian shield vulcanos, you can't get close to them while the lava is flowing, they are too explosive. The particular vulcano I was walking in to, had a eruption 2 months before I was there, so the expolsion crater was still hot and steaming

I did witness a volcanic eruption at Iceland once, the volcano actually cracked apart. But that was when I was young and wreckless...

I'm looking forward to pics from the Colorado Mountains

I will, thanks for the advice

Those are some great pictures CE, it must have been fun

I imagine those walks took a lot of stamina?

And yes i know i said i was going to get a better picture, hasn't happened quite yet though

@Sleep: Thanks, yes both ascends took some stamina, one is actually a climb, but a fairly easy one, you don't need to be a professional alpinist to do it.

The explosion crater was a great hike, long but not so steep except on places where you had to ascend on glacier toungues, ice climbing is always strenous.

I have not forgotten you are going to post a better picture

Originally posted by C Elegans
@Sleep: Thanks, yes both ascends took some stamina, one is actually a climb, but a fairly easy one, you don't need to be a professional alpinist to do it.

Was there anything really dangerous involved in the ascents?

The explosion crater was a great hike, long but not so steep except on places where you had to ascend on glacier toungues, ice climbing is always strenous.

I don't think i would get past the campsite How much working out on average did you have to do before these hikes or were you just generally in shape when doing them?

I have not forgotten you are going to post a better picture

(especially not since i just reminded you ) My brothers camera doesn't have any film, possibly when he does you might be blessed with a better one

posted by Sleep
Was there anything really dangerous involved in the ascents?

Surprisingly as it may sound, the climb to the peak doesn't involve any particular danger other than the usual ones in mountaineering, ie you may fall, you might get hit by falling rocks, etc.

Going into the crater of a highly active stratovolcano that has recently erupted, is so dangerous it's actually stupid. It wouldn't be allowed in the "civilized" part of the word, but this was at the Kamchatka penisula, Russia. But we decided to take the risk since it was a once in a life time opportunity and it was our honeymoon (the hubby took the pic).

I don't think i would get past the campsite How much working out on average did you have to do before these hikes or were you just generally in shape when doing them?

I didn't work out at all, but since I've been exercising a lot through most of my life, at periods as much as 20h a week, I am usually fairly fit. 7-8 years ago, I actually soloed mt Cook at NZ, it's 3700 m/12300 feet. At that time, I was fit for real alpine climbing, which I'm not nowadays. I anyway still keep a fairly physically active everyday life, I walk or bike about 1h a day. I've never been so unfit as I am now though

Regarding your picture - I'll be waiting...

Originally posted by C Elegans
Surprisingly as it may sound, the climb to the peak doesn't involve any particular danger other than the usual ones in mountaineering, ie you may fall, you might get hit by falling rocks, etc.

You never know you might get a little muscle ache or something even *looks aghast* a bruised chin Sounds like an easy climb, if i recall correctly that is probably one of your easier

we decided to take the risk since it was a once in a life time opportunity and it was our honeymoon (the hubby took the pic).

So on your honeymoon you decided to do something life threatening....that's different I am sure it was a taste of things to come...?

I didn't work out at all, but since I've been exercising a lot through most of my life, at periods as much as 20h a week, I am usually fairly fit. 7-8 years ago, I actually soloed mt Cook at NZ, it's 3700 m/12300 feet. At that time, I was fit for real alpine climbing, which I'm not nowadays. I anyway still keep a fairly physically active everyday life, I walk or bike about 1h a day. I've never been so unfit as I am now though

That is what i figured That is quite amazing, i imagine you thought about taking on something like K2? How did the hubby stand it? Oh crap well i exercise about 3 minutes every day getting to my car your unfit is probably about 20 times my fitness

Regarding your picture - I'll be waiting...

*reminds CE of Sleepy and his punctuality*

posted by Sleep
You never know you might get a little muscle ache or something even *looks aghast* a bruised chin Sounds like an easy climb, if i recall correctly that is probably one of your easier

Your memory serves you right Since the hubby was with me and he has never been a climber, we decided to keep it at an easy level.

So on your honeymoon you decided to do something life threatening....that's different I am sure it was a taste of things to come...?

Yes, it may sound strange, but we were so happy and it felt like if we died, it wouldn't matter Nah, it wasn't a taste of things to come, rather the opposite. I have tried to reshape my taste for taking risks and exploring into my job instead, and it's been working very well

That is what i figured That is quite amazing, i imagine you thought about taking on something like K2? How did the hubby stand it? Oh crap well i exercise about 3 minutes every day getting to my car your unfit is probably about 20 times my fitness

When I was at the peak (sorry ) of my climbing "career" I certainly considered K2. After I damaged my knees and had to reduce my exercising amount to about half of what I did before, I decided to quit the free climbing and hard alpine climbing, so there went my dreams about K2. Instead, I went for smaller but technically challenging mountains in beautiful areas.
I never had the hubby with me on climbs, my ex was totally uninterested in all sorts of outdoors. My present husband is interested, but it would have taken him years to reach the level I was at when we met although I had quit climbing 1 year prior to our first meeting. I am now only doing hiking, hillwalking and easy climbs like the one we discussed above. This is fine for the hubby too, although he was struggling at Kamchatka

Well, 3 minutes is better than 0 minutes. And you play pool, right?

@CE speaking of photos, I have been meaning to mention to you that Dottie is very upset that he doesn't have a camera, and can't take a photo to post in here, and he was wondering if you could help him out

Originally posted by Georgi
@CE speaking of photos, I have been meaning to mention to you that Dottie is very upset that he doesn't have a camera, and can't take a photo to post in here, and he was wondering if you could help him out

Im not that upset, there is no need to exert yourself.

Originally posted by Georgi
@CE speaking of photos, I have been meaning to mention to you that Dottie is very upset that he doesn't have a camera, and can't take a photo to post in here, and he was wondering if you could help him out

But of course How strange he didn't ask me directly, maybe he was too shy The only problem is that our digital camera was recently stolen, so I only have a traditional camera, with film that is. It would be a bit slower, but I will certainly do Dottie this small favour as soon as I see him again

Originally posted by C Elegans
I will certainly do Dottie this small favour as soon as I see him again

That's very kind of you, CE. And do all of us a favour as well, I'm sure...

@Dottie really, it's no trouble

Couldn't we just photocopy Dottie's face?

Originally posted by thantor3
Couldn't we just photocopy Dottie's face?

It depends on if we can catch him first.

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
It depends on if we can catch him first.

No problem - I'm a fast runner. I'll hold him while CE presses the button on the copy mashine.

@Dottie

No need to thank me. Really.

Here's another pic with me. I'm the guy to the right leaning against the wall. Didn't make it to the final but was really satisfied with getting the bronze anyway.

Originally posted by C Elegans
Your memory serves you right Since the hubby was with me and he has never been a climber, we decided to keep it at an easy level.

How did he cope?

Originally posted by C Elegans
Yes, it may sound strange, but we were so happy and it felt like if we died, it wouldn't matter Nah, it wasn't a taste of things to come, rather the opposite. I have tried to reshape my taste for taking risks and exploring into my job instead, and it's been working very well

Oh that is so shockingly romantic, stop it CE you might stop my being cynical about everything Taking risks and brains...not a particularly good combination

Originally posted by C Elegans
When I was at the peak (sorry ) of my climbing "career" I certainly considered K2. After I damaged my knees and had to reduce my exercising amount to about half of what I did before, I decided to quit the free climbing and hard alpine climbing, so there went my dreams about K2. Instead, I went for smaller but technically challenging mountains in beautiful areas.

That is something that interested me about climbing mountains like K2, is the reason challenge or the scenery, at least with easier climbs you get the scenery and you don't have a grave fear for your life. I am sure that the fear of death also precipitates a certain adrenlin rush

I never had the hubby with me on climbs, my ex was totally uninterested in all sorts of outdoors.

Sounds like my kind of guy

My present husband is interested, but it would have taken him years to reach the level I was at when we met although I had quit climbing 1 year prior to our first meeting. I am now only doing hiking, hillwalking and easy climbs like the one we discussed above. This is fine for the hubby too, although he was struggling at Kamchatka

Best i can do is Pen-Y-Fan (Attachment) not quite a crater in Russia Congrats to Mr Elegans for even trying to keep up

Well, 3 minutes is better than 0 minutes. And you play pool, right?

I do, although that has been flagging recently, i must get back on the path to success, i will probably play tonight. Actually the most demanding thing i have done recently was play snooker, we played 3 frames and i was completely knackered, there is just so much walking around and all the stretching is surprisingly tiring. Of course i did win those three frames

I was going to post it in the other one, only i put too many images in, went back and forgot to reinsert it, so here goes

That brings back some wonderful childhood memories...we always used to take our holidays in the Brecons, and we always managed to climb Pen-y-fan and Hay Bluff if we got nowhere else Really beautiful countryside...I envy you if you get to be around there all the time What part of Wales do you actually live in?