Grivel’s North American arm is done. One of my first axes was a Grivel, and with me being the sad little sentimental gearhead that I am, this news is unfortunate to hear. My current crampons are Grivel’s - I’ll be curious to see how difficult or possible it will be to get any kind of warranty/customer service work out of them from overseas…

As an unapologetic Patagonia fan, I was pleasantly surprised to see their newest web project pop up in my newsreader yesterday. The Tin Shed is a collection of stories, videos, photos, and whatever else they can fit in there from their friends and ambassadors out and about in the wide wild world. As far as armchair mountaineering goes, it’s a perfect fit for a Friday morning websurf session. Make sure to read Kelly Cordes’ treatise on high-altitude spooning, and get a peek into Steve House’s garage and gear stash.

Tom Bourdillon on reasons for climbing mountains:

One reason is never given openly, rather is disguised and hidden and never even allowed in suggestion, and I venture to think it is because it is really the inmost moving impulse in all true mountain-lovers, a feeling so deep and so pure and so personal as to be almost sacred - too intimate for ordinary mention. That is, the ideal joy that only mountains give - the unreasoned, uncovetous, unworldly love of them, we know not why, we care not why, only because they are what they are; because they move us in some way which nothing else does; so that some moment in a smoke-grimed railway carriage, when in the pure morning air the far-off cloud of Mont Blanc suddenly hung above the mists as we rounded the curves beyond Vallorbe, or, still fairer, from the slopes near Neuchâtel, the whole Bernese range slept dreamlike in the lake at our feet, lives in our memories above a hundred more selfish, more poignant joys; and we feel that a world that can give such rapture must be a good world, a life capable of such feeling must be worth the living.

I can’t remember where I came across these scans, but I’m just glad I did. After last year’s Mount Olympus trip I’ve been very interested in the history of that beautiful area and just thought these were a fun find. The artist’s name is August Lenox, and was primarily known for his oil paintings of the old west. He worked for Disney for some time however, and was responsible for the comic versions of many True-Live Adventures, including Beaver Valley and Bear Country, as well as the Olympic Elk. We didn’t see any elk on our trip last year, which is as good an excuse as any for going back…