Yosemite News

"Today Bracebridge is, without much doubt, the country's, if not the world's, premier Christmas dinner," or so said Wall Street Journal writer Raymond Sokolov in 2006 (WSJ, J4, 23 Dec 2006). And this year the Rotary Club of Yosemite is sponsoring a raffle where the winner gets a night at the Ahwahnee hotel and dinner for two at the Bracebridge show of your choosing.

Rickey Gates

I just found out a couple of days ago that Rickey Gates, a 29 year-old nomadic runner, shaved another couple of minutes off the Half Dome running record, completing the round trip in 2:28:18 from the water level gauge to the summit and back. Congratulations Rickey!

Erik just posted some topos for climbing on Wawona Dome.

Wawona Dome is high enough to be climbable in mid-summer and south-facing enough to be climbable in winter. And at least for now, is a quiet little local area where you are most likely to be alone. Unless publishing the topos changes that!

Get pysched for winter. I finally got it together to add mileages to the Glacier Point Ski Tour page. We have new skate skis this year (actually, they're my mom's castoffs, but she only buys the best in ski gear, so we're happy). I've only been meaning to do that for two years!

Starting to see the first flowers come out in the Valley. Of course, El Portal and Hite Cove have been excellent for a while. I haven't seen much in the Valley until yesterday. The dogwoods are starting to bloom. This morning, I took a quick walk up above the Wawona Tunnel and not too far from the tunnel, started seeing Shooting Stars, Mountain Violets and Spreading Phlox (and an Evening Grosbeak chattering away).

Not much yet, but once again it has begun!

Kristy, who used to live and work in Yosemite has moved on and has started Rocky Mountain Kid, selling outdoor clothing for kids. She's trying to make a go of it while raising Cadence. If you want to help out a genuine individual who definitely will value your business, at least think about taking a moment to compare prices between the big onlin retailers and Rocky Mountain Kid.

My friend Edie has been taking some great photos lately and, unfortunately, has had some issues with her car and at work that put her in some tough financial straights. So she's liquidating her stock of existing photos, printing up some more and taking orders.

She's selling signed, limited edition prints (20 copies) for as little as $50 for 20x24 images.

This is a chance to get some great photos of Yosemite and the Sierra very cheap and to also help Edie out of her bind.

A small rockfall yesterday afternoon, October 7, damaged an unoccuppied tent cabin in Curry Village. This morning just before 7:00am, a major rockfall let loose from high on Glacier Point straight about the new employee housing area and swept down the old Ledge Trail into Curry Village, resulting a in few minor injuries. I saw a picture that Lee took, who works in Curry and was one of the first on scene. He had a shot of a huge boulder (maybe five feet tall) that came to rest just at the edge of a cabin.

Since a handful of people have been asking if we have lost our home… No, the fire is still quite far from Yosemite (say 20-30 miles) and is not threatening El Portal either. The main impacts on the park are major power outages and lots of smoke. Most of the business places are running on generators, but most (perhaps all) residences are without power. I'm not sure if the guest rooms in the hotels are powered up or just the commons areas.

As for the smoke, it was nasty on Saturday, but hasn't been as bad since. That said, I can barely see the outline of Half Dome from the Valley floor. Supposedly, power will come back on in the Valley tonight. PG&E has already delivered a couple of giant generators which they are now trying to hook up to the substation down valley. I'm not sure how long until power comes back on in El Portal, Wawona and Yosemite West.

So Hans and Yuji got me all psyched up to get back in climbing shape and I find that the easiest way for me, as a vegetarian and lazy cook, to get protein, is from protein powders. Most experts seem to think that the best protein powders are whey protein isolate (which is different from whey protein concentrate). The Hammer Nutrition folks say that soy protein is actually better if you are in the midst of an event, but mostly want it for recovery. The problem is that most protein powders are full of sweeteners, which I find yucky (I don't care if the sweetener is healthy or not, I just don't like it!).

So here's a list of unsweetened protein powders that I've found. Most are unflavored too. Only the Solgar Whey to Go powder is flavored, but not sweetened. If you know of others, please add them in the comments. If you know of a really good deal on an unsweetened powder, please add the link in the comment. I think that links in comments will be put in as plain text, but I can edit it them after the fact and make them work right.

1. NOW Mega Pack ($76.99 for 10 pounds). This is the best deal I could find and I have it on order now. Damn, though, 10 pounds is a lot to order. That's 162 servings with 25 gms of protein in each serving (most manufacturers have servings with about 20gms of protein). Only the unflavored version is unsweetened.