"Cupcakes and Cigarettes"

Today at Red Wing, Ron told Pete and me that his winter climbing program was "cupcakes and cigarettes." It worked well for him; I will try it next winter.

Here're some shots of Pete pulling hard on "Space Warp."

Aid Climbing On Saturday

Peter O., Marianna and I practiced some more aid climbing on Saturday morning. Lots of work cleaning on aid a traversing and overhanging route.

We're Pathetic. Really?

This article accuses modern people of being pathetic. Could it be that our ancient ancestors were more fit than we are today? I don't believe it.

From the the article: "...the hunter-gatherers of 30,000 to 150,00 years ago traveled extremely long distances while hauling all kinds of weight." Really? I can travel 500 miles in 10 hours with my car hauling multiple people and a month's worth of food. Could they do that? Doubt it. 

I'd challenge my ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors to hunt and gather with me. I'd out-hunt them when it comes to bargains; I'd out gather them when it comes to getting food. Could they hunt down a bargain airfare to Vegas in about 15 minutes on the internet? Nope. Thirty minutes at Costco, and I'm good for a couple of weeks of food. Could they do that in 30 minutes? No way. 

One part of the article I do agree with: "Cordain, for one, thinks we should eat and live like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, whose meat-heavy diets gave them more muscle mass and enhanced their athletic abilities and performance." I have a meat-heavy diet whenever I eat at McDonalds. And I eat there frequently out of respect for my ancestors.