Sunday, May 31, 2009

Famous Quotes in Mountaineer History



In January 1995 famed climber Jeff Lowe was visiting the Adirondacks teaching ice climbing.
Jeff refers to a good ice axe placement as a "portable belay".
One of his clinic padawans was The Mountaineers Chuck Bruha...
And while on thin ice with no protection during a difficult first ascent Chuck asks Jeff...

"So tell me the truth Jeff, is every stick a belay there?"

This great quote in Mountaineer history is captured in Jeff's instructional video, "Waterfall Ice".


Monday, May 25, 2009

BANDANA IN AFGHANISTAN

Local boy US Army LT Jacob Kerr (right) on patrol in Afghanistan.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

New Mountaineer Sponsored Trail Running Club


The Mountaineer has co-sponsored the recently formed "Adirondack Trail Running Club". Teamed up with other co-sponsor www.ADKTRAILRUN.com this new clubs goals are to bring trail running enthusiasts together for group runs, camaraderie at organized races, organization of trail races in the Adirondacks and good old fashion "dirty" fun.
For more information about the Adirondack Trail Running Club visit this link

Monday, May 18, 2009

11th Annual Adirondack International Mountainfest - 2007

Mountainfest 2007 brought Canadian alpine legend Barry Blanchard back to Keene Valley. If you don't know who "Bubba" is then wake up and git with it! Along with guest instructing he gave a retrospective slideshow about his life in alpinism. We also had New Hampshire hard man Freddie Wilkinson spend the weekend teaching and entertaining with a slideshow as well.

Barry and some of the Mountaineer drones

Did you take picture at 2007's
Mountainfest? If so email them to The Mountaineer and we will add them to the blog.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Chuck's Party

Chuck!

This Saturday The Mountaineer's friends and family gathered for a surprise party for longtime employee Chuck Bruha. If you don't know Chuck he is the elder salesman of the team. He is recognizable by his pepper colored hair (ie. grey), moustache, eyeglass's and arms that have a mind of there own. Chuck has been at The Mountaineer for 25 years this year! Anyone who has worked in the outdoor retail business knows that that's impressive. 

We managed to trick/lure him after work down to The Trail's Inn where many people were gathered for a big "SURPRISE!" Like with any party there was plenty eatin, drinkin, and laughin.

Gray grilling, Vinny blabbering and Pelkey doing quality control!

Vinny serving up the ribs...YUM!

Matt the human garbage disposal.

Then time came for a little "Roasting" of Chuck, stories, fan mail, and photos brought many laughs. 

Vinny, George and Shirley reminiscing about Chuck.

A good sport that Chuck is...

Chuck ready for the next 25 Years!
Congrats!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

12th Annual Adirondack International Mountainfest - 2008




The weather for Mountainfest 2008 was miserable to say the least. Warm temperatures and rain preceded the weekend and continued throughout the event. For the first time in the history of our humble festival we had to cancel clinics due to dangerous and lack of ice to teach on. The advanced clinics were all cancelled but the mountaineering, beginner and avalanche clinics were held. 

As always we were fortunate to have some great guest climbers for this weekend. International climbing legend Doug Scott traveled from England to give a amazing slideshow spanning his career in alpinism, amazing! The tales of his Ogre "epic", descending thousands of feet with 2 broken ankles were grizzly to say the least. Saturday night featured a Newfoundland slideshow for regional hotshot Joe Terravecchia. Making everyone "oohh" and "aahh" with picture after picture of remote big ice across the border in Northeast Canada

Doug Scott and company after his slideshow.

Mountaineering/Slide Climbing Clinic participants learning the ropes.

One happy Adirondack climber.

More Mountainfest pictures on NEICE.COM
Did you take picture at 2008's Mountainfest? If so email them to The Mountaineer and we will add them to the blog. 

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Next Generation of Mountain Climbers



Hello Vinny,
My name is Zach Lentz and I am 8 years old. Can you please attach this picture to the wall of fame? This was a picture from our hike of Black Dome, by Black Head mountain in the Catskills. My friend Matthew and I did not make it to the top, but we almost did. It was too icy and we did not think we would find that much ice on April 5th, so we didn't bring our crampons. We had to turn around becasue "Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory", Ed Viesturs said that in his book "No Shortcuts to the Top". My dad and I read that book, he is typing this e-mail by the way I am just telling him what to type.

Today April 19th 2009 we did a hike to the snow hole on the Taconic Crest Trail near Massachusetts. There was great views and I would recommend it. There was still snow in the snow hole. This is a fissure that I read people go speluking in if you are experienced enough. This is what it looked like.


Can't wait to come back to the store I love it. I plan to hike Algonquin and Iraquois this year, maybe big slide to. That would make 10 of the 46 high peaks for me. My biggest accomplishment was Marcy which I hiked last year. We camped at Bushnell falls lean-to number 2. That is one of the lean-to's we adopted. We adopted Bushnells falls one and two.
Hope I see you soon. You're friend Zach.