My mom and my dad could not be further apart in their political views these days, and it’s a good thing they got divorced. She is a firm supporter of Obama, though realistic that he’s still just a politician, she hopes he’ll be better than the Bush crowd that simply made more money for a small top portion of business associates tied to oil and military. She doesn’t foam at the mouth when she talks about McCain and Palin - she points out reasonable things like his political views, her batty lack of experience and corrupt past history in Alaska as well as her virulently anti-abortion views when talking about why she’d never want him/her elected. 

The fact that he’s been a Bush supporter on most of the issues that caused the economic situation today (and on the Iraq war) and that Bush managed in the process of his two terms to destroy the entire US economy and potentially the economy of most of the first world countries in his continued allowance of further unbridled capitalism, completely void of meaningful regulations. Now, yes, some of these policies were started by Democrats … but certainly he only furthered their initiatives, further deregulated industries that should never have been deregulated etc.. I can’t even understand why the people in the US are not protesting on the streets in massive numbers considering what this man did to their country. By far the worst president in the history of the country. So, even if Obama is still part of the same ‘political machine’ most people who support him are realistic – we just hope he’s a kinder, gentler fuck up the ass than Bush and will try to change more things for the better of the middle class, knowing that the good of the whole country is really in the best interest of all political parties if they want the US to remain a constitutional democracy (even though he’s a millionaire).

On the other hand, to speak to my step Mother and my Dad and listen to the evil hating shit that comes out of their mouths – I am speechless. They sound like they living in a science fiction movie and speak like they are brown shirt Nazi’s in WWII, dumbly repeating the puppeted words of their masters verbatim without stopping for a moment to consider how absolutely repugnant and unrealistic the words coming out of their mouths are. The amazing propaganda machine that is the right-wing has managed to whip up such hatred of Obama – I’ve never witnessed such knee-jerk reactions that are not based in reality during a political campaign. My stepmother actually said to me that she thinks Obama will be the ‘anti-Christ’ if he’s elected and she and my Dad think it is meaningful sign that people like Louis Farrakhan call Obama ‘a Messaih’ (another stupid caricature from the opposite end of the spectrum). They both agreed with each other on this point. Right wing Christian freaks have been shouting in their ears and they believe them.

What is it about otherwise seemingly intelligent people that allows them to believe – seriously believe – such blatently obvious utter tripe ? Stepmom also thinks Palin is amazing (well this is understandable as she is strongly anti-abortion herself). She says Biden talks out of both sides of his mouth, but then she finds Palin credible despite seeing how she’s run Alaska and the scandals there about how she abused her power (how does that fit in with an ‘aw shucks’ hockey mom image) ? I just fail to understand how people become so bamboozled by propaganda that they cannot realistically watch a person speak on TV and judge them for themselves, not through the ridiculous viewpoints of people on the extreme edge of either side. Just watching Palin squirm and wriggle, unable to put together meaningful sentences when interviewed by newscasters is enough to make my skin crawl – like hearing fingernails on a chalk-board. But then Bush is the same level of idiot and many people loved him. Maybe they don’t like to vote people in with higher IQs than they themselves can comprehend would exist ?

When I pointed out to my Dad that there is truly little difference between Republicans and Democrats, and that really it’s the rich vs. the poor, he agreed. We talked about the banking scandals and how there were as many involved Republicans as Democrats who profited all these years from the de-regulation policies and how Bush controlled the country for 8 years, so how could he tell me this was Jimmy Carter’s fault or the fault of the poor.

Oh yeah, this was another nugget – the right wing now is saying that the loan programs started by Carter to help poor families get homes in the fucking 1970s caused the current bank failures !! That this Carter policy was responsible for the Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac crashes 30 years later after years of de-regulation and changes in that industry since it was first incepted (which by the way started under the evil motherfucker Ronald Reagan)!

Fuck me – like we didn’t have quite a few Republican politicians come through in that time to correct any supposed mistakes Carter made? No, of course not. But of course the original Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac loans are now mostly repaid from the era of Carter – the defaulted loans are the ones given out in the de-regulated world economy that Carter’s team certainly did not foresee, where banks bet on the mortgages with each other on the open stock market!.

All he could say in response was that McCain was a ‘rebel’ and a ‘maverick’ (I love that the real Maverick family are suing to get McCain to stop using their family name in vain!). Well he does live in McCain’s home state, so is even more full of the garbage from that end of things than most of the country. Still how can the country’s Republicans, who had power for 8 years, cling to the notion that NONE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED IS THEIR FAULT when it stares them in the face ? Are they so much part of the ‘blame anyone but me generation’ that they can’t see the forest for the trees – can’t see how greedy politicians in a 2 party system are going to fuck the poor no matter what ? That it’s all a big game – Republicans rape the country for 8 years, the Democrats come in and make love a bit while screwing around behind your back, then you get raped by Republicans again for 8 more years – that this is the cycle we’ve been in since WWII and the takeover by the military industrial complex and corporate interests ? That the sixties and all the political assassinations assured this cycle would continue (with more Republicans than Democrats of course) via threat of death if you do not tow the party line? That the US has basically LOST it’s middle class and is now exporting it to countries like India thanks to corporate interests – that there is NO SUCH THING as a ‘US Corporation’ – none of them have national pride or national interests as a concern?

But he still went back to his comfortable right-wing rhetoric in the end that explains all the pain away, never blames rich corporate heads who control the press or the politicans, and instead points the finger at Mexican immigrants, ‘evil doer’ terrorists (like Obama!!) and anything else ‘out there’ and untangible to keep them frightened and not looking too deeply to find the real truth. The propaganda masterminds are great at using fear of ‘other’ to control the population – Hitler used it and the right-wing Republican party uses it. It’s like the part of my Dad that is logical and intelligent and ‘should know better’ is just lost to this fear-based rumour mongering. And as he goes ( a college educated engineer with a Master’s degree ), so goes much of the nation.

Two outcomes to the election I can foresee.

1. Election will be stolen by the Republicans just as it was 4 years ago even though Obama leads in polls

2. Obama will win and will be assassinated by some freak all pumped up on this deadly racist, anti-Islamic pro-’American’ rhetoric put out by the right wing which has people like my step Mother believing this man is an un-American muslim terrorist (oh yeah, and he’s black!)

I hope that no matter what happens, there will be riots on the streets of the states in protest – violent ones that force people to realize that despite the bullshit that comes out of my step-Mother’s mouth – you are NOT MORE FREE IN THE USA than anywhere else on the planet. But I won’t hold my breath. Likely it will be followed by another ‘terrorist attack’ to ensure the fear stays strong and propaganda keeps hold of the hearts and minds of the US citizens.

Your freedoms are GONE folks – wake up! You are so much LESS FREE than most of Europe but your propaganda news machines make you think you have so much to be ‘thankful’ for … you, many of you, even believe that 99.9% of the free world must be wrong and that socialized medicine will be evil! Socialized medicine will never come to the USA for three reasons.

1. Insurance companies won’t let it – they stand to lose out big time

2. Doctors won’t accept reasonable salaries and the loss of their fake demi god status

3. People are fucking stupid in the USA and even though they travel to other countries, or hear people who live in and experience the health benefits n other nations talk about how good it is – they prefer to believe the scare tactic horror stories coming from items 1 and 2 – the ones who will lose lots of money in a socialized medical system

Unfortunately the only way I can see the US improving at all is via total US economic collapse (unfortunately that will take out much of Europe and is unlikely now that we have Sarko and other Euro-corporate boys running over there to try to tell the idiot how to stop the bleeding) and a complete tossing out of all the Washington insiders, and a popular revolt electing real humans to the Congress and white house. I can’t ever see that happening though – the media is corporate, the corporations are too powerful, richer than many small countries in fact …

So that is why I will never ever move back there – and why I hate politicians such as Sarkozy and anyone else with policies who try to change Europe to be more like the States — ie, to allow corporations more power here – the socialist nations of Europe need to resist the raw capitalism of the States – so far the people here are far more politically astute than the citizens in the US and so I can just hope that continues, but then again – the French elected Sarkozy last time … now proven as just another one of Bush’s butt wipers and corporate ass-kisser.

I noticed it after doing some mountaineering/climbing in the weeks after the big race, and iced it each time it seemed to act up. Basically it feels like something gets ‘stuck’ in the place where my ankle joins the top of my foot and sometimes it really hurts to step on it … but the pain is not normally there when I run … only after, and usually in walking (esp down stairs). Sometimes so bad that I collapse over that leg if I stand on it and get surprised by the pain. But sometimes if I just stop a second, turn my foot in circles, I can then walk normally. I’ve iced it each time this happens, but it keeps coming back. Even after short runs like the hour trail run I did last week, or even a short 40 minute run with the dogs, full of stops to play with them along the way. So I am basically not sure if I will last 72km, because when I closed the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges a few weeks ago and did a run of 30km with 2000m of uphill (with a heavy backpack, carrying a 100L garbage bag to collect the course markers) as my kind of ‘reminder’ long run to my body, I started to feel the ankle while running the last downhill. I am not sure it will last 72km and imagine I may end up dropping out of the Templiers.

It’s not fun to approach a race not feeling up to it. I had a similar issue in the Turin Marathon a few years ago but it was only the flu, and since it was my first road marathon, I decided to run the race with the flu. I finished in something like 4:20 which was not bad considering my health.

I think the other issue stopping it from healing is that I’ve had crap sleep most nights in September, since being told I’ll be laid off at the end of January. Between worrying about my future over and over in my brain the first week and then just random cat noises, dogs barking, animals jumping onto the bed at night etc., I feel like I have not managed much quality sleep. My husband is gone this week, so the bed is bigger and that is great – plenty of room for cats and dogs climbing up to get warm because now it is colder in the house - I seem to have managed a couple of nights of good sleep — but on the other hand, now am sick. It’s like my body saying ‘at last we can relax and let the stress affect us!’ — which is not exactly what I’d prefer.

Basically I plan to try to sleep a lot this week, and hope for the best this weekend. If nothing else it’ll be an interesting outing with my French running club to a part of the country I’ve never visited before. We are staying in shared housing in a vacation center (no hotels in that area, it’s in a very ‘small town’ part of France) so I need to get good sleep this week as likely on Saturday night I’ll be rooming with snorers or basically will not get as much rest as I’d like the night before the race. It’s been 2 months since the CCC and normally if I had not had this issue with my ankle I would have probably liked to do a double marathon weekend again as my longest training but instead feel I’ve under trained due to the injury and now wonder if I can even manage to finish it without my ankle giving in totally. I am pretty sure it’s some type of tendinitis, because it seems to be the tendon that connects the top of my foot to my ankle, and seems to hurt most after I do things that flex my toes upwards or put me on tip toes repeatedly (including climbing). Guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

This weekend I volunteered to help out at the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges. This is a 54.4km trail race (mountain race, actually), which has 3674m of positive height gain and 3624m of descent with an official time limit of 13 hours (winners were expected to complete the course in around 7 hours).

The winner this year overall was Dawa Sherpa of Nepal (now living in Switzerland), who did not disappoint the organizers after finishing in 6′ 47″. He also was 2nd place in this year’s North Face Ultra Trail, held only one month earlier. Obviously he had a very good recovery. The 2nd place finisher was well known French runner Vincent Delebarre in 7′ 18″ (the two men finished in reverse order the prior year with Delebarre winning and Sherpa coming in 2nd).

Women trail runners were not quite as well represented in the race, with no very big name women enrolling and the top woman finishing a bit slower by percentage of the winner’s time than one generally finds women finishing in trail races these days. The winner of the woman’s category in 9:35 was Sylvie Negro (prior year’s winner of the female category), and she was 58th overall. Last year, only 39 women enrolled, and this year the number increased to 73 so that is a very good increase at least in overall participation. But a somewhat disappointing turnout of top women athletes compared to the men’s representation, in my opinion.

The majority of the field indeed was made up of French runners – probably owing to two factors. First the race is only marketed in French on their website, and secondly the race is only 2 years old. This year enrollment was down compared to last year, although in the end more people started this year’s race (less than 400 started last year due to very bad weather and snow on the course). A small handful of Swiss, Italians, Brits and Americans (most of the Brits and Americans being locals anyhow) made up the rest of the field.

This year, 573 runners started in Les Houches at 5am (the course is limited to 600 runners due to passing through the nature reserve so this was a good turn out at the start line). At the end of the day, 458 runners finished the course, with the last one coming in at nearly 8pm – a good 2 hours after the official course cut off time. Only 384 runners finished within the original cut off time of 13 hours.

In miles and feet that is 33.8 miles and 12,054 feet of height gain. So it’s a bit longer than a marathon but a lot tougher in terms of climbing – not to mention that this is done on rough mountain trails. It counts for 2 points towards earning the 3 points required to enter yourself in the North Face Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc trail race (166km 9400m uphill), or it alone will gain you an entry into the North Face Ultra Trail CCC race (Courmayeur Champex Chamonix), which is a 98km race with 5600m uphill. Both races are held the same weekend at the end of August each year starting in Courmayeur and Chamonix. Both races now require pre-qualification due to their popularity.

By all accounts the start of the Aiguilles Rouges race is tough for the climbs – the majority of height gain is done within the first half of the race ( 2420 of 3674m). This made many in the race choose to continue on when reaching Plan Praz, even though they were close to the cut off time. This leaves only 1254 metres of height gain for the 2nd half of the race.

However … this is a bit deceptive if you think the last bit is a piece of cake! The 2nd half of the race has by far the more technical parts of the trails to conquer and traverses for quite some time above 2000m, making altitude a factor to deal with for many runners who were not acclimatized. Some parts of the trail are over scree piles, next to sharp drop offs or contain even mild boulder scrambling as you cross several ridges in the nature reserve of the Aiguilles Rouges. The scenery it must be said is magnificent, but the going will not be as fast as you might imagine for ‘only’ just over 1200m of height gain.

The majority of runners seemed to drop out between the Brevent and the Index … it seemed that most who made it to the Index in time went on to complete the course. I know this because myself and my partner cut off most of the numbers in between the two points.

I decided to volunteer to help the race this year as my local running club is responsible for the race, and because I did not want to enter it myself, coming only 4 weeks after the CCC race. I also have signed up for another ultra marathon at the end of October, and as I am not a running professional it seemed a bit much to have such a hard race each month. I am glad of my decision. I think that running the 30km I did should be a good training day for the upcoming Templiers, and was about enough to remind my body about long mountain days.

Volunteers on these trail races are indeed asked to do quite a lot for ‘the love of it’ and I truly always appreciated their effort on the CCC and UTMB in year’s past – but now know how much these people do give of their free time to help others complete their dream of competing in a race like this. Some people were up from 3am until the race tents were taken down at 8:30pm. Myself, I left Chamonix at 10am and ran/climbed the 600m to reach the Plan de Lachat by 11am. I stayed there until 12:45pm (official cut off time), cheering on runners and helping people who decided they’d wanted to drop out find the right path back down to the valley.

At about 13:00 my partner for the day and I left to follow the last runners to all the other points. Behind us were another couple collecting the course trail markings and rubbish. Our job was to close the course and ensure all runners were accounted for, theirs was to clean it up until the control point at the Index chair lift. Closing the course meant at times retiring runners who clearly were too far from the next check point to make it on time, and then ensuring they either felt comfortable enough to make it down themselves from where we were, or ensuring the couple behind us would see them through to the next point where they could get help. It was not a nice task to have to cut dossards but by the time we reached the runners we had to retire, they were well aware they were spent and did not object as some of the runners cut off at Plan de Lachat had done. As it turned out, the cut off time at Plan de Lachat perhaps should have been tighter – we ended up retiring all the runners who’d come past in the last 1/2 hour we’d been there before we reached La Flegere. Basically it seems allowing only 5.5 hours to get between Lachat and the end of the race was a bit tight for anyone not moving quickly anymore.

At each point of control we let the volunteers know they could close the course down once the people taking in the trail markers arrived and the last runners were accounted for. From the Flegere, we ran the rest of the course back to Chamonix doing a dual job of closing and cleaning the course – carrying bamboo pole trail markers in our backpacks and collecting ribbons tied to trees as well as garbage. The race was overall a ‘cleaner’ race than the CCC and UTMB, where I came across countless spent gel tubes, energy bar wrappers etc. as I ran (and I was in the top 1/3 of runners in that race, so imagine how bad it got towards the end!). The main ‘garbage’ we dealt with was toilet paper – disgusting but more likely left by evil tourists than the runners to be honest. We cleaned it anyhow.

Both the girl I was with and myself were trail runners, so we were able to complete the last 1/2 of the course in just under 7 hours, even with the constant stops to talk to runners, cut their numbers, help them out, speak to volunteers at tables, arrange transport for injured runners and then from the Flegere to continue to stop and speak to hurt runners, lost hikers (yes!), take down the course markers and collect garbage. Many of the last course markers were bits of plastic tape tied around tree branches in tight knots, requiring getting out a knife to take off without damaging the trees. We also came across some interesting odd garbage along the trail through the woods (giant plastic sheets, metal bars) and took those out as well. It made running ‘interesting’ carrying a 100 litre plastic sac with me.

So this took us a good deal longer than the 5.5 hours allowed to the racers to cross between these 2 points – but given all our tasks and the fact that I carried a backpack at least twice as heavy and bulky as I would have done if I were racing, I believe I could have actually finished the race in the time alloted. In several sections due to the fact that we could not pass any runners actively trying to complete the course in the alloted time meant that we went much slower than we could have gone (until the cut off time of the next point was past, in which case we could retire their numbers and move on if we were sure they could get to the next control point for help getting down w/o our assistance ) … but seeing how my legs feel today I am glad I did not enter it to race, as I think I would not recover properly before the Course des Templiers next month. Instead it was a good long training day in the mountains (11 hours total of time on feet from Chamonix to Chamonix) and at the same time I was able to help our organization put on this race. And I got in over 2000m of height gain and loss.

In future I hope the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges race stays true to its spirit – it seems the majority of runners had great respect for the mountains in this race, not leaving behind much garbage, and most of them were in general well trained (a few who dropped out had done the CCC or UTMB and simply had not recovered well enough to complete this trail). I imagine I could say ‘I wish the race was translated into English to allow more runners’ but on the other hand, I think it’s quite nice to keep the very ‘Frenchy-ness’ of the race as a local race for many in Chamonix to have ‘as their own’ – especially coming a month after the international ‘invasion’ of runners that is the UTMB weekend.

So if you know some French, are a trail runner and want to enter the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges, I encourage it – it is a shorter (compared to some I guess) but very tough trail race requiring a generally fast pace to complete on time, with lots of climbing, traverses at over 2000m of altitude, technical narrow trails, scrambling over scree and boulders, and some amazing amazing mountain views. We also saw some baby Ibex while running down from Lac Blanc and heard marmottes (but did not stop to try to spot them) whistling as we passed. If there is a year that I do not manage to get into the CCC (the race fills up very quickly each year) I will find the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges a good substitute. And I imagine if I do get into the CCC again, I will be happy to again volunteer to help close the course of the Trail des Aiguilles Rouges.

I think after the debates last week, it’s pretty obvious that McCain is not going to change a thing. Or we can say that if he dies and Sarah Palin gets into power he’ll change things but only for the worse. That woman is a scarey bitch, playing games with her bullshit hockey mommy facade over a disgustingly cruel inner character who blames victims and represses individual freedoms. I also hate anyone who supports arial gunning of wolves, and who thinks hunting is something that one could practice as a ‘sport’.  We can hope (bitterly though ’cause I never trust a politician no matter how cool they try to make themselves sound) that in this case Obama would change something.

My take on politicians is that they are all quite selfish and ego-driven beings – no one would dare run for president given what it takes to get there these days, were they not. But in general it seems that the way Democrats try to stay in power is by gathering up a large pack of commoners around them,a along with a few key wealthy do-gooders in order to get themselves into power, and then once there they of course must also work with the ultra rich and to benefit them (or they lose continued support and funding in congress), and they of course take every advantage to make themselves and their buddies rich but they mitigate this by throwing some bones to the middle class pack every once in awhile and thus generally keep the lives of more people in the US happier, and their larger power base satisfied. Whilst Republicans simply keep the giant pack at bay for years using lies and fear mongering tactics to manipulate the middle class and lower classes, growing richer and more powerful only in their tight inner circle of super rich supporters and destroying the rest of the country or whatever else stands in their way (until it gets so bad that once more they are tossed into the street by voters, or if it gets bad enough one could always hope for a real revolution again).

I don’t think any national level politician is free from greed or is truly there for the ‘common good’, but I think liberal democrats at least feel guilty about fucking people over and do a few good things here and there, which is why I prefer them to Republicans. Ideally I’d prefer socialism but whatever. I can’t imagine Americans going for that as they are so utterly brainwashed by a poor education system and Fox news (Faux News) propaganda that the very word sends them into purple-faced spittle-filled rants.

Anyhoo … I don’t donate money to politicians in general but today I donated money to Obama. I hope he makes it …

To read more about what pigs real personalities are like outside of factory murder farms you can check out this article http://www.goveg.com/f-hiddenlivespigs.asp and this one http://www.goveg.com/f-hiddenlivespigs_experts.asp .

Personally I think that people who become this cruel do so to try to forget or not realize that every day when they work at these places they are responsible for killing creatures that given half a chance they would become just as fond of as their own dogs or cats, if not more. Other people who choose to work in slaughter houses are just plain sick fucks and frankly I’d be happy if they had a steel rod shoved up THEIR asses before they were put out of their misery.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jYCps4elThCbt4fcA1bKFoxNscmwD938L5HG0 

AP Exclusive: Video shows workers abusing pigs

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — An undercover video shot at an Iowa pig farm shows workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods up into sows’ hindquarters.

On the video, obtained by The Associated Press, a supervisor tells an undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that when he gets angry or a sow won’t move, “I grab one of these rods and jam it in her (anus).”

The farm, located outside of Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minn. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its suppliers ensure humane treatment of pigs.

Hormel spokeswoman Julie Henderson Craven on Tuesday called the abuses “completely unacceptable.”

The animal rights group also planned to send the video to the sheriff in Greene County, Iowa, seeking prosecution of 18 people on animal cruelty violations. According to PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, the video shows eight people directly abusing animals.

“Abuse on factory farms is the absolute norm, not the exception, and anyone eating factory-farmed meat is paying to support it,” Friedrich said.

After getting a whistleblower complaint from someone inside the farm, PETA sent two undercover investigators to get hired at the farm and document its practices — one from June 10 to Sept. 8, and the other from July 23 to Sept. 11.

At one point on the video, an employee shouts to an investigator, “Hurt ‘em! There’s nobody works for PETA out here. You know who PETA is?”

The undercover PETA investigator replies that he’s heard of the group.

“I hate them. These (expletives) deserve to be hurt. Hurt, I say!,” the employee yells as he hits a sow with a metal rod. “Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! … Take out your frustrations on ‘em.” He encourages the investigator to pretend that one of the pigs scared off a voluptuous and willing 17- or 18-year-old girl, and then beat the pig for it.

Records at the Greene County Assessor’s Office show the property was owned by Natural Pork Production II LLP of Iowa until Aug. 18, and then was transferred to MowMar LLP of Fairmont, Minn.

Lynn Becker, an owner of MowMar, called the abuses on the video “completely intolerable, reprehensible. We condemn these types of acts. If any animals were abused in the brief time we’ve owned the farm, if we still employ these people, any attempt will made to investigate and initiate corrective action immediately.”

Becker said his company provided animal welfare training to the staff when it took over the farm.

Natural Pork Production II referred questions to AMVC Management Services, which managed the farm under its ownership. Mark Jones, AMVC’s network manager, said the video showed “unacceptable practices” and that his company is working with the new ownership to investigate.

Craven, the Hormel spokeswoman, said the farm became a Hormel supplier only after the change in ownership, and that MowMar “shares our commitment to animal welfare and humane handling.”

Craven said it was her understanding that the abuses took place before the change in ownership. But PETA’s Friedrich said the abuses continued, and that the new manager abused animals by shocking and kicking pigs.

Dr. Jennifer Greiner, a veterinarian and director of science and technology at the National Pork Producers Council, said the industry condemns “willful abuse” of pigs and that the video depicts acts that are not acceptable.

“Our industry is committed to handling pigs humanely,” she said. “My industry is full of good people.”

At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren’t healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.

Temple Grandin, a leading animal welfare expert who serves as a consultant to the livestock industry, said that while those are standard industry practices, the treatment of the sows on the video was far from it.

“This is atrocious animal abuse,” Grandin said after PETA sent her the video. But she disagreed with PETA’s contention that it was widespread in the industry.

“I’ve been on many good farms, and the pigs are handled gently,” she said. “This was blatant, deliberate animal cruelty. These people are sick. They need to be prosecuted. There are certain people that enjoy hurting animals and they should not be working with them — period.”

BUT still – WTF is it with France and Switzerland still being so god damned sexist about incredibly short races like the distance of 10km where it is an olympic event for women ?! Or why do you never see ANY women bike clubs rolling down the street (tons of men’s clubs with them all dressed up in spandex, dicks plainly visible … wouldn’t chicks want to show off their tits and muscles in the same way ?) What’s up with this ?

The NUMBER of times I have come across foot races where ONLY MEN can sign up for the 10km distance, and women must sign up for  a shorter 7.5 or 5km races on the same day is DISGUSTING. I find this constantly – I find a 10km race in a nearby town, go to the site to sign up and find out I CANNOT. I must sign up for the pink girly race instead if I want to race that day (I don’t – I simply will not support these types of races!).

Even in the local Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper a few days ago in the run-up to the Annecy 10km (which does have women and men in the same distance) had an article that was chock-o-block full of sexist commentary such as saying how a 10km race is so very difficult and that it calls for a ‘strong male’ with a big heart and muscular legs (do these guys even watch these races, or are they just gay men drooling over imaginary male runners who write these articles??? – most of the guys in these races looked like scrawny whippets to me compared to muscular ultra trailers I ran with last week) and it went on to speak about how the ‘weaker female sex’ made such a GOOD showing this year by enrolling close to 200 chicks in a race of 800 people. WTF ???

The girl who won the women’s catagory in this race beat most of those ‘strong men’ coming in 52nd place scratch in 36 minutes. The first year of the CCC (then 86km) a woman won the ENTIRE race scratch beating every man in the race by a large gap. What makes them think this is so ‘weak’ when MOST of the men who enter any given foot race end up getting BEATEN by a WOMAN (even though by percentage we are a FRACTION of the total racers) and that the extra 2.5km is so ’difficult’ for women to run that they have to hold a special 7.5km race ‘just for us’  ?

Just shut up and get to work worshipping my pussy, French boy is all I want to say … get on down there and stay there!

OK that would not have been possible the first year I did my first ultra marathon … I remember that year it took me a couple of weeks to recover. But also then I did not know about active recovery (ie using biking to recover for example – I had been told to do a jog the day after the race, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that as I was in such pain etc.) and I also didn’t know about the cold/hot water thing, where after a race you basically ice your legs and hips in cold water, then hot then cold, then hot etc. finishing with hot, to basically flush toxins out of your muscles more quickly. I only learned that in the 2nd year. But … now that I do know about that and now that I can recover quicker and continue to make plans to do things immediately after the race (even though for example the first climb 3 days after had some painful moments!) it is definitely a much better way to get through the ugly first few days after your ultra where your legs are puffy with toxins and still have that odd ache from the accumulated fluids.

I signed up for a 10km race on Wed last week which ran yesterday in a town called Annecy an hour and a half from here. People in my running group thought I was a bit nuts to sign up for another race so soon after doing an ultra, but in the end it was really good for me and for the recovery and I think my continued training for the next race at end of October. I didn’t want my body to feel like after the CCC the exercise season was over, since I will have to go 72km again in about 7 weeks.

Rather than feeling tired and worn out as I feared during the race, I ended up with a personal best time in the 10km! Well, at least personal best since I took up running again about 4 years ago when a good time for me was about an hour. (I don’t remember all my past 10k times from when I was younger but I think I did not even sign up for more than 5k races when I lived in Chicago - though I am not 100% sure). Now I am very close to running 7.5 minute miles consistently again over these shorter distances (7.6 minute average for this race, but in fact at the 5km mark I had been running at a 7.4 pace … I slowed over the course unfortunately). This was the pace I remember I used to run 5km when I was in my 20s working as a sexy mean dominatrix …. 

I think a huge chunk of my improvement is due to my weight loss earlier in the season. I just found an interesting calculator on a running website that actually shows how many minutes you save over distance by dropping weight : http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/weighteffect.php . And this seems to show that if I do manage to get down to my target weight, I could cut 2 minutes further off my 10km time. Not a bad motivator … 2 minutes faster in this race would have moved me from up 7 places in my age group.

So I highly recommend running an ultramarathon of 98km with 5500m of uphill and downhill at altitude the week before your 10km race if you are going for a personal best. Doing that will make the 10km seem like a piece of piss, believe me.

Secondly you will be so used to running through the pain that when you do a faster pace and find yourself breathing hard, you can say to yourself, ‘I only need to hang on for another x minutes, I know I can do it’ with extreme confidence and you will get through it. Especially since it is merely a fraction of the time you needed to say this to yourself to get through the 98km race.

Thirdly your leg strength will not be the limiting issue in your 10km race. Yes I started the 10km still having a downhill quad sore in each leg, and one ankle wondering about downhills … but since the race was basically flat (they claimed it was a rolling course but I challenge them to tell me where the up and downhill was – after all the hills I did last week it was again, unnoticeable to me) these muscles were not an issue.

I did eat 2 Power gels before starting the race, knowing that likely my reserve of carbs was not built up yet and that my muscles might need the immediate fuel but in some ways I think it was simply a bit of paranoia on my part. Also I’d gotten up at 5:30am for breakfast (a good couple hours earlier than normal) so knew that would be wearing off after the drive in with friends. The start was at 9:15. The weather cooperated as well -cool and cloudy so no pounding sun to deal with. I thought I’d maybe feel the ankle but it did not bother me one iota. In fact, during the whole run my legs felt nothing but really strong which gave me a sense of security allowing me to push the whole breathing thing.

The only limiting factor I found that I had this short race was my own V02 max, and how fast would I be able to breathe in a rhythm rather than raggedly while making my legs turn over faster than I was used to. The altitude training had helped too … this race was 500m lower than my home town and 1500m lower than a lot of the race that I did last week. So I started out at a pace that seemed a bit fast but on the other hand, didn’t seem to put me into an anaerobic state where I would hit threshold. Another benefit of running for 22 hours is you get to know your running body pretty well in these kinds of ways. So I was able to find the exact ‘edge’ that I am at right now where I knew how much to push the breathing without getting into a bonk state. I started out with a 2 steps, breathe once pace and I think I finished the last 2km on a single step single breathe rhythm. 

Also, finding hotties to follow is another great inspiration. After about km 4 or 5, I found a very cute French chick running in front of me, with a great ass and basically followed her slim sexy bouncing bum the rest of the way since she was running slightly faster than I normally would have thought to run myself. I hoped to have a sprint left at the end to try to get even closer to her bum, but sadly only had a small one left (I suppose this is another good sign in that I was really running at the edge of what I could sustain over that distance) for the last 400m or so (which finished inside a real track and field stadium).

After I stopped at the end, I felt briefly like puking but that passed in about 10 seconds, and then my recovery was so fast it was not even funny. Another great benefit of training for ultras is your recovery time after less than an hour of running is a walk in the park, even when you push it. I was neither thirsty nor hungry after the 10km. I looked at the drinks stand at the 5km mark and thought it ridiculous and passed at least 2-3 people who’d been ahead of me running at a good pace who broke their whole pace to stop and choke down a cup of water. Another great benefit of having run a mountain ultra done in ‘semi autonomy’.

As we walked to lunch I did develop an appetite. However, it was more of an appetite for the cute men walking all over town wondering which ones of them were available for a shag or not …. I am seriously in sexual deficeit at the moment and need an outlet … ! The more I lose weight the more it seems that I to want to shag …

I had to get something to replace the Asolo light summer hiking boots which I completely wore out on the Tour des Combins a few weeks ago – they are a few years old and hands down were the most comfortable pair of hiking boots I’d ever had but I wore off the heels and the Gore tex leaks like a sieve – absolutely water attractors now, not at all water proof anymore. I may still try to get those re-soled to hike when it’s dry out as they are great for comfort but not climbing. I decided to get a hybrid boot and replace two boots at once. My previous mountaineering boots never fit me properly – they were purchased years ago because they were on sale and I had at least 2 inches in front of my toes making them absolutely impossible to use for climbing, but they were 100% crampon compatible. The new ones take a balin at the back, but a strap at the front. Luckily Black Diamond makes Sabretooth crampons for the hybrid boots so the combo of the Garamont boot and the Sabretooth crampon should make them pretty much ‘do everything’ boots for all I care to do around Chamonix; likely they’ll even go for Mt Blanc as long as I have gaiters and it’s not too far below zero when I do it.

For next year it looks like for the first time you will need qualifying points to even enter the CCC race again … the previous 3 years you did not need to qualify to enter that race, only the UTMB. I guess the high drop out rate this year (plus number of people who wanted to do the race but could not) convinced the organizers to set up a new system of pre-qualification for all the races. I qualify to do whatever I like – CCC or UTMB since I did the CCC for the past 2 years and always have finished, and on top of that for extra measure my Course des Templiers (assuming I finish it) will put me up to the points required in just 2008 alone (to do the big UTMB). I don’t think I want to do the UTMB however … I just don’t think I have the time commitment to put into training for a race of that length. I know I can do 98km and 5600m + on 2 days a week of running (and do OK) but I do know that I cannot do 166km on that kind of training regime. Considering that I like rock climbing and hiking equally to running, I can’t imagine giving those up to simply train only to run. But I am glad they are putting in a points system for both races. I have to wonder how some people trained. There are guys posting to the forum on the UTMB site saying they trained 5 days a week, with a 6 hour endurance run each week and DNF’d due to the heat. I find that ‘encroyable’ and basically do not believe it.

When you train for a long race like that, just ‘running’ is simply not enough. As someone pointed out if you run 21km 5 times a week and think it is preparing you for a long endurance race, all you will end up being is a good 21km runner. You MUST train up to at least 1/2 the distance that your race will be, at least one time, at most 1 month before the event, then taper. By this I mean, if you are doing a 98km race you must run at least 50km in one day about a month before the race, even if it is very slowly and takes much longer than you expect your race pace to be. You simply must run that type of distance. If you do not, your body will not be prepared for the ‘time on feet’ required to complete the race. Some of the best things to do in this regard are things such as long mountain days – for example 10 hour days on the feet scrambling/climbing or hiking – this type of endurance to ‘keep going physically even when hungry/tired etc.’ on your feet is really important when doing endurance racing. Writers more expert than I estimate you can about double your distance each long endurance run if you allow sufficient recovery times between the longest runs. The time in between might be 2-3 weeks btw. This is OK for this type of running! Overtraining by running uselessly for 5 days a week at shorter distances gets you nothing but trained for shorter distances. If your race is going to take more than daylight to complete you must also train to run at night. So many runners seem to not do this and then be surprised. I ended up replacing my lighting system after trying to run 21km in my mountaineering headlamp when I realized that to run faster, I needed a wider beam so I could see where to place my feet much sooner at night. Your pace at night will slow to a crawl if you do not pay attention to this type of detail.

I started out the season running slowly for 21km uphill twice as my long runs. Then I did a 26km uphill race. A few weeks later I did 42km, and a couple of weeks later I did a weekend where I ran 2 back to back marathons in the mountains ON THE COURSE at altitude. I ran at altitude as often as I could as well. I didn’t train often, but when I trained I trained well and with purpose.  When I walked or hiked, I hiked hills and concentrated on climbing technique and climbing quickly as possible while walking … pushing myself into a hard-breathing sweat even on ‘casual hikes’. I then did a multi-day mountain tour with a heavy backpack on at altitude, speed hiking all the cols which were close to 3000m (a good 700m higher than the altitude of the race itself). I carried things like books and camera gear in my pack, knowing that building up the leg muscles this way with 7-9 hour mountain days would be good for the endurance a few weeks later. Red blood cells take about 2 weeks to get created after you go to altitude … after I did that tour I went back up high several times in the week before the race. It worked, apparently. Recently I went up the Aiguille du Midi (3800m) to do a climb at over 3400m and I didn’t even get short of breath …

I also take iron now. I used to not take supplements of iron because my blood tested in the ‘normal’ range for iron in the blood and because iron pills blocked me up — but my reserves (ferritin) level was that of an infant consistently and I read a lot of information about slow metabolism that suggested that this was a link in that slow down of the metabolic process. So now I take either Floradix (French iron/mineral/vitamin liquid plant-based supplement) or an iron-enriched spirulina capsule (neither of which constipate like ‘typical’ iron tablets do … and additionally are much more bio-available) and have been doing this for about a year now – it’s made a huge difference to my energy levels at altitude. Also I discovered I have to take magnesium while living here … if I do not, I get brain fog which mimics depression and it also causes weight gain because I tended to eat to try to compensate for the lack of clarity/tired feeling I got. I also cut out wheat completely from my diet. No pasta nights for me before races.

And I have lost since my heaviest weight before last November, a total of 8kg (nearly 18lbs, or 1 stone 4lbs) – I am now 65kg. I did this by a combination of not eating so much food at a serving, cutting out sugar and honey completely (including replacing sugar for tea/coffee with fructose), eating nearly no carbohydrates that were refined or even whole (ie no rice, pasta, bread of any type during most serious stages and only eating whole grains before long endurance runs) and reducing the amount of fruit in my diet at the points where I really wanted to lose weight. I tried for some time to lose weight (3 years?) and nearly gave up … I exercised a lot but it would not come off until this past November when I tried the South Beach concept, with the idea that potentially I had either thyroid or some type of pre-diabetic condition.

It was only when I really cut out carbohydrates and sugars entirely for 3 weeks (at a time while my husband was thankfully gone so I could have in the house only what I was allowing myself to eat and avoid temptation) that the weight started to come off. I believe I have what is referred to as ‘syndrome X’ or ‘pre-diabetic’ condition where the body simply loses the ability to properly process carbohydrates in the adrenal system and simply stores them as fat nearly immediately due to over-consumption of refined starches and sugars in our diet that over time damages and overloads the adrenal system. It was very difficult to do for the first few weeks, but once the addiction to sugar and starch had been cut, it became easy enough to keep up with the regime. I also increased protein of both vegetable and fish sources, but still will not eat anything but line caught tuna or wild salmon … farmed salmon makes me want to vomit it is so fatty. I try to snack on protein – nuts, soy yougurt or soy protien bars(supposedly too fatty to allow weight loss) rather than chips, bread, toast, fruit etc.. or fresh fruit, not dried if protein is not around.

I felt this weight loss weakened me in early season most definitely (I placed very low in the uphill 1/2 marathon in June after losing a bunch of weight) but I decided to keep losing the weight until end of July, and then to eat normally in August (I allowed back into the diet brown rice before long runs, or potatoes or sweet potatoes but NOT white rice, and I will never allow back wheat). I stopped drinking beer anywhere (hard to do at the micro-brewery but it worked) and only would drink red wine or clear alcohol such as eau de vies or vodka. Now my body seems to have figured out how to burn fat better, and I do not need as many carbs to run. I am OK having a meal with a large portion of brown rice before a big race, and a few slices of whole rye flatbread (the kind that tastes terrible unless toasted because it is flat as a board and very heavy).

I still need to lose another 3kg I reckon to be at my most fit weight, so I hope to lose this in September, and again go into a maintenance regime for October before the Templiers. I am really happy with the way my body looks again, which is a great side outcome. I am being flirted with by guys in their 20s and 30s, I get eyes following me now when I walk around in bars and it feels good. I love the look of my leg muscles now … I have not had thighs this muscular and with lack of fat since I was in my early 20s (or maybe teens??) – my legs are hard all over, not squishy. It feels great. It feels sexy. I am able to wear the clothes I arrived in Chamonix with in Y2K … which is a wonderful feeling after having fallen into a depression for a couple of years with the whole failure of the health of my husband and subsequent collapse of our relationship …

This year – one of the happiest summers for me so far in Chamonix since maybe 2003, the last time I had decent climbing partners in town. I have done more sports than in ages it seems, and feel confident again about my own abilities. Doing so many things on my own such as running solo back to back entirely self-sufficient marathons in the mountains really gives you a sense of who you are again, and a sense of confidence that only comes when you really earn it from real work, not puffed up ego or hope. I do think it would be great to have a lover again rather than just friends to do things with in the mountains. Orgasms are another great way to lose weight  Unfortunately I will never think of Louise Attaque in the same way again … got to get over that a bit.

Did the North Face Courmayeur Champex Chamonix race Friday/Saturday, and did it in style to my surprise. Felt great through the majority of the race, and finished an hour and a half faster than I thought I’d go … nothing like underestimating your own abilities to make yourself ecstatic for several days after

It was 98km and supposedly 5600m of uphill, though my watch counted 5500m of uphill. . . anyhow, what’s a hundred meters one way or the other over 98km ?

Close to 50% of the pack dropped out of the race. The weather was sunny and dry and hot – after having been cool and fall-like for the previous few weeks, it warmed up again with a vengance especially for the race. I never had muscle cramps before but started to get the sensation that my calves could sieze up at any moment while running in the heat of the day so I did not push it too greatly but on the other hand I did not relax either – kept a steady somewhat pushed but not mental pace. A few glasses of fizzy magnesium filled mineral water (yes, in the Alps we get mineral water, choice of fizzy or flat at our rest stops, thank you!) sorted me out and then when night arrived, I picked up the pace. At the big stop at Champex at 55km my legs were not feeling at all tired and I felt strong, so kept it up. I got tired about 1/2 way up the last climb and the last descent was more of a ‘death jog’ but apparently I still managed to pass people and gain some places back on the way down.

I finished in the top 10% of the women who started the race and top 30% of all racers. Note that close to half the pack dropped out. 2033 people started the race, and only 1241 finished in the alloted time limits. I was only annoyed that the mayor of Chamonix did beat me by 1 hour … so I need to try to do it even faster next year to beat his time . I do think it’s realistic for me to cut 1/2 to 1 hour off my time still if I find motivation to work harder next year or find a good training partner (I trained completely alone this year except for perhaps 4-5 sessions with one or another of the 2 clubs I belong to). I really didn’t train in an organized fashion for the race (though the training I did was quality and of the right type and timing at least; I think I didn’t train enough) and if I did that I’d place in about the top 20 women which would really jazz me.

I had friends who also placed very well (way above me) and am quite happy that everyone I personally knew that entered either of the 2 races did finish and finished well. I think people who got caught out were either top athletes who pushed it too hard in the heat or got unlucky, or the inverse – people who did not manage the heat well, didn’t eat the right foods, manage liquids or train for enough speed (considering the time barriers were shortened this year, walking the course was not really an option anymore!).

I did suffer some nausea at the end of the race – too many caffeine Power Gels I think. The EA Fit protein bars I took sat really well however, so I will use those again and I think I will limit the gels to non-caffeine ones until after night fall next time. I would love to get hold of some Cliff Shots but they are simply not available here in Europe yet and my supply ran out while ski touring this past winter … !!! We even enquired with the company if WE could distribute them … but no.

I consumed 5 Power Gel caffeine (last one was minging), several crystallized ginger cubes (great for nausea!!!), 3 EA Fit protein bars, 2.5 liters of Green Magma-ized water (over time), alternated w/plain water in my pouch at each filling station. Those were the things which I carried for myself. And at the stops I consumed Coke (I never drink it outside of races!!!), fizzy mineral water high in magnesium/calcium, tea with sugar, cheese (yeah very wierd but I have found that cheese while racing actually helps my stomach stay calm and keeps energy constant since there is damn little other vegetarian protein available), saltine type crackers, orange slices, banana slices and Maxim sports drink. I also carried about 2 handfuls of nuts/dried fruit/ and 4 spelt cookies but never felt like eating those.

In the big race, the UTMB, the drop out rate was 53%, but on the other hand the winner – Spainiard Killian Jornet – set a course record. He is already well known in the ski mountaineering world as the winner of the Pierra Menta, arguably the hardest ski mountaineering race. Dawa Sherpa, first winner of the first UTMB came in 2nd place. Unfortunately a lot of the really top runners dropped out this year – Marco Olmo, last year’s winner dropped out at Vallorcine, Scott Jurek dropped out just before Bovine due to an inflamed knee, Nikki Kimball (woman’s winner last year who absolutely rocked) also dropped out, as did Vincent Delabarre and race organizer Michel Poletti and many many other top athletes (and many normal runners as well of course … )

Next Ultra trail race I am training for … Course des Templiers October 26th …

Shoes – Salomon XT Wings (awesome – no complaints – well designed shoes)

Gaiters – Quechua (thank god someone makes these or I’d spend so much time taking off shoes and dumping out stones!!!) – they worked OK but I forgot to loosen them as my legs swelled at the end of the run and have sore outer calves to thank for it.

Tights – totally need to be replaced. I run in very non-technical crappy Reebok 3/4 tights that do not dry fast and are a bit heavy. On the books for next week is a new purchase of better running tights for racing.

Shirt – used the Salomon shirt I got in another earlier trail race – a sleevless loose very light mesh as I knew it was going to be hot.

Long shirt – used at night Helly Hanson ski underwear! Stayed warm when wet, worked like it should.

Wind/Rain breaker – Quechua trail running (orange) – cheap and perfect. Love this article from Quechua.

Sac used – 17 liter Quechua. Definitely being replaced!!! For the 3rd year I used this I have scabs on my back from being rubbed raw. First year I taped 2 spots I thought were worst and got sores outside of that area, then 2nd year didn’t tape at all (forgot about issue) and got bloody. For some reason I forgot about the problem entirely over the next year and forgot to replace the bag (mind you I train with the bag all the time on trails … it’s just that the problem really only seems to happen at over 42km and I don’t do training runs much longer than that so rather forget). This time I knew there would be a problem but I thought taping ‘properly’ this time would solve it. Now I just have a very large square line of scabs around where the tape edges were. It works great for training on shorter trail runs and doesn’t cause problems then (under 42km) but for longer stuff I need a bag that sits higher off my big butt so that my lumbars do not get rubbed raw when my ass moves it as I run, shoving the bag back and forth across my back. The default of this bag is that it is very low-sitting which feels quite comfortable stuffed full of gear, but when you start to run faster or run for longer times it really hits at an area where you (as a girl at least) are going to have some swinging action.

 Found a very high-sitting Salomon trail running bag today that seems to have all the stuff I want, and is kind of like a vest in front so you don’t lose the quick access to gels (this is why I did like the Quechua bag for the 2 ‘wing pockets’ on the front of the hip belt that easily held gels.  So I will try it out while I train for Templiers and see how it is … off to the factory near Annecy next week to get this and the tights that I want at a niiiice discount thanks to some well-placed friends. One potential default I can see in the Salomon one is rubbing the arms as I swing them on the vest thingy … hopefully October with long sleeves it won’t matter ? Will see.

Witnesses said there was no sound, no screaming. But one mountain guide shouted for people to run, and this saved some lives, as they were able to escape to the edge of the slide and have ‘only’ broken legs, vertebrae etc.. Some said they ‘swam’ in the snow to stay on top of the avalanche and survive. However, anyone who was directly under the ice itself when it fell would have died nearly instantly as this was a chunk more than the size of a 4 story building.

This happened at around 3:20am, which is the time that many parties were crossing the face of Tacul to get up the ‘Les Trois Mont Blancs’ route, which is a climbing route to Mont Blanc via Mont Blanc du Tacul, the Mont Maudit and then Mont Blanc, taking in 3 of the highest summits in Europe. The route is popular but dangerous mainly on the Tacul face, since a large part of the ascent is under a serac. It’s become worse in recent years, especially since the heat wave of 2003 and the cravasses have become larger, and serac fall more frequent. It’s considered the more technical route up the mountain compared to the Gouter route. The face of Tacul also avalanches frequently in bad weather, but the weather was good on this day. Parties always wake up at 1 or 2am to start the routes. The snow is normally frozen and firm – easier to walk on at this time of night – and normally there is less chance of avalanche or serac fall due to the warming up of the snow which happens in the afternoon – however the risk is not entirely absent as this accident so unfortunately proves.

An alternate climbing route via the Gouter hut also has significant danger, mainly from what is known as the Gouter couloir, where rockfall is sudden and has killed several climbers by knocking them off the steep face in similar random ‘unlucky’ fashion. Many people think Mont Blanc is a simple walk up, a slog, an ‘easy climb’. It is physically easy as long as you are not unlucky. However, with the thousands of people who summit each year, there are always at least a handful, often more, who die on the route. It is a mountain. It has inherent dangers.

The weather was fine and clear on the day of the accident, but the preceding week had been full of wind and snow up high, with August 15th also having a blizzard. Days had been warm, nights cold, alternating. The fact is that that the depth of the avalanche at the breakpoint was 50m, which is absolutely enormous – the avalanche was not climber triggered, but in fact was triggered by the large serac fall. This means it would have been basically next to impossible to predict this particular occurence. The serac which broke off was simply enormous, causing a 50m deep break in the snow pack – it is not yet possible to predict when a serac will fall. Seracs are parts of glaciers, and glaciers move, grow and recede constantly in change with the seasons. However they are most instable in summer when the freeze/thaw cycle is at it’s most extreme.

This is unfortunately an example of one of the inherent dangers of mountain climbing, which all climbers need to be aware of when they start out. Similar to each time you get into a car to drive somewhere – you never know what else is out there on the road heading your way and sometimes some people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This one can be chalked up to ‘bad luck’.

Disappeared and presumed dead are a guide from Tyrol in Austria and 4 German clients and a team of 3 Swiss climbers. The names have not been released as far as I have seen. Rescue workers and avalanche dogs were only able to recover some items of clothing and rucksacks.

I had just been discussing climbing Mont Blanc in September with 3 friends on the night of this accident and we were debating between the 2 main routes up. I made the stupid comment that ‘seracs rarely would go at night’ about the Trois Mont Blancs route, and mentioned that often conditions can stabilize later in the Fall if you get a bout of high pressure weather for a couple of weeks (which does in fact often happen). Very ironic that this ‘rare’ occurence happened a few hours later after I went to bed. It’s a route I’d prefer to do of the 2 main routes. Another idea we’ve had is to go up from Chamonix without the lift, and climb it the ’old fashioned way’ in 2 days without using the lifts. I guess I’ll have to see how stable the weather stays in September and October.

All day long, helicopters continued to head up the hill. Search for the victims had been suspended due to fear of further instability and avalanche and the fact that after a certain moment in time, it is simply a body search. Apparently they know the location of several bodies because some climbers were wearing avalanche beacons but they are deeply buried in a crevasse and a recovery will not be attempted. However, as it turned out many climbers who summited that day were unaware of what had happened, and tried to descend by the same route. At Tacul they came to a sudden giant 50m drop where previously had been a slope. The helicopters were being sent up to take parties off the summit of Tacul safely.

The PGHM in Chamonix is awesome and world reknowned as one of the best mountain rescue services anywhere - but what a stressful and difficult job in situations like this where really they can do nothing to help the victims, as they truly had no chance.