It's raining, and Tuesday around noon or 1pm I think I'll don my raingear and gaiters and go get muddy in Griffith Park. I know it's a fairly bad thing to do erosion-wise, but there's a bit of a steep mud slide off ridge trail "c" mapped at the end of this page. I could come down it plunge-stepping into the mud, but it's better and more difficult to try to finesse it.

Alternatively, if any of my new blog readers would like to go to the San Gabriels say Wed. or Thu. to do something more difficult involving snow hiking, and perhaps even an attempt to climb Strawberry Peak from either the east side or even the west side (as described at the link), let me know. Here's the weather report.

Something I'd like to do in the next couple months is climb Mt. Hood, which would be my first experience with ice ax and crampons. Before I'd go, I'd like to get some prior ice ax experience, either with a self-belay and arrest style class or even with an ice waterfall climbing class, like this one. For timing reasons, I might end up having to hire a private guide for this class, but I don't want to pay the private guiding rate. So, if any of my new readers would like to form a group with me to get a lower rate, let me know. Either a weekend or mid-week class around the eastern Sierra area is OK.

Ice climbing pics:
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I note also that the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, much to my surprise, has formed a Mountain Biking Section. And all it took was five PDF files and probably months of politics.