December 2006 SCREE

PCS Christmas Party

Date: December 12, 2006

Time: 7:00 pm

Where: Caliper Life Sciences cafeteria

605 Fairchild Drive

Mountain View, CA 94043

Program: Food, Fun and Pictures

Come one, come all to our annual holiday party, where we ignore the usual formalities of meetings, and indulge in a potluck dinner and just generally have a rollicking good time.

Please bring something to eat and/or drink for the potluck. You may bring anything you’d like, but since we typically have plenty of desserts and snacks, we really appreciate anyone who brings some sort of “real” food. Alcohol is permitted.

The cafeteria at Caliper has a small kitchen area with a couple of microwaves. Bring your own plates, cups, utensils and napkins. As always, reusable dinnerware is preferred over disposable stuff – let’s minimize our environmental footprint as we party.

After a brief awards ceremony we’ll have the traditional “slide” show where everyone is encouraged to bring a dozen of their favorite shots from the past year (or whenever). We’ll have both a traditional slide projector (with trays) and a digital projector. Bring your digital photos on a USB flash drive, or on a CD-ROM.

Directions:

Parking and access to the Caliper cafeteria is on the south side of the building.

From San Jose (Northbound Hwy 101):

Take the Ellis St exit and turn left, going back under the freeway. Turn left on Fairchild Drive (first street after freeway on-ramp). Go approx. ¼ mile to Caliper building on the right.

From San Francisco (Southbound Hwy 101):

Take Ellis Street exit and turn right onto Ellis Street. Take the very first left (100 ft) on Fairchild Drive. Go approx. ¼ mile to Caliper building on the right.

From Hwy 85 (Northbound):

Take the Moffett Blvd. exit and turn right onto Moffett Blvd. Follow Moffett Blvd. and take Hwy 101 southbound. Exit Ellis and follow the directions shown above.

Election Results

The highlight of the November meeting was no doubt the suspenseful election of new PCS officers. Jimmy Carter even made a surprise visit to ensure that the election was fair. The drama and nail biting suspense culminated in the results previously predicted by the pollsters:

Chair: Kelly Maas

Vice chair: Lisa Barboza

Treasurer: Toinette Hartshorne

Many thanks to the outgoing officers: Tom Driscoll, Bill Kirkpatrick, and Landa Robillard, and to Joerge Lohse for editing Scree.

Message from the Chair

Climbing has been one of my greatest passions since I moved to the south bay and joined the PCS about 18 years ago. (Wow, has it really been that long? I must be getting old!) It’s a great organization filled with fantastic people, and I’ve gotten a lot out of it. We have a super reputation of leading safe and enjoyable outings, catering both to novices and to experienced climbers.

In this coming year I look forward to working with my fellow officers and with all of you to continue our successes. I’m also eager to push forward to address the needs for more trips (at all levels of difficulty) and more trip leaders. In an effort to foster skill development, we’ll be resurrecting many of our past skills outings such as snow climbing and navigation. (Please make note of the snow camping class coming up in January.) I’m hoping that our experienced leaders will step up to assist with these important projects. Don’t be surprised when I tap you on the shoulder.

Everyone, please let me know what ideas for improving the PCS in any way.

Happy Holidays - Kelly

Scree Editor Needed

Is English your first or second language? Do you like monthly deadlines? Have you always dreamed of being a newsletter editor? Joerge Lohse has moved on to bigger and better things, so here’s your big chance.

Scree is THE gossip rag of the climbing world, and the only newsletter read by hundreds of climbers. They’d be totally lost if it didn’t appear in their inbox every month. But seriously – it’s a valuable service to the PCS climbing community. You can take the easy route by using the existing template, or unleash your creative spirit with something completely different.

A one-year stint is the norm, but that’s totally negotiable. Contact Kelly.

PCS Trips

Mt. Diablo

Peak: Mt. Diablo (3849 ft.), class 1

Dates: January 7, 2007 (Sunday)

Maps:

Leader: Kelly Maas

kellylanda@sbcglobal.net, 408-378-5311

15 miles, 4000 ft. Too much food and too little exercise recently? The holidays are over, so now it’s time to get back into shape. From Mitchell Canyon we’ll hike up the north side of Diablo to at least the two main summits. Heavy rain cancels.

For carpooling, meet at 8:00 am at the Park & Ride at 680 and Mission Blvd in Fremont, across from McDonalds. (It’s the NORTHERN of the two 680/Mission intersections.) Or meet at the Mitchell Canyon Trailhead on the north side of Mt. Diablo at 9:00 am.

Snow Camping Seminar

Class sessions: Jan 18, 23, and 25

Field session: Feb 3-4

Leaders: Chris MacIntosh, Charles Schafer, Kelly Maas, et al

cmaci@sbcglobal.net, 650-325-7841

c_g_schafer@yahoo.com

Learn to be comfortable in the snow; all day and all night! This course teaches participants the basics for camping, staying comfortable, and surviving the snow. Items discussed in the course include hypothermia, cold weather 1st aid, clothing, ski and snowshoe gear, packs, cooking, shelters (including tents, emergency shelters, and snow caves), route finding, and avalanche awareness. Participants must be familiar and comfortable with summer backpacking. In the field session, participants will apply what they have learned including constructing various snow shelters, cooking, and adapting to the environment. Participants will either snowshoe or ski into the field area. To sign-up, contact Chris MacIntosh and send $40. Cost for the course includes a book and other printed material. This class is a co-production of the Peak Climbing, Ski Touring and Backpacking sections.

More Trips

Have you noticed that the trip calendar is a bit thin? We missed having a fall/winter trip planning meeting, and now we’ll probably just wait until the spring/summer planning meeting which isn’t so far away. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to have trips!

So leaders, think up some trip ideas for the next few months and get in touch with Lisa. Non-leaders are also encouraged to come up with ideas.

Is anyone interested in Shasta or peaks in the Ventana Wilderness during the winter months?

Wilderness First Aid Course

When: May 12-13, 2007, 8 AM to 5 PM

Where:Peninsula Conservation Center, Palo Alto

Cost: $90

Coantact: Tom Morse, 650-593-5123

tripbtom@aol.com

The Loma Prieta Chapter is sponsoring a 16-hour wilderness first aid course taught by Bobbie Foster of Foster Calm. Bobbie’s class comes highly recommended by the many PCS members who have taken it. The 16-hour class is very appropriate for PCS activities, and is much better than standard first aid courses. It’s time and money well spent. Early sign-up is recommended.

Bobbie will also be teaching WFA several other weekends in March (10-11, 24-25 and 31-4/1) locally, but not sponsored by the Sierra Club. If the May class doesn't work for any of your leaders, they can sign up for one of her other classes. Information is at http://www.fostercalm.com and bobbie@fostercalm.com

Basic Wilderness First Aid

When: March 10, 2007

Where:Peninsula Conservation Center, Palo Alto

Cost: $52

Coantact: Bruce Rienzo, bruce@oatc.com

The Loma Prieta Chapter is also sponsoring an 8-hour basic wilderness first aid course taught by Steve Donelan.

Private Trips

Private trips are not insured, sponsored, or supervised by the Sierra Club. They are listed here because they may be of interest to PCS members. Private trips may be submitted directly to the editor.

For the following trip listing, please contact:

Warren Storkman, 650-493-8959, dstorkman@aol.com

·Date: January 2007

Peak: Kilimanjaro

Location: Tanzania, optional safari following

For the following trip listing, please contact:

Jeff Fisher, 408-733-1299, jeff_fisher_5252@sbcglobal.net

·Date: January/February 2007

Peak: Ojo del Salado (22,300’)

Location: South America

Elected Officials

Chair:
Kelly Maas / kellylanda@sbcglobal.net

1165 Smith Ave. Unit D, Campbell, CA 95008

408-378-5311

Vice Chair and Trip Scheduler:
Lisa Barboza / pcs-vice@att.net

4382 Moran Drive, San Jose, CA 95129

650-493-8099

Treasurer and Membership Roster (address changes):
Toinette Hartshorne / toinette@pipeline.com

650-556-9497

Publicity Committee Positions

Scree Editor:
vacant

Would you like to volunteer?

Send submissions to Kelly

PCS World Wide Web Publisher:
Rick Booth / rwbooth@comcast.net

237 San Mateo Av., Los Gatos, CA 95030

408-354-7291

Screeis the monthly journal of the Peak Climbing Section of the Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter.
Our official website is http:// lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/pcs/

Email List Info

If you are on the official email list (lomap-pcs-announce@lists.sierraclub.org) or the email list the PCS feeds (pcs-issues@climber.org), you have a free EScree subscription. For email list details, send "info lomap-pcs-announce" to "listserv@lists.sierraclub.org", or send anything to "info@climber.org". EScree subscribers should send a subscription form to the Treasurer to become voting PCS members at no charge. The Scree is on the web as both plain text and fully formatted Adobe Acrobat/PDF.

Climbing Classifications

The following trip classifications are to assist you in choosing trips for which you are qualified. No simple rating system can anticipate all possible conditions.
     Class 1: Walking on a trail.
     Class 2: Walking cross-country, using hands for balance.
     Class 3: Requires use of hands for climbing, rope may be used.
     Class 4: Requires rope belays.
     Class 5: Technical rock climbing.