Чистая медь.

В связи с завершением большой серии экспериментов сегодня решил сделать что-нибудь простенькое для души. Я уже давно хотел сделать себе несколько образцов меди с чистой поверхностью. У чистой меди очень красивый цвет, тепло-розовый, без всяких признаков желтизны. Но на воздухе она быстро покрывается оксидами и т.п., поэтому единственным выходом для длительного хранения было запаивание. Порошок электролитической меди и стружки меди неизвестного качества были промыты разбавленной соляной кислотой, потом водой, потом несколько раз спиртом, высушены в ваккуме водоструйного насоса, (для очистки совести) продуты азотом и запаяны в толстостенные пирексовые ампулы. Неплохо получилось, тут поверность уже не измениться! No matter what...

Порошок меди вблизи, уже чистый и в ампуле:

"Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory, dies"

Sad news. By way of homage to the great scientist, here is a very good Lorentz applet, demonstrating chaotic behavior (sensitivity to the initial conditions).

But the butterfly lives on.

Crepuscular Fox.

Yesterday morning waking up early really paid up :-). At 6-20am I saw a fox strolling onto a lawn of own apartment complex. It stopped to eat something crunchy (I could here it from my balcony). Fortunately, I had my camera handy:Sorry for the poor quality, I took this photos with full zoom (and it was during twilight).

P.S. Crepuscular - becoming active at twilight or before sunrise.

Jug Dome.

Another day sport climbing, this time at the Jug Dome. This place hosts several long sport climbs of good grades (5.7-5.11). People on mountainproject point to longish approach, but it takes only ~15 minutes. Pretty steep, though. First we did Law School in one pitch, which gave a great opportunity for some photos at the top. Here is a hero-shot of Shamil' at the beginning of the rappel. I love pine trees and snow on the background:Such an alpine photo! And to give you a feel for the length of the route here is a view from the top:and from the bottom:In that photo I'm rappelling a line of Dick Van Dike, which we climbed next. Then we decided to climb another route. Somehow instead of doing the Black Tube, a 10b route which I really wanted to do, I got myself on Backpaddle, a 5.11a climb. Fortunately, the bolts were really tightly spaced in the crux section, so after much fighting and resting I got to the top. Shamil' did a great job catching me, since the route took some figuring out. It would be interesting to come back sometime and try to redpoint it. Moreover, we got to climb the Black Tube :-)!

Climbing at the Palace, and the Route with a View.

This Saturday (05-Apr-2008), thanks to good weather, we (Morgan, Shamil', and I), were able to open the sport climbing season. Here is Shamil' on Rappunzel, Rappunzel (10a):
and Morgan on Let down your Hair (10b):Then we jumped on the Route with a View (10b/c). Despite a considerable lure of shouting "take", I led it cleanly, which felt pretty awesome. The route is a real classic, pretty sustained, and more overhanging than it looks from the bottom. Upon making it to the anchors we decided to have a lunch at the top, so I brought guys up:Here is another shot from a different angle:Morgan did a great job of taking these photos, and then climbing with a camera and sandwiches. We spend quite a while at the top, chatting and enjoying the view. Here is a group photo:and a view:A great day in a great company!

High conquest.

After reading a fourth part of Alpinist's Inspirations, I got the "High conquest" by J.R. Ullman from the library. The books doesn't disappoint. Here is an excerpt from chapter 2, about the beginning of mountaineering in Europe:

But, in its essence, it has been a struggle not of man against man, nor even of man against the obstacles of the physical world, but of man against his own ignorance and fear.

It's an excellent book, with the right kind of spirit!