maff
@maff
sometimes I post about music I like.
Ama Dablam and Machapuchare usually get my vote for Himalayan mountains, sub-8000m weight class
per last fm, the Cure have finally been dethroned as my most-listened artist. It’s an obviously incomplete data set (missing an easy 1000+ GD listens on Relisten, Play Dead, and CD) but pretty wild to see a lifetime of listening matched by an 8 month deep dive that is still in the relative shallows
this week I climbed El Diente and completed the traverse to Mt. Wilson, one of the four great traverses on Colorado 14ers. bucket list climb I’ve been eying for years, basically had the place to myself. lived up to all the hype, definitely a step up from any individual 14er. very intense, very cool.
Agree that it doesn’t seem likely but it seems more likely than an amendment , and with Kav explicitly calling for them to do it, I’d guess they at least kick the tires
came across the picture tonight of Uncompahgre Peak at sunrise four years ago. today if you stood at the top and looked west you’d see an 8,000 acre wildfire burning near Ouray. special places.
the Dead clear this without blinking if you like them and don’t come close if you don’t; the interesting angle for them is in which individual years of their career do they clear this. I think all of 68-74 are in, 77 is a lock, 76, 78, and 79 are probable, and that’s as far as my knowledge goes
got a particularly egregious marketing email from an SEO company bragging about astroturfing reddit comments to get cited by LLMs, pointing to its success on behalf of an AI music generation platform. having a hard time thinking of a more depressing trajectory for the internet than this
Planning this year’s peakbagging trip, I was going through pics from a couple years ago from one of the climbs I bailed on that I may try again this year. This pic stands out, for both obvious and less obvious reasons that become clearer when you zoom in on the bottom right…
Krakauer has an essay in Eiger Dreams about Chamonix that gets to this—cable car rides to the crag with a stop for breakfast, climbers so used to crowds they don’t see kicking rocks on climbers below them as a problem so much as a natural occurrence. They’re just not remote like the Mtn West
In 2022, I decided to re-dedicate myself to climbing all 58 of Colorado’s 14,000’ peaks by 2030, when I would turn 40, which seemed like a reasonable deadline. Now, 14ers.com, the online bible for these mountains, is on the same timeline: 4 more years for this project.
Weather, loose rock, and getting off route are my big fears out there, in some order. So something like this knife edge (beautiful day, solid rock, definitely on-route) wasn’t nearly as bad as the confusing crumbly rock on either side. Snow mountaineering sounds like my nightmare though…
One thing that comes up a ton if you’re planning to climb Kit Carson Peak is not missing a key turn that leads away from nearby cliffs to the rest of the route. If you see this sign, you’ve uh missed the turn!
“James McMurtry plays the Continental Club twice a week every week for a $10/15 cover” increasingly feels like the last stand of old Austin. one of these days one of them will decide they can’t make it here anymore.
He’s a treasure. New album is great too. Still plays twice weekly at the Continental Club when not on the road; I try to get down there as much as I can. Keeps adding different verses to Choctaw Bingo.
Donating to the @edsbs.bsky.social Charity Bowl to support refugees. When they play this year, it will have been 5,841 days since A&M last beat Texas in football. Donating $58.41 for each offensive TD A&M has scored against Texas since then (2), for a total of $116.82 (+fees). edsbscharitybowl.com
Junie Update: last week I threw this blanket that’s usually on our bed onto this chair, and since then Junie has spent roughly 16 hours per day on it
Currently making a digital backup of this Jerry Garcia box set (Rhino 04!) the GF’s dad had in the laundry room closet
For the first time, IG has now asked me whether I’m seeing this ad too often or not. I feel like they have the data to make that assessment themselves personally. “Hey we normally show him a given ad maybe once or twice, ever, and he’s seen this one 50+ times, something is up here.”