“Infants and the elderly who are disabled obsess about survival,” said Sridhar. “As a nation, if we just focus on survival, the demise of our leadership is imminent. We are thrivers. Thrivers are constantly looking for new opportunities to seize and lead and be No. 1.” That is what America is about.

But we have lost focus on that. Our economy is like a car, added Sridhar, and the financial institutions are the transmission system that keeps the wheels turning and the car moving forward. Real production of goods that create absolute value and jobs, though, are the engine.

“I cannot help but ponder about how quickly we are ready to act on fixing the transmission, by pumping in almost one trillion dollars in a fortnight,” said Sridhar. “On the other hand, the engine, which is slowly dying, is not even getting an oil change or a tuneup with the same urgency, let alone a trillion dollars to get ourselves a new engine. Just imagine what a trillion-dollar investment would return to the economy, including the ‘transmission,’ if we committed at that level to green jobs and technologies.” (read the whole article)

America needs to promote productive developments such as infrastructure and technology. Where are our leaders in government?

Cody with Teton Glacier behind him.

Cody Lockhart and I climbed Teewinot, traversed the ridge between Teewinot and Owen, climbed Owen and then hiked out via Amphitheater Lake.  I’m writing this as a picture guide for similar trips because after searching the internet and guide books we still did a lot of route finding and still didn’t know what a “col” was (all routes in A Climbers Guide to the Tetons are based on cols). As one section of the Grand Traverse (teewinot, owen, grand, middle, south, nez peirce) I thought a route explanation should be available. The best sites I found were here and here and here.

I’ve drawn the route we did (see the pictures labeled “Route”). All the pictures from our trip are in the gallery below.

Times: Total 20 hours

• Car -> Teewinot Summit: 3.5 hours
  

  A typical sling on the route. Lots of webbing and one ring. Bring extra beeners!

• Teewinot -> Base of Owen: 4.5 hours (a lot of learning)
• Base of Owen -> Owen Summit: 3.5 hours
• Owen Summit -> Teton Glacier: 4 hours
• Teton Glacier -> Car: 4 hours (with 3 twisted ankles)

Gear Needed

• ice axe
• 70 meter rope
• harness
• belay device
• a small trad rack (nothing over 1″)
• slings & carabeeners (to leave on the mountain)

We left town at 315am, got to the Lupin Meadows trailhead at 350 and started up the trail for Teewinot (the tail is located on the mountain side of the parking lot in the middle). It took 2 hours to get above tree line and another 2 to scramble up the face to the summit. There is trail up most of the way until it dumps into Teewinot’s central gully. Go straight up this gully and if there is any questions in the route… go right. 500 ft from the top you’ll look up and see this.



The right peak is the summit

Go to the right of the right peak. The east ridge will take you too the summit.

Teewinot summit is the most picture-esc in the tetons. Descend the west slope of Teewinot down the first south facing couloir you come to as leaving the summit. There is one 5-9 down climb move or a twenty foot repel 100 ft from the summit. The rest of the way down to the ridge between Teewinot and Owen is a walk/scramble.



Route: Decent of Teewinot

Continue to head west on the top of the ridge until the first prong. Repel to the north side of the 3/4 column. There are slings on both sides. The second repel requires a 70 meter rope.



Route: 2 repels down first prong.

Go up and over the second prong. There are no slings and the down climb is slow. Head up to the top of the East Prong and just to the right there is a sling. This could be down climbed if necessary.



Route: 2 repels down east prong.

Now at the base of owen, head up the deep dark chute in the center of the east face. There was enough water cooming down the chute to get us wet when we climbed it.



Route: East ridge of Mt. Owen.

Continue up the snow field to the base of the east face. There are sever hundred of 5-4 to 5-6 climbing without at rope to the bottom of the east face. Start climbing up. On a 70m rope it was 2 pitches. The last 20 meters has a 5-10 move with very little protection. We didn’t check but left may be easier.

The decent is a series of 5-6 repels down the south face, back on the snow field, and down the chute.



Route: Across the morain and up to Ampatheater Lake

There is a trail down the right side of the Koven Couloir to two repels. Then down a small snow field to 2 repels to place you at the bottom of the Koven Couloir on the Teton Glacier.

Head across the galcier to the lower saddel of the morain. Make your way across the boulder field to the goat path that leads to Ampitheater Lake and down to Garenet Canyon trail. The last 1.5 miles are the worst. Think dusty, dark and sprained ankles.

GALLERY



Search terms I tried:

• teewinot owen traverse
• teewinot traverse owen
• teewinot traverse mount owen
• teewinot grand traverse owen route guide
• mt. owen teewinot east ridge
• owen teewinot traverse tetons
• traverse between teewinot and mt owen
• many other but realize it would take to long, hope this helps some one

Gannet Attempt

3 days after arriving home I left with a group of friends for a week ski trip in an attempt to summit the highest mountain in Wyoming. None of us had done any serious winter camping so it was a learning experience for all of us. Each of us brought 1 dinner and our own breakfast and lunches. Though we did not make it up Gannet we had a great time.

Ski the Skillet

Turner Alex and I left at midnight from Jackson, drove to the park, canoed across Jackson lake to the base of Mount Moran and hiked 5 hours straight up the mountain. It was a long walk but an amazing trip. The skiing was great on the center third of the mountain.

“A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live. This revolution will depend on industrial technology, capital intensive, shovel-in-the-ground, industries - and will almost certainly create the great fortunes of the the twenty-first-century.”

cap and trade vs specific regulations

A CO2 cap and trade system, not taxes or emission regulations, will reduce the greenhouse gases most efficiently. The effectiveness of these two approaches are clearly shown by comparing the 1977 clean air act to the 1990 clean act. Both acts attempted to reduce power plant sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions that had been shown to cause acid rain. The 1997 legislation stated all new power plants could not emit more than a set ceiling of S02 and that the reductions had to be accomplished by installing scrubbers in the smokestacks. This added large costs to the power plants and did not reduce the overall national emissions of S02 because older plants were largely exempt from the regulations. The 1990 clean air act imposed a maximum SO2 emission level that was 50% lower than the current levels and distributed emission permits between the existing power plants. The power plant owners were able to chose the technologies that worked the best and sell an emission credits they did not use. In 5 years US utilities cut emissions 30% more than the law required, increase electricity generation from coal 6.5% and still reduced retail electricity rates. Using a cap and trade system instead of defined regulations substitutes the bureaucratic government regulatory institutions with the efficient invisible hand of the free market.

level the playing field

Renewable energy entrepreneurs have a hard time competing in a 5 trillion dollar energy industry where oil companies spend $60 million a year in lobbying and receive $6 billion a year in subsidies. Policies that support all energy technologies evenly will give the market the best chance to determine the best solutions.

solar

In 2005 the world’s solar energy-generating capacity grew by 44 percent. If that pace can be sustained over the next few decades, by 2050 the sun could supply ten times as much energy as the earth needs. Such a growth rate might seem like wishful thinking. But it is worth remembering that the semiconductor industry has grown at an even faster rate for a similar length of time.

MY THOUGHTS

A great update to the energy business and technology landscape. The thesis of needing a cap and trade system to internalize the environmental costs of fossil fuels and create a new market for renewable energy technologies is the best thing the United States can do right now. However, I wish the book had detailed exactly how the carbon credits would be distributed. Krupp being the president one of the leading environmental law groups in the country known for advocating policies that are both environmentally and business friendly could have dedicated a chapter explaining a detailed plan or example policy to be enacted. The Kyoto protocol was discredited to some degree because of their CO2 distribution plans favoring the European companies. CO2 emissions are also much more difficult to regulate because their are so many sorces (power plants, cars, people, even rotting plants). Also why doesn’t the book have footnotes. A half page list of websites at the end of the book hardly demonstrates adequate research for a book of such importance. I was only looking for references when the questionable idea of using solar energy in Spain to fill dams in Norway (p67) was proposed.

Favorite quote from the book:

Climate change and the new energy revolution are like tidal waves. When a tsunami moves through the ocean you can’t see it. But when it reaches the shore it becomes a hundred foot wave.

Natural Gas Industry

At the current rate of production and consumption, the North America will exhaust the discovered domestic natural gas reserves in less than 12 years. Natural gas is more difficult to transport overseas than oil because it must be condensed and shipped in pressurized vessels. This insulation from foreign markets adds a premium to domestic supplies and makes it unlikely that gas supply will match demand for the next 5 years.

Electricity Generation

Natural gas electricity generation consumes 31% of U.S. natural gas and produces 25% of its electricity. New natural gas power plants will contribute 78% of the total electricity generation capacity additions in 2008. They are cleaner, more energy efficient and release less CO2 than comparable coal plants. Any strengthening of environmental regulations will make natural gas more cost attractive to electric utilities.

Investment Opportunity

Encana’s domestic, land based resources give it a distinct advantage over international and offshore competitors that are often affected by political instability and adverse weather conditions. Encana is in an excellent position to increase profits as the price of natural gas is predicted to increase 10% during the next two years (EIA Short Term Energy Outlook).

My thoughts on the book…

Define the problem

“To become independent of foreign oil, we must become independent of oil” p4. People and especially political leaders point fingers to the elusive oil villain “foreign oil” simply because it’s easier to blame someone else. Misdefining the problem hinders the understanding of the real problem and wastes effort on policies that won’t solve the problem.

“The United States has absolutely no comparative advantage in the production of oil. Why have we allowed ourselves to become so dependent on it(p17).”

Focus on the First Issues First:

Nuclear power, solar power and wind power can’t help wean the United States from oil without major changes to our vehicle fleet (p16). In order to reduce the breadth of the possible actionable solutions to a manageable size, the solutions that must come first must be given priority. For example, as long as the majority of automobiles use gasoline or diesel, adding capacity to the grid will do nothing to alleviate or demand for crude oil. Change the energy source of the automobile first because this will take over 10 years, then focus on adding more electricity sources.

Military funding of energy research and improvements:

Renewable energy systems can provide a strategic advantage to the military and should be funded intensively by the Department of Defense. The defense department uses .3 million barrels of oil/day so any improved efficiencies that reduce this consumption could easily pay for it’s self. What about offering any company that could improve energy efficiencies four years worth of the documented value of energy saved from their technology? In July 2006, General Richard Zilmer made a “Priority 1″ request for renewable energy systems at outlying bases (p24). The military knows that energy insecurities place our forces in a precarious position and are moving toward solutions .

Random Facts:

The average US savings rate is negative (p45). This is scary but is debatable.

The quantity of oil required to produce a dollar of GDP has been reduced dramatically since 1973. This has helped prevent an economic decline due to higher energy costs and is one more example of why improving efficiency in the US is so important.

• 1973 - 1.46 barrels / $1000 GDP
• 2006 - 0.66 barrels / $1000 GDP

One study found 2.3 billion gallons of gasoline per year are wasted due to traffic congestion. p151

“I love science because it is a great multiplier of resources.” Vinod Khosla

“History does not give us confidence that private interests alone would adequately safeguard the national interests.” - Henry Cabot Lodge

Quotes from the book…

“My physical situation is probably about the same as those who started the biz. Sunshine, a glass of wine, a bit of time.” p12

“My needs have always been modest, but my desires, to make up for that, have become increasingly expensive.” p33

“Why do drink? I have been asked. Because (a) I like to and (b) its hard to stop. When you’ve got the hole, you cant go to the corner stop and ask for a couple pounds of meaning, a packet of panacea, a can of resolution. A solution for one’s plight is hard to find, but solutions are aren’t. You can’t go a hundred yards without a pick-up point for zymurgic solutions: off-licenses, pubs, supermarkets, restaurants. Civilization is a careful construction for the production and distribution of alcohol.” p73

“Lunch’s shortcoming is that one can only have so many in one day.” p84

“This is a brilliant philosophical work disguised as a sentence” p90

“One of the traits of advanced capitalism is that it’s generally staffed by people who aren’t very concerned about selling anything - one of the consequences of a society where, sadly, people don’t starve to death if they lose their job.” p92

“India’s a bit like New York, you’re going to find anything you look for.” p96

“I contemplate the possibility that I have an indestructible liver, one that will be a medical prodigy for centuries, and that long after the rest of me has melted away, my liver will be transplanted from patient to patient, like a family heirloom.” p100

“The United States of America, the only country in the world’s history to import the poor, to court the zany, the dissenting, the only country in world history that had the power to impose its will on the world by didn’t” p127

“One mistake I never made. Life is too short to make them all. Unless you stay up at night or get up very early.” p153

“You slide without difficulty from not having enough money to write a book, to having too much money to write a book.” p189

“You know, you remind me of someone I knew. I can’t remember his name, but I do recall he trained his dog to lick his balls.” p213

“What people think of as happy endings aren’t, of course, endings; endings are by their nature unhappy.” p225

“The impossible lives next to the possible; people ring its doorbell by accident all the time.” p226

Some excerpts and thoughts from the book

The net energy in the universe is zero. p136

This is because the negative gravitational energy exactly equals the positive energy in form of mass (E=mc2). It is only the unevenly distributed thermodynamic entropies that allow humans to extract energy for useful purposes. The energy is gradually becoming more evenly distributed and the extraction of useful energy will become harder as the Universe gets older.

God did not have many choices when building the universe. p184

While God had infinite choices to make the universe, only a small number of those choices, maybe only one, would support the development of intelligent life as we know it. Hawking backs this up by saying if the strength of the force of gravity was only slightly stronger, planets would spiral into stars and the stars would burn out too quickly or if gravity was a little weaker planets would not orbit at all and stars would not have been hot enough.

“If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have collapsed before it ever reached its present size.” p128

This is another example of the limited choices that God had when creating the universe.

It takes about ten thousand million years to develop intelligent life. p131

The universe will start to contract in ten thousand million years. Intelligent life could not exist during the contracting phase of the universe because all the stars will have burned out. p158-160

This gives us at lease some time constraint for understanding the universe completely.

In Newton’s time it was possible for an educated person to grasp the whole of human knowledge, at least in outline. But since then the pace of development of science has made this impossible. p178

Reading text is no longer a sufficient mechanism for transferring information. There needs to be faster and more efficient method of transferring and utilizing the information available from historic scientific advances. My proposal is a modeling program that allows anyone to use everyone else’s expertise. I am also open to any suggestions.