Pcacho's Adventure

An essential part of the climbing experience is the climb’s assessment. This where the participants of the climb give their impressions and personal feedback on the climb.

The team should meet within five (5) days after the climb to review the strong and weak points of the climb. All participants of the climb are required to attend the post climb meet to share the assessments.

During the meeting, the team leader presides the meeting while the scribe takes down notes. As a rule, group equipment should be returned during the post climb meet.

The first step to organize is the selection of the team leader, a scribe, a medic and a tailman / sweeper.

1. The team leader or leadman is selected according to his familiarity with the mountain and his leadership potential. He is given an almost absolute role in decision making on that climb. However, he should also be open-minded enough to accept suggestions, especially on decisions involving the safety of the climbing party.
2. The medic should have thorough knowledge of first aid techniques and should be assured of first aid qualification.
3. The scribe has the duty of documenting the details of the climb.
4. The tailman/sweeper has the responsibility of bringing up the rear. He should be self-contained and must know the trail.

The second part of the organization is subdividing the big group into smaller subgroups of five or six members. This facilities the sharing of shelter, food preparation and increases the safety factor. Each subgroup shall have a leader who is responsibilities for the management of his/her members.

The success of a climbing preparation depends largely upon the amount of planning given to the exercise. The different components that make up a backapcking or climbing trip are discussed during the pre-climbing meeting.
The organizers of the climb should serve notice to the members atleast one week before the climb. Announcement should include the objectives, nature, requirements and itinerary of the climb.

The Pre-climb meet is a comprehensive study, presentation and discussion of the essentials parts of conducting a climb. Thus, should be conducted at least three (3) days before. This is to ensure that the participants have enough time to prepare. Its format should include the following:

1. The Objective of the climb.
2. The Nature of the climb.
3. The requirements of the climb
4. The Itinerary of the climb

No backpacker – beginner or expert – can ignore physical fitness in preparing for a climb. A certain level of fitness is required for a pleasant and safe climb. In order to enjoy the scenery and the company of fellow backpackers, one must be fit enough to keep up with them. The lack of preparation has made a lot of potentially great climbs end in total disaster.

To help you in preparing for a climb, we have listed down some
guidelines.

1. All participants of the climb must be physically fit. The best type of fitness program involves continuous endurance training through aerobic sports such as swimming, cycling, and walking.
2. Weight training is the perfect supplement to an aerobic program. This will help you develop your muscular strength and endurance.
3. Any participant in a climb who gets sick before the climb should forego his participation. A sickly climber only becomes a laibility of the group.
4. An old adage says that the best exercise for backpacking is backpacking. The hardiest hikers and climbers are those who spent a great deal of their time hiking, backpacking and climbing.
5. Being fit gives you the confidence to tackle backpacking or climbing trips, such that psyching comes almost naturally.

A. Training Climbs – The primary purpose of this climb is to provide novice climbers a progressive training climb program, which gradually prepares them for major ascents and to meet training requirement of the club, if any.

B. Minor Climbs – Minor climbs are also known as fun climbs. These climbs are conductedfor their recreational value. These are light and relaxing backpacking trips on accessible mountains.

C. Major Climbs – Major climbs are ascent on the moutains whose degree of difficulty is higher than those usedn in training climbs. It usually takes several days to complete this climb.

D. Exploratory Climb – These are climbs wherein the climbing routes are established (and are ascended for the first time). An exploratory expedention requires a great amount of preparation and careful planning.

E. Special Climb – Clean up climbs, medical and dental mission, tree planting, etc.

The Pre-climb Meet

1. The Objective of the Climb should be identified before hand since this will determine the nature, requirements and Itinerary of the climb. Requirements for one type of climb may be radically different from that another climb; therefore preparations for the climb should be viewed in light of the climb objectives.

2. The nature of the climb
Climbs can be classified into five (5) categories:
a. Training climbs
b. Minor climbs
c. Major climbs
d. Exploratory Climb
e. Special Climb

3. The requirement of the Climb
An ascvent must be plan with the aid of maps. The map usually gives information regarding exisitng and possible routes, communities within the periphery of the mountain, distribution of the vegetation, approximate compass bearing and an approximation of the steepness of the terrain.

4. The Itinerary the climb
The value of having an itinerary is realized in keeping up with schedules to avoid unnecesdsary discomforts such as being forced to do late treks or set up camp in the dark. Programming activities maximizes efficient use of time. In multi day ascent and exploratory climb, the itinerary is usually formaulated based on the study of the map that provides an approximation of the distance to travel. The amount of gear and provisions required is determined by the established itinerary.

It has been a while since the last time I post something here in my site. Let’s just say I got caught up between work and responsibilities. Being busy does not stop me from writing, for every time I got the chance to write, my sticky note has been my constant companion. Anyway, here are bits of what had happen since my last post.

It’s November and our company came up with some gimmick that would savor the event of the month “Halloween.” The contest was titled “Spooky Ville” and the mechanics is that each team has to decorate their designated area and has to come in costume.

During the judging night the production area looks so hideous. Decorations in every bend look frighteningly horrible and people who came to work on their best costume appeared to be real frightening. Here are few pictures of the winners.

On my previous post I talked about the troubles, hardships, and challenges that we were experiencing days before and until the launching of windows 7. Yes those challenges were real and so is the pressure.

The day before we go live was the day of tension and confusion. We were all so tense and yet excited about how we would go through with the call. Also it was the day when we were given our schedules, so we again have to do adjustments. Most of us have schedule preference yet very few lucky people were granted the chance to get their preferred schedule and that includes me.

Anyway, all of us spent extra hours at the office. Some were supposed to be home by 5:00 am others were supposed to be home by 6:00 am. However, we choose to stay even until 7:00 am just to clear up everything before going home. It was 6:30 when our Operations Manager gathered us all for an important announcement. She apologized for holding us long enough but she’d got a surprise that really worth the wait. She pulled up a video on the screen and on the video was Bennett of Microsoft with a wonderful message. The room was filled with glee when it was make known that we will all be given with a free Windows 7 Ultimate DVD and other windows 7 memorabilia.

Man, for techie people getting this genuine copy freshly baked from the oven is truly an ultimate surprise. Indeed, Windows 7 Ultimate was the priced possession of the day.

We’ve been training three (3) weeks for this technical account and for a not so technical person like me training for windows 7 setup support, would really be a great challenge. That’s two weeks of classroom session and a week hands on. But that suppose to be 1 week hands on did not really came as a week hands on since some of the tools were not used thoroughly since they are live tools.. Also, some knowledge base articles for troubleshooting were not available yet.

“Information Overload” that’s how we describe our day to day session and the two weeks classroom session was a real pain. We thoroughly dissected the best Operating System “windows 7″; learning what is new and available on it, learning what’s not available on this new operating system that was available on the previous O.Ss, and studying its capability. We of course study how to troubleshoot setup issues that may arise. We went through a lot of scenarios and search for possible resolution. We have to study and learn new tools as well as get ourselves familiar with the processes.

Yesterday was the launching day and we all feel tense yet excited. Still were not so familiar with the tools and processes yet were ready to take the challenge. In my case I developed common colds day before the launch date, perhaps because of the pressure but as soon as we all went live the cold flew away. The launching day was successful. We took few calls and every call was being monitored. We of course had a small launch party. Foods were served and there were few renditions. I learned a lot from the first day. It was a success and we it a day.

We once had our meeting at Indeokwon a place near Indeogwon. We had so limited time since our meeting falls on weekend and there’s so much to do. So on Saturday Night we budgeted our time to be able to visit other places and hangs around with friends. We went to a lot of places we took the subways to be able to easily get to the places we wanted to visit. Our last stop was Pyeongchon Jungang Park or otherwise called as Anyang Central Park.

Pyeongchon Jungang Park is located next to the Acro Towers, caddy corner from Rideo Street to the northwest and Hagwon-ga to the south, with Anyang City Hall one block directly north. Pyeongchon Jungang Park is a large modern park dominated by a complex fountain system connected by artificial streambeds. The park includes tennis courts, a soccer field, basketball courts, badminton courts, croquet lawn, in-line skate park, an outdoor theater, concession stand, and an X-game court, where skaters can practice stunts. There are also quite a few statues and fountains. A free large community aerobics class takes place regularly in the evenings at the outdoor theater, where free concerts are sometimes held. The street on the park’s north side is closed off to traffic on weekends, and used for flea markets and as a course for kids to drive tiny cars and motorcycles.

The place was spectacular. Kids were riding mini cars and mini motorcycle. Some are skating others were playing with miniature high speed remote control racing cars while others were watching movies in the open theater. Several groups of friends were happily chatting and others were playing with waters from the fountain. So are we. The dancing fountain was especially magnificent in this place. They come in different colors. We played and dance with the fountain until late night.