[pct-l] Re: Eiger Sanction, Soot & Bears

[Bighummel@aol.com]

In an early boy scout backpacking trip up San Jacinto we slipped two large 
rocks into the pack of the troop leader who smoked cigarettes and, of course, 
was unusually short of breath.  He complained for about ten miles that his 
pack felt so damn heavy.  At the next break he found them and just about came 
unglued.  It was fortunate that we were not carrying ice axes!

Marge, Chemistry 101, soot on your pot from any stove means that the stove 
isn't getting enough air or is using too much fuel.  In combustion, carbon 
atoms like to attach to oxygen atoms where available to form carbon monoxide 
and dioxide.  If there isn't enough oxygen to go around then carbon starts to 
go free and coat any cool surface nearby (i.e., your pot). So, cut some holes 
into your wind screen or make the air supply holes in the stove slightly 
larger.  Lesson over, homework is on the board, test on Friday.

The report on the man-eating bear that I saw said it was a black bear.  This 
shocked me as this is exceptionally rare.  

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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