Ring of Fire

If you're not already reading the Fat Cyclist blog, you should be. Where else can you get links to somebody experimenting with propane, bike tubes and fire all set to Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire?

In other news, I watched two snowy documentaries last night. The first was Blizzard: 16 hours the story of the 1984 blizzard that hit Fargo/Moorhead and killed 22 people. Having lived in the F/M region for nearly 7 years (what can I say, college took a while) this movie was great. Lots of sights and sounds from way back when. Plus, lots of talk of towns I haven't been to in years.

The second movie was Touching the Void, the story of two english mountain climbers and their trip to Peru. They decided to climb a mountain via a route that others had tried and abandoned. Why? Because, in Joe Simpson's words, "We thought we were better than them." Long story short, they made it. But on the way down (where 80% of mountaineering accidents happen, btw) Joe broke his leg. Bad. His partner Simon attempted to do a one man rescue down the mountain by lowering Joe 300 feet at a time with their rope, then climbing down to him and repeating the process. But, at one point Joe slid over a ledge and was dangling out into nothing. Unable to pull his partner in, and losing his grip, Simon cut the rope. This much of the story is fairly common knowledge. But the next 4 days where they both made their way off the mountain, are amazing. Makes winter cycling look like a weenie sport.

Both were on PBS. And, being PBS, both will probably be run again. Take a look. Enjoy.