Rockall Times
Bring back the Rockall Times.
A Brit adventurer is poised to occupy the North Atlantic granite outcrop of Rockall - once described as "the most isolated speck of rock, surrounded by water, on the surface of the earth".1 Nick Hancock plans to spend 60 days atop the sacred islet - which lies some 480km off the west coast of Scotland - during his Rockall Solo …
Me too. I also wonder if it's time to bring back the Rockall Post Office too.
I've still got some of those stamps around from the 2005 expedition Lester was on.
The shenanigans following that escape are still hidden on the web, accessible by a bit of googling. I must admit from the tone of those conversations I'm surprised to see this article. I suppose what happens on Rockall, stays on Rockall. I do wonder what happened to 'exciteable office girl Jemma' though, I rather like the sound of her!
I often asked myself the same question regarding climbing Everest ... after all I am sure there are some rich folk who like the idea of having their picture taken at the summit without actually doing any hard work.
Then I saw a programme (in the last couple of years) and for some reason it had a piece about some climbers who had to be airlifted off a much smaller mountain than Everest.
Turns out it's fiendishly difficult, and not the sort of thing you'd do for fun. Would you like to dangle swinging in 10m arcs whilst facing a piece of solid rock ?
No, neither would I.
Helicopters don't work well at high altitudes. The thin atmosphere is pants for engine power and the rotors provide limited lift. To reach high altitudes you end up massively overpowering the craft just to maintain minimal maneuverability and your maximum load is severely constrained so you don't have much capacity for equipment or personnel.
As far as Rockall, it simply wouldn't be as cool to use a helicopter.
I have often considered that those who claim to have climbed Everest actually haven't. They've only climbed part of it. They normally fly into Nepal, then go by truck or whatever to base camp which is 20 something thousand feet up. Then they just walk the last bit.
That's like getting a lift to 99th floor of Taipei 101, nipping up two flights of stairs and then claiming you walked to the top.
Fascinating. So to claim to have climbed (say) Mt. Rainier, must one start from the tide marks in Seattle or Takoma and walk the 50 miles or so to the national park? At least the volcanoes along the Pacific rim are within a few days' walk of salt water--Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Fuji.
At that rate, damn few people can claim to have climbed anything in particular.
quote: "They normally fly into Nepal, then go by truck or whatever to base camp which is 20 something thousand feet up. Then they just walk the last bit."
As long as they state the frame of reference in the claim (climbed Everest from the base camp), I have absolutely no problem with it.
It's all relative, whether you claim the start is the base camp, or should be sea level, or some other arbitrary point. A "proper" zero reference would need to be from the centre of the planet; good luck starting a climb from there ;)
@NumptyScrub, who wrote:
>A "proper" zero reference would need to be from the centre of the planet
And then climbing Mount Everest wouldn't be the supreme achievement anyway, because on that measure Chimborazo is the planet's highest peak. I refer the honourable gentleman to my post of 2010-10-30.
My company has equipped him with a Fast Find Personal Locator Beacon (emergency distress beacon) in case the worst happens and he ends up clinging to the rock after a wave has washed away all his supplies and shelter (which having viewed the ITN news report seems extremely likely!
This reminds me of a documentary I watched on the Galapagos Islands. It was a similar shaped rock. Darwin didn't bother to visit because landing was so hard.
They held their boat to the bottom of the cliffs on engine power, while fixing some pitons into the rock, and got climbing. Looked like a rather tricky operation. Climbed the virtually sheer cliffs, to the flat top.
The first scientist up there sits down for a breather. There's quite a decent sized cut in his leg, and a bird lands on it, and starts drinking his blood. Does he shout, and shoe it away? No. Without making a noise, he points the camera at the thirsty finch, and films it. Nice discipline.
This is the first blood-drinking finch discovered, missed by Darwin because he obviously didn't like climbing. Perhaps his beard got caught in the ropes...
Going back a whiles, I saw a report on how a combination of waves, weather and currents, etc., can result in "not that rare" waves big enough to knock the tops off oil rigs..
Personally, as long as I had a 50mm thick steel cabin, stuck to a flat cement base, and rock bolted with say 16 or 20 bolts, 50mm in diameter and 1 meter long, at 45* to the perpendicular of the radius, into the rock; with a down wind door with a set of fast locking submarine hatch style multi point locks, and a picture of the virgin Mary stuck to the ceiling over my bed, and some fishing lines and all that...
I'd be quite happy staying out there for ages too.....
But otherwise many the sad tale of light house keepers and rock fishermen come mind. Ships disappearing permanently into the gloom of ocean storms etc.. do too.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lighthouse+wave+picture+jean+guichard&num=50&safe=off&hl=en&biw=939&bih=424&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WpmLUZW-Do60iQfrnIGQCg&ved=0CDgQsAQ
http://blog.geoiq.com/2008/09/11/wave-heights-and-risk-for-oil-platform-damage/
http://www.livescience.com/14600-freak-waves-spring-clash-wave-patterns.html
A 100' ROGUE WAVE HIT THE OIL TANKER ESSO LANGUEDOC, ANOTHER SANK THE OIL PLATFORM OCEAN RANGER AND A THIRD HIT THE NORTH SEA DROVNER PLATFORM, MEASURING 90' WITH LASER MEASUREMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxr_XzyGO8
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/yacht-transport-ships-dockwise/5007-yachts-vs-rogue-waves-2.html
"Personally, as long as I had a 50mm thick steel cabin, stuck to a flat cement base, and rock bolted with say 16 or 20 bolts, 50mm in diameter and 1 meter long, at 45* to the perpendicular of the radius, into the rock; with a down wind door with a set of fast locking submarine hatch style multi point locks, and a picture of the virgin Mary stuck to the ceiling over my bed, and some fishing lines and all that..."
I found this in our website's images folder; forgive the plug for our product, his shelter is in the background:
http://www.fastfindplb.com/images/news/rockall_fastfind2.JPG
Curious as to the geology that led a significant pimple of granite to sit just nowhere, I headed to the wiki pages and found this <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rockall_wave_March_1943.jpg>. For the hard of clicking, it's a wave breaking against rockall, being thrown up to at least twice the height of the rock itself. Many, many tons of water in that one.
And if they got a photo of it, such waves may not be so rogue.
I do hope his rockpod is as macho as it sounds.
You could also get bulk Flax or Quinoa (Keen-wah, its Andean. I dunno how its availability is in the UK though) pretty cheap and they don't have the noxious gas side-effects that Garbanzo Beans do, add some mushrooms for extra protein as well as flavor and some Seaweed for extra nutrients and there you go.
Im pretty sure that a pound or even a dollar a day would be enough to get you by on diet like that, especially since I'm assuming he won't be doing much most of the day.
Sort, and then rinse the beans three times. Salt the soaking water (make it taste like the sea, just like pasta). Soak overnight, or at least 10 hours, then rinse three more times. Bring up to a simmer, with just enough water to cover (can use any unsalted stock or broth, if you wish). Season to taste as they come up to heat. I use my "house" bean spice consisting of 1 part each Ancho, Chipolte and Cumin powder, and 0.5 parts each fresh cracked Tellicherry pepper and Mexican Oregano.
For two pounds of dried beans, I use about 1 large onion, grated (box grater, large holes), six large cloves of garlic, microplaned, a third of a cup of the above mix, and six or seven large fresh-picked Epazote leaves (about an ounce if dried) (4 or five dried or fresh bay/myrtle/laural works, too, but it's not carminative). Sometimes I'll spike 'em with "some" habanero powder. If I'm not feeding grazers (vegans ... this is California, after all), I'll throw in a couple of unsalted smoked wild turkey wings or wild boar hocks. Top up the water with boiling water as needed, to keep the beans barely submerged. Slow simmer at a low heat with the lid well cracked, about 50 minutes, then add salt to taste. Start checking for doneness after another ~20 minutes. Drain immediately, and allow to cool lid-off. Use as you would any other cooked bean. Makes for wonderful black-bean refritos.
Save (freeze) the drained simmering water. Makes for good soup-base. Some people make rice or bread with it, but I always find that the added protein makes for a scorched product. For soup, mix 50/50 with any un-salted stock/broth/water that suits your fancy. Bring to a fast simmer, add veggies of choice, longer cooking bits first. When the veg is nearly done to taste, add pre-cooked protein of choice (meat, beans, tofu, mix&match, leave out the added protein, whatever), then check for seasoning, adjusting as needed.. Ladle the soup over cooked noodles or rice, serve with homemade bread. Can easily make a healthy lunch for under US$0.15/head.
Apparently, the salt in the bean soaking water replaces some of the potassium & magnesium from the seed coat, replacing it with sodium and allowing easier/faster rehydration during simmering. The salt later in cooking is for seasoning. Sounds weird, but try it.
Gut feeling, judging by the smell when pouring off the soaking liquid, the salt also encourages the fermentation of the sugars in the seed coat, thus cutting back on the flatulence issue ... perhaps because it makes it more permeable because of the chemical reaction with the potassium & magnesium? Dunno. As a brewer, winemaker & baker, that amount of salt should be an anathema to fermentation ... I'm sticking with the Epazote ... besides, I like the flavo(u)r ;-)