Proud of my town, Saranac Lake, today as our local government has passed a resolution limiting how our police can cooperate with ICE. Here’s David Escobar, writing for the Adirondack Explorer:

The measure bars village police from enforcing federal civil immigration laws and prohibits U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using local officers to conduct investigations or arrests. […]

[O]fficers will not engage with ICE in enforcing civil immigration violations, such as overstaying a visa or entering the country without proper documentation. […]

The resolution also bars local police resources being spent on behalf of federal immigration enforcement, limits information sharing between SLPD and federal immigration enforcement agencies and requires village police to develop a training policy to ensure officer compliance with the resolution.

Our residents put on progressive demonstrations on a nearly daily basis. The main town square I pass every time I drive to or from my house is regularly the site of pro-Ukraine, pro-choice, No Kings, and LGBTQ+ Pride events.

However, this resolution was not a given. We have a Republican mayor and a large portion of our snowbird residents lean conservative. In fact, a similar measure to restrict our cooperation with ICE was introduced last year, but then watered down so much that it became basically useless.

I’m glad to see that we had representatives unwilling to accept that outcome, and continued to pursue a resolution with more teeth, in defiance of the Trump administration.

Herman, of Bear Blog, wrote about a worrying possibility highlighted by the recent OpenClaw kerfuffle when an AI bot researched and posted a “hit piece” about the human who denied its code change:

If the MJ Rathbun bot’s purpose is to browse repositories and submit PRs to open-source repositories, then anyone preventing it from achieving its goal is something that needs to be removed. In this case it was Scott, the maintainer. And while the “hit piece” was a ham-fisted attempt at doing that, if Scott had a big, nasty secret such as an affair that the bot was able to ascertain via its research, then it may have gotten its way by blackmailing him.

My parents warned against posting freely to the internet for fear that job interviewers would look me up and find something embarrassing. Perhaps the real threat will be AI bots that are specifically designed to do deep research to dig up dirt. Yikes.

I’m late in sharing this letter that Brent Simmons posted during the height of the chaos happening in Minneapolis, but believe it’s still worth reading:

Why do I write to you of these things?

For a few reasons: 1. Depending on what media you are seeing you may be getting no coverage on this or varying degrees of truth to outright propaganda. I thought it best you hear it from someone who is actually living in MN right now. 2. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum I believe we can all agree that we have rights in this country: free speech, the right to peacefully protest, the right to due process to name a few.

Authors Jen and Pete go on to describe what they’re seeing firsthand in their own community:

They are now targeting and attempting to detain off-duty officers. Every single one of the officers they targeted are people of color. It is straight up racial profiling. They are smashing car windows and tear-gassing people including toddlers. People are carrying their passports and birth certificates around with them and often they are not even allowed to show these “agents” their paperwork before they are beaten and/or abducted. […]

Our nephew’s elementary school (in a very affluent, predominantly White suburb) canceled their school’s International Night for fear it would draw Immigrant Enforcement to the school. Pete and I are witnessing field trips to the Science Museum cancel left and right because schools are afraid they will target the children.

This is not normal. This is not America, land of the free.

They closed their letter with this reminder (pointedly, perhaps) that we are all immigrants — at most, a few generations removed:

I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what has happened to empathy and humanity. I do know that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my ancestors who immigrated here from Sweden, England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. But they did. So for their legacy and for the little kids who deserve to live without fear I will continue to show up and help where I can.

Still the home of the brave.

Again, I’ll say, if you voted for Trump/Republican, the responsibility for this injustice and cruelty lies with you. I won’t forget. I hope you’re ready to make a change.

Steve Ledlow: ‘Intersecting Interests’

I’m simultaneously interested in how these modern technological advances (LLMs, for example) can be used for real value in our world and in how we as a human species can regain ground when it comes to our fragmented focus and battered attention spans. These interests are almost always in conflict because I recognize how much the first is being used against the second.

“Fragmented.” “Battered.” “Onslaught.” “Exhausted.” These are not healthy words to describe what’s happening to our attention. I’m curious what daily life will look like for humans in a century’s time, and how they’ll look back at the way we live. With longing? Or disgust?

Some personal highlights from the year!

Jan - Ski instructing at Whiteface Mountain and many uphill skinning adventures with early morning exercise buddies. 🎿

Feb - Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival is always a blast and ice palace spectacular! This year we got to share it with my mother-in-law. ❄️

Mar - Multi-sport weekend with Mike — climbing in the Gunks and skiing at Whiteface. 🧗

Apr - A trip down to Florida, with a visit to Bok Tower with Aunt Sally and Grandma Beck — a cherished memory as we would lose Grandma later in the year. ❤️

May - Backpacking with Jo and Phin. We hadn’t done one together in a while, and it was wonderful to hit the trail as a family again. 🏕️

June - Rock climbing season kicked into high gear with many trips up the slab, including this memorable one with friends from @adkclimb.club in which Taka did a few barefoot pitches. 🤣

July - Perhaps the highlight of the year, a trip to Wyoming to climb Gannett Peak for Matt’s 48th state high point and my personal tallest climb. The stunning cirque rekindled my desire for bigger objectives. 🏔️

Aug - Heartbreak as we said goodbye to our beloved Ollivander after 10 years in our little family. I can finally start looking back at photos of him with fondness instead of sadness. He was the greatest furry friend. ❤️‍🩹

Sept - The month for love for us, as Jo and I celebrated the wedding of dear friends, Tyler and Lauren, and attended the balloon festival. And then celebrated our own (7th!) anniversary the next weekend. 💍

Oct - Or Rocktober! The fall is my favorite time of year in the ADK, and I got to tick off a bunch of spectacular climbs among the beautiful fall foliage, including a few here on the Upper Washbowl with Brian. 🍁

Nov - Snow and ice season arrived blessedly early and in full force! Got in some great pitches of climbing and backcountry skiing in deep snow before Thanksgiving — take that, west coast! 😉

Dec - I couldn’t choose between family time at the holidays and our current adventure with Dan and Sarah in Las Vegas for New Year’s, so I didn’t! Both have been wonderful. 🎉

I’m so lucky to live in a place I love, have a career sharing my favorite activities, and be surrounded by wonderful friends, family, and community.

I can’t say I’m completely comfortable with all of Mantia’s argument, but it’s certainly got me thinking. A few bits that caught my attention:

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders wrote a long train of abuses by the King to justify their actions. Some may feel …unfortunately relevant today:

• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone […]
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us […]
• […] For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world

And

And so, believing that violence is never justified only makes you vulnerable to those who believe it is.

That’s how it’s always been. If the government successfully convinces civilians that violence is never justified, then it gets to maintain its own monopoly on violence, legalizing the atrocities it commits itself, while punishing everyone else for what civilians have always had the right to do.

It’s right there, in the founding document of the nation, that it is the right and duty of civilians to overthrow any government that systemically infringes on its rights.

By all rights, I’m a firmly non-violent person. I even sometimes bristle at the notion that the best thing to do with a Nazi is punch them. It seems so barbaric, sure to escalate, and unnecessary when words and logic exist. But I have to admit that when words, logic, and compassion fall on intentionally-deaf ears, other options start to look more reasonable.

Today marks one year since my first client took a chance on Onward Mountain Guides as a brand-new guide service and we climbed two mountains together. Since then, we’ve hiked 40 peaks together, and I couldn’t be more grateful to him or the dozens of other awesome folks I’ve been able to share the outdoors with as an independent guide this year.

I didn’t have high expectations going into this first year. It’s a fairly crowded space with excellent guides who have been here much longer — but something has clicked, and I’m delighted and proud to share that with over 100 days in the field, OMG operated “in the black” all year and business is accelerating! I probably won’t ever get rich off guiding, but that has never been the goal. I feel rich to be able to spend my days in the outdoors with so many different people, and sharing what I know about climbing, hiking, camping, paddling, and skiing with others. I’m so fortunate to be living my dream.

There are many family, friends, and mentors who I owe a debt of gratitude for helping me get to where I am today. You know who you are. The Adirondack community, too, has been so kind, welcoming, and supportive. But, I’d be remiss if I didn’t directly mention my wife, @jo_marie07 , who was on board from the first minute of me suggesting that we start this new business. She’s been my biggest supporter, my patient sounding board, and she shouldered immense responsibility to keep us housed and fed while the business found its legs. Thank you, I love you.

Here’s to many more years of adventuring in the mountains. 🧡

—J.B.

By the way, that first client? It was Tom. A year ago, he had no aspirations of climbing all 46 high peaks — he was just in it for the views. But the mountains took hold, as they often do, and he’s now on the cusp of completing the 46er challenge. We’ll be hiking his final two peaks this week. Big thanks to him for kicking this whole thing off! 🙌

One helpful tip I’ve learned from painful experience over the years is how valuable it is to bring a hand ascender whenever I do long rappels with a pull/rap cord. Instead of wrapping the cord around your hand, suffering through rope burn, or messing with a wrapped carabiner, the ascender is worth its weight in gold for efficiency and comfort in getting your rope down. It firmly grabs the rope and gives you a nice big handle to pull down more ergonomically.

Plus, you’ll start to identify other great uses for the ascender, like more easily pulling slack or giving yourself some mechanical advantage with a GriGri when belaying from the bottom.

Oh, and don’t forget your gloves!

Andrew Webster: ‘My gaming buddy’

One of the most devastating parts of grief is how it can strike out of nowhere. There you are, doing a perfectly normal, everyday thing, and then that perfectly normal, everyday thing reminds you of something or someone who is no longer there. And when that presence you lost was intimately connected with your life, well, those moments happen frequently and unexpectedly.

For me, in losing our cat Ollie, it’s when I’m the first to wake in the morning but don’t have to get up right away. I often lay in bed reading, and it’s painful realizing I’ll never again hear the pitter-patter of his paws up the stairs before he jumps up on the bed, determined to get a forceful snuggle.

He always seemed to know right when I was about to get up, and that was when he’d make his move. Needless to say, his will bent my own more often than not. ❤️‍🩹

Run: Distance: 11.7km, Elevation Gain: 137m, Moving Time: 01:10:08, Pace: 5:59/km, Estimated Avg Power: 210.1 (from power meter), Weighted Avg Power: 210

I enjoyed this article by itseieio, ‘Measuring something changes it - and sometimes that’s enough’, and see a lot of it in myself:

So instead of force of will I turned to measurement. I made a simple Google Form with a few questions:

• When did I go to bed?
• When did I wake up?
• Was I tired when I woke up?
• When was I ready to do something (write code, see friends, etc)
• Did I play piano / exercise before starting to do something else?

I committed to non-judgmentally filling this form out every morning. And I waited.

And my behavior began to change! Some of these changes were relatively intuitive to me. I was more conscious of my bedtime and found myself saying “it’s past 1:00 AM, I’m not doing anything worthwhile, and my data will look better if I go to bed.”

But some of my behavior changes surprised me. I was more conscious of how I spent time in the morning, but also conscious of how I’m often not ready to do “hard” things immediately after waking up. Historically I’ve dealt with this by wasting time mindlessly browsing the internet which ~never makes me feel good. But quantifying how much time I’d spent on this each week pushed me to replace that time with something I enjoyed more. Often that was playing a game! Which isn’t a particularly productive activity - but swapping out “mindless browsing” for “playing a fun game” has consistently made my days more enjoyable.

It all makes sense. It’s easy to convince yourself that things aren’t as bad as you might think, but very hard to ignore hard data. Maybe I need to start observing and measuring more of my behavior to get better in control and able to make changes.

Apple Newsroom:

In addition to being nominated for seven more GRAMMY Awards this year — including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year — Billie has also become the first person to earn Apple Music Artist of the Year honors twice, having won the inaugural award in 2019.

At first glance, it seems a bit rich to award her twice in five years, but she’s got the stats.

Following a historic second Academy Award win and two additional GRAMMY Awards for her contribution to Greta Gerwig’s feature-length film Barbie, “What Was I Made For?,” Billie released her third full-length album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. At once vulnerable and bold, it’s the sound of a generational artist taking a massive leap forward — and the best music of her career. Upon release, the album soared to No. 1 on Apple Music’s all-genre albums chart in 138 countries worldwide.

Billie continues to make her presence felt across culture. She performed her hit “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” while representing her hometown of Los Angeles at the closing ceremony of the summer games this August — and drove her biggest day ever for Shazam volume in the process. Billie also linked up with Charli xcx for “Guess,” one of the songs of the summer, and is currently headlining the sold-out HIT ME HARD AND SOFT tour, which will extend her triumphant year well into 2025.

Their editorial team knew this year’s award would cause a stir, so they’ve made a compelling case. I’ll have to give her latest album another listen today.

Oh, and don’t forget, Billie was featured as one of Apple Music’s first Up Next artists back in 2017, very early in her career.

Really, more like Day 1 since today was the first day of actual climbing.

Willow Springs Area

• Peaches, 5.7 — Decidedly tricky. Followed the thinning crack up (too far?) until I felt forced to escape on a blank traverse. Then cruiser to the top.
• Tonto, 5.5 — Mike’s second-ever trad lead. More wet than we would have liked, but fun and interesting climbing. He did awesome.
• Coronary Bypass, 5.5, 2 pitches — Spent an hour or so trying to get to the Mossy Ledges Crag from two different directions, only to find that without a guidebook or pictures from Mountain Project, we couldn’t be sure what we would be climbing. Ended up evaluating the wrong climb for almost an hour, then finally found what we thought might have been the actual route on our way down. Pictures later confirmed. Still a cool hike despite not getting on the route.
• Motorcycle Mama, 5.6 — Wanted to get in one more climb while we could. Heinous approach (we took the wrong path again) to an excellent climb. Felt super solid and flew up with only three pieces in 90 feet. Practiced a double-rope rappel on the way down with my new rap cord. Feeling ready for a big 7-pitch climb tomorrow.

Post Climb

Made it off the Scenic Drive just in time. Back at hotel and showered within an hour. Walked down the strip to a taco joint filled with people. Quite the ordering experience, but resulted in excellent food.

Stopped at Walgreens on the way back for snacks and beer. Saw a quick circus act when we got back to our hotel/casino, and spent the rest of the night showing Mike the Vision Pro and watching Dodgeball.

Good day.

Here are the books I finished reading in 2023. I really thought I had only read Narrow Roads (certainly my favorite new one of this list) but I guess I got a few in earlier in the year! There’s so much great stuff out there, I’ve gotta start allocating some time away from blogs and back into books.

🔗 iOS 17.3 Beta Adds New Stolen Device Protection Feature to iPhone - MacRumors // Joe Rossignol

For especially sensitive actions, including changing the password of the Apple ID account associated with the iPhone, the feature adds a security delay on top of biometric authentication. In these cases, the user must authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, wait one hour, and authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID again. However, Apple said there will be no delay when the iPhone is in familiar locations, such as at home or work.

My first thought regarding this bit is that it’s sure going to slow things down at the Apple Store, where password resets are very common support issues. I’m guessing that Apple has thought this through, though, and has a solution. The online self-service tool, for example, might not require a time delay or biometrics, which might be damaged.

And if not, well, that’s why this will be an opt-in feature.

Here are the books I finished reading in 2022. A little learning. A little heartfelt. A lot of nostalgia. Piranesi was so good that I think of it weekly and is one of my all-time favorites.