Darkness, Darkness

"Worst year ever," proclaimed one headline. "We're losing more than we know," read another. How would you describe 2020? I've asked the team of correspondents here at the GonzoPR blog to describe what they've missed in the last 12 months, and what they thought was good about 2020.

JM: "Let's query our intrepid reporters around the globe: Helmut Vallindaklopf based in his Connecticut Avenue basement bungalow in Washington, D.C., followed by his sister Ramona Vallindaklopf based iin Genoa, Italy and finally, Wolfgang Majoris based iin Bangkok, Thailand. Helmut?"

HV: "Thanks, JM. What have I missed? I definitely long to head back out into the wilderness instead of remaining cooped up in this dingy basement apartment covering the escapades of Herr Gropenfuhrer as he has lied and pillaged as the erstwhile president."

HV: "What was good? Seeing voters turn out in record numbers to assure that he will not remain at the helm of America in the most critical time of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and restoring order amidst the chaos he has wrought. Over to you, Ramona."

RV: "Thanks, Helmut. What have I missed? In a word: travel. Don't get me wrong, I love Genoa, but we've be under lockdown for nearly a year, and I long to travel to Switzerland and many other destinations. What was good? Realizing how much we have and how little we need. Wolf?"

WM: "What have I missed over the past year? Mostly, seeing my family, other than on Zoom or reasonable facsimile. What was good? When the dust settles, we'll realize how much we have, how little we need and the true value of human connection. How about you, JM?"

JM: "I think the human connection is what I miss the most. Despite everything, we did not give up, and a virus for the pandemic has been developed. We've found new levels of resiliency and resolve, and the future looks bright as we leave the Year of the Pig for the Year of the Ox.

Lightning Rod Of The Cascades

Unique to the Oregon Cascades is a series of high pinnacles whose sheer pointed summits remind travelers of Switzerland's Matterhorn. Two of these spires can be seen from almost anywhere along the rim of Crater Lake, Union Peak (7,698 feet) to the south and Mt. Thielsen (9,178 feet) to the north. Along with various and sundry members of The Committee, I have climbed the peak twice, both from the easy side.

The climbing is very good from Diamond Lake, until you reach "chicken point." From there, its a free climb with good hand holds to the summit. On top, it's evident why Mt. Thielsen is call the "Lightning Rod Of The Cascades." Strikes dot the surface, leaving a random pattern of volcanic glass. It's kinda creepy on top. You must hunker.

Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics

Well, faithful readers, we have arrived: we have now surpassed #400 on the GonzoPR blog, established in 2008, when I retired from Eugene Water & Electric Board. A humble operation at first, it has since turned into a monster. My favorite subjects are travel, sports and, much to the chagrin of some of my friends, politics.

However, a funny thing happened on the way to determining statistics as laid out by Google on GonzoPR. The rankings are the same but the numbers vary widely. In other words, they don't exactly jive. Be that as it may, here are the top ten posts, the greatest hits as it were, on Gonzo PR, starting with Alpine Adventure, the clear winner.

The post presaged our trip to Zurich to take in the sights of the mostly the German side of Switzerland. On this trip, we stayed at the Hotel X-tra in downtown Zurich. We visited the Jungfraujoch, Lucerne and Interlaken, Reinfall and Schaffhausen, Liechtenstein, Heidiville and much, much more.

Number two is King Of The Blues, a missive on Riley B. King, otherwise known as B.B. King, an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. I've seen B.B. a number of times over the years, the first time at Springer's Ballroom in the hinterlands of southeast Portland near Gresham on the path to Mt. Hood and Central Oregon.

Next up on the hit parade is Defining Public Relations, a treatise on the subject of public relations, a practice and profession that I became familiar with as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Oregon School of Journalism in the 70's and early 1980s, followed by 33 years as a professional and instructor.

The Trinity Mine is next, a failed experiment to mine precious metals near the Glacier Peak Wilderness, where I toiled as a ranger while working my way through college. Having worked previously on the Malheur National Forest, I was smitten with a girl who worked seasonally on the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District.

Weighing in at number five is Berchtesgaden And Eagle's Nest, which described our time in Munich and our exploration of the castles of Mad King Ludwig, and his suspected murder. We also spent time in downtown Munich and explored the city known for Octoberfest, when an additional six million people cram into a city of two million.

Rounding out the top ten starting at number six is Willkommen Bei Den Bayerischen Alpen, which presaged our trip to Munich. We visited castles, toured The Eagle's Nest, saw the BMW headquarters, toured the Paulaner distributor, visited biergartens, ate at the finest restaurants and stayed at The Hotel Deutches Theatre.

Number 7 is Castle Keep, part of our tour that included visits to Mad King Ludwig's castles, including the Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles (above) and Hohenschwangau, an older castle where Ludwig grew up. As part of that tour, we also visited Oberommergau, a small town that resembles Leavenworth, Washington.

Coming in at number 8 is the Italian Riviera And Cinque Terre from one of five trips we took to The Motherland to locate our cousins, the Sanguinetis, who live in the hill country of Liguria in a little village called Isolona in the district of Orero near Cicagna, where my beloved grandmother lived before escaping Italy for Portland, Oregon.

Next up, at number 9 is Getting Around: Plane, Trains And Automobiles, a missive about how to get around while traveling in Europe. I never rent a car; I guess I'm paranoid. But the public transportation options in Europe are simply wonderful, whether you're in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Spain or anyplace else.

Finally, weighing in at number 10 is Der Zugspitze And Garmisch-Partenkirchen, another great adventure to Germany's highest peak and the little town with a ski resort that sits at its base. The cable car ride (pictured) is not for the feint of heart. And now, as Porky Pig would say, "that's all folks." That's GonzoPR's top ten.

Fire And Ice

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the mountains. Growing up in East Portland on (where else?) an extinct volcano known as Mt.Tabor, we had stunning views of both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, as well as a tiny tip of Mt. Adams, from the family home at 350 S.E. Gilham Avenue in the City of Roses.

At an early age, I took to adventures in the Cascades. In the Boy Scouts, I roamed the trails of the Mt. Hood National Forest and hiked from Timberline Lodge to the Columbia River Gorge on the Pacific Crest Trail. By age 12, I had climbed Mt. Hood with my dad’s high school climbing club associated with the Mazamas in Portland.

By the time I was 14, I had climbed Mt. St. Helens. In Boy Scouts, we’d spend a week at Spirit Lake on the north side of the peak. This was all before the blast. In the mid-60s, I kept having this recurring dream: gazing from our kitchen window, the mountain erupted. About 15 years later, it actually happened.

Climbing other lesser peaks during my high school years (I was quite busy with academic and athletic pursuits), I resumed my serious hobby in college, working at Crater Lake National Park, and the Forest Service on the Malheur and Wenatchee National Forests. After graduation from j-school, I resumed working for the U.S.F.S.

On the Lake Wenatchee District, which had peaks galore, I worked as a wilderness ranger for the next five years. By the early 80s, I had left the Forest Service for graduate school in journalism and a career in public relations, first at McKenzie-Willamette Hospital and then Eugene Water & Electric Board.

Being my career job, I spent 23 years at the utility. Hooking up with other like-minded backcountry enthusiasts, I reconnected with Oregon’s Cascade peaks while traveling to Lake Wenatchee to reacquaint myself with those trails and massifs. By 2008, I had retired from the utility to dedicate time to more wilderness endeavors.

In retirement, I’ve had the opportunity to explore my Alpine roots, with visits to Germany, Switzerland and Italy. My heroes throughout my climbing career were Fred Beckey, a Northwest resident (Seattle) who was a transplant from Germany, and Reinhold Messner, an Italian-cum-German citizen of South Tyrol.

Hence, I will initiate a series of posts on the the mountains of the Northwest, beginning with peaks I’m most familiar with in Oregon and Washington, in a series entitled “Fire and Ice” on the Cascades, this region’s contribution to the Pacific Ring of Fire that extends from the tip of South America to the tip of New Zealand.

Resilient Roger

In an excruciatingly long Wimbledon men’s final that lasted nearly five hours -- a new record -- Novak Djokovic edged Roger Federer in an exhausting five set match that, for lack of a better way of describing the heart-pounding, nail-biting experience, went into triple overtime. I’m still tired from the experience.

The Joker prevailed over Resilient Roger in five sets, 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3), in a heavyweight championship men’s tennis match for the ages. While Federer was on the short end of the decision in the end, he nonetheless battled relentlessly in an epic donnybrook that lasted four hours, 57 minutes.

Federer, of course, reigns supreme in the men’s tennis world, with 20 Grand Slam championships. Djokovic, along with Rafael Nadal, another great champion, are not far behind with 18 Grand Slam titles each. Whatever happens, Resilient Roger, who turns 38 this month, will always be “The Greatest” in my book.

I’m not the only one with those sentiments. Federer is a Swiss national hero loved worldwide. At the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, he was a featured figure, to be sure. He had more exhibit space than Jean-Luc Goddard, Huldrych Zwingli and William Tell, and finished in first place along with Albert Einstein.

Everyone loves Roger. What's not to like? He speaks eight languages, he’s funny, charming and humble, consistent and resilient, gracious in victory and defeat, can cry without shame, and is a model family man with two sets of twins (Myla and Charlene, and Lenny and Leo) with his wife, Mirka, a former tennis player.

I will always be a Fedhead. What makes Resilient Roger so durable is his ability to turn the page. He’s very good, of course, but he also excels at pushing forward. Both are part of his superpowers. He is fit and motivated, as witnessed by his charge to the Wimbledon finals, and is a tennis legend among mere mortals. Always will be.

Missive From Milepost 65

To say it’s been a year of transition -- everything from milestones to new beginnings to turning points -- would be an understatement. At the start of 2017, I had just arrived at an age celebrated in song during the “summer of love” exactly 50 years before by The Beatles: “will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”

But the year began like something out of a Dickens novel: “bleak, dark and piercing cold.” Worse, the political landscape had changed in untenable ways never heretofore imagined, swinging a full 180 degrees like an action sequence in a Marvel movie. Incredibly, we had a misogynistic, arrogant simpleton in the White House.

Soon after, a beloved friend succumbed to severe depression: Keldon Jon Tjaden. Fellow wilderness rangers in the '70s, we had become friends for life: both Sagittarians, soul brothers, alter egos. He was a renaissance man, adventurer extraordinaire, comic genius, master storyteller and a man of letters. Kelly stomped on the terra.

Together, we had many adventures exploring the Glacier Peak Wilderness and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness as backcountry guards for the U.S. Forest Service. Later, we took lengthy backpacking excursions on the Pacific Crest Trail and Icicle Ridge Trail, and floated the Wenatchee River, the Rogue River and many others.

We joked that we were twin sons of different mothers from another planet. I have indeed lost a brother. His legacy will be his many friendships, a universe of companions from around the country, but especially Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California and Utah. He will be missed but never forgotten.

During a busy spring break complemented by rain and gloom, daughter Gina and Dan Miller were married at the McMenamin’s Edgefield facility in Troutdale. Greeting summer with enthusiasm, few could anticipate the searing heat wave that would arrive later that season. Injuring my knee in June, hiking became a moot point.

Good time to get out of town. My 50-year grade school reunion was a highlight in July. An excursion to New York City (above, outside my hotel) as a member of the PRSA Nominating Committee prefaced a trip to Geneva, Switzerland with Gina in August. We also visited Gruyère, Vevey, Montreux and Chamonix, France.

Back to school in September, the summer had paradoxically seemed both too long and too short. Most of the Northwest was suffering through stifling smoke (below, from my back yard) from more than 46 forest fires burning out of control throughout the Western United States, creating air quality issues never seen in these parts.

In October, I was a delegate to the PRSA Leadership Assembly, along with colleagues Dianne Danowski Smith and Julie Williams, at the PRSA International Conference in Boston, where we precipitated an ad hoc rebellion to scuttle a couple of dubious by-law amendments introduced by the society's leadership.

Today, I turn 65, joining the ranks of Baby Boomers on Medicare everywhere. Despite the grim outlook nationally, I'm blessed to have my family and friends, and my health. I will need it to continue to resist the evil overlords in power and fight the good fight until they are vanquished. Bring on 2018.