I'll miss tacos and politics while away on the ice

by Karl Horeis

Some of you already know because it's been in the works for a while, but now it's official: I'm leaving for Antarctica in October.

It's a four-month stint working at McMurdo Station, the largest base on the continent. After years of trying futilely to land a job at McMurdo's newspaper, The Antarctic Sun, I took a job in the kitchen. My safety shoes came in the mail Tuesday.

I have a long list of things to take care of before leaving. One of them, the second C-Hill Climb fund-raiser, has been crossed off due to the Waterfall fire. Three hundred enthusiastic runners trudging up the newly burned slopes are not good for rehabilitation.

Tuesday night, I checked one of the items off my list: climbing a mixed route in the Sierra. "Mixed" means you use glacier gear (crampons and an ice ax) to cross steep ice slopes then switch to rock gear (rubber-soled shoes and metal camming devices) to climb. My partner and I reached the 14,153-foot summit of Mount Sill via the Swiss Arete on Tuesday afternoon. The route was first climbed in 1938.

Driving home that night, thinking about what I would write in this column, I passed one of those highway cleanup signs. The volunteers who tend 395 just south of Bridgeport are the employees of Jolly Cone. In an era when mom-and-pop stores seem to be losing out to chains, I'm glad there are still towns where businesses like Jolly Cone can thrive.

But I was happy to get home to Carson City, where we have so much great entertainment.

-- n n

The redevelopment authority's Capital City Summer Celebration continues this weekend with another free concert Sunday. Playa Papaya, a local folk-rock band, will perform at 5 p.m. on the Legislative Lawn. This is one of the capital city's nicest venues for an outdoor show venue because it's so green and convenient.

"It's really getting nice out there," said special-events manager Kevin Ray. "Everyone brings out blankets or lawn chairs. Some just bring a bag of chips, and others do this whole gourmet thing with a fancy spread."

The band will probably play an hour, take a break, then play another hour, Ray said. Again, this show is free. For more details go to www.visit carsoncity.com or call 687-7410.

-- n n

On Saturday, miniature horsehair basket weaver Rosemary Rogers-deSoto and her father, Paiute singer Alfred Rogers, will present the next in a series of popular American Indian demonstrations at the Nevada State Museum. Rogers-deSoto, a board member of the Great Basin Native Basketweavers Association, won a blue ribbon at the group's Gathering for a horsehair basket only one-eighth of an inch in diameter.

Past presentations have been about tule duck decoys, willow baskets, natural foods, medicines and songs. Saturday's presentation is 1 to 4 p.m.

The only fee is regular museum admission: $5 for adults, $3 for seniors, and free for under 18. For details, call 687-4810.

-- n n

I couldn't get any more details on this next one, but I had to mentioned it because the line in the calendar reads like contemporary Western poetry: "Fiesta and Politics," a nonpartisan candidates' forum and taco feed, from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Fuji Park.

If any of you still need more motivation to register and vote (as if exercising battle-won freedoms and deciding the future of the most powerful country in the history of the known universe isn't enough) now you've got it: tacos.

Call 883-1259.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.