Rode Galbraith with Russ, whom I spied in the Whatcom Falls Park parking lot from my desk.

He has just followed Mark Belles's lead and gotten rid of his big chain ring and replaced it with a smooth Spot rock ring, which seemed to make a big difference right off the bat. Russ was able to punch up over the log drop on the Lower Ridge Trail that I saw The Angry Young Man get over last summer. He said his chain ring didn't even touch the log! Very impressive.

Approximately 1100 verts.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.