Plant Stuff

Somehow I've become a plant person? I'm working on a California native plant garden, an avocado cultivar collection, and an orchard of fruit trees on a 2 acre lot in Palos Verdes. Many of the fruit trees have culinary or cultural significance to Armenian and Chinese people (like us!)—e.g. longan, wax apple, jujube, pomegranate, and quince. The following database is linked by QR code from botanical signs in our garden. It reminds us about how to take care of the plants or harvest fruit and is a field journal with photos and updatable health and height fields.

• Middleridge garden database

Trip Reports

One day I'll accept that YouTube videos are the new long-form trip reports, but today is not that day.

• An Anarchic Alta (Parker and Hamik, 10/2025)
  A wintry first summit and multiday backpack for Parker during a government shutdown.

Ancient Trip Reports

These were originally posted on the near-defunct SuperTopo and SummitPost sites. Perhaps I will eventually migrate comments too.

• A Muy Peligroso Chacraraju (Vitaliy M. and Hamik, 7/2013)
  Not my proudest exercise in risk management.
• A Luxurious Huascaran (Vitaliy M. and Hamik, 8/2013)
  A quick jaunt to 22,205 ft.
• Jack of All Routes, Sender of None (Lea and Hamik, 5/2013)
  Chocolate fondue at Iceberg, then a climb that wandered across three routes.
• A Nose in a Push (Vitaliy M. and Hamik, 4/2013)
  It's like Nose in a Day but simultaneously easier and harder. My first time on El Cap. Two sunrises, zero sleep.
• A Moonlit Matthes Crest with Vicky (Vicky and Hamik, 7/2012)
  Very romantic in hindsight, but even though Vicky and I are now married—I really only expect climbers to understand—we were just climbing partners fitting in one more send before driving home.
• A Technically-But-Not-Really Winter Mithril Dihedral (Vitaliy M. and Hamik, 3/2012)
  Winter rock climbing warm enough for bare hands and rock shoes.
• A Snaggy Churup (Alex and Hamik, 6-7/2011)
  All fun and games until you have to cut your rope!
• A Glorious Romp Across the Range of Light (Nick S. and Hamik, 4/2011)
  Forty miles across the Sierra in two days. Midnight moonlit skiing.
• A Winter Winter Route (Kellen, Aaron, and Hamik, 1/2011)
  A bivy high on the south face followed by a first little taste of mixed climbing.

Primordial Trip Reports

These are from my mid 2000s blog, hexploits.com. Entries 1 to 13 from India and Chamonix are seemingly lost to time: they aren't on the Wayback Machine or any of the usual places. Maybe one day I'll find an old external hard drive containing those entries.

• 19: North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak (Hamik, 5/2010)
  A solo trip up a Sierra classic.
• 18: SoCal Ice Climbing!? (Alex F., Pratyush, Kedron, and Hamik, 2/2010)
  Once upon a time, there was real ice climbing at Tahquitz.
• 17: A Polar Vortex Pineapple Express Atmospheric River Dump for the Ages on Mount Baldy (Caltech Alpine Club, 1/2010)
  Ski hut stay, snow cave on the summit, ski jump off the outhouse roof.
• 16: Late Fall East Buttress of Whitney (Alex F. and Hamik, 11/2009)
  The East Buttress of Whitney in November, photographed in black and white by Alex.
• 15: Final Days in Chamonix, plus V Notch and Polemonium to Starlight (Pavel, Justin, and Hamik, 9/2009)
  With 48 hours separating French and Californian glaciers!
• 14: Mini Adventures at Season's End (Veronica A., Sonia, Steve Gubser, and Hamik, 9/2009)
  A flurry of little trips with Veronica, a Blacker classmate, Sonia, who I think I met on the UKClimbing forums, and Steve Gubser—not sure how I met Steve, but he was well-liked physics prof at Princeton who died climbing in Chamonix in 2019.