I basically stalled out at the top- I didn't realize that the rock was 'pointy' enough that I couldn't roll over it until it was too late.    Not sure if my pedal hit the rock too, but if I had given it more power on the way up I should have been able to wheelie off the other side.  In this case, lack of speed kills.

Edit- probably had my weight too far forward too

Do you even have trails with trees out there? 

To confirm the ERD,  I picked up two spokes and nipples for $2 at an REI and did the measurements with the spokes threaded in even with the bottom of the slot in the nipple.  I measured an ERD of 596 compared to iplay's 597, so their number is good.  Both rims measured the same all the way around (measuring 4 places, or every 45°).  DT's spoke calculator calls for 289/291 in the front, and 289/290 in the rear.  I ordered all 290 mm to make it easier, since the 1 mm difference should not cause a problem.

I have all the pieces in now, and have started playing with them.  I laced up the front to see how it would go- pretty tedious, but not that difficult following the procedure on Sheldon Brown's website http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html .  Here it is laced up, but not tensioned at all.  Total weight for the front is 730 g; based on the weight of the DT 350 rear hub the rear should weigh about 850 making the set 1580 g. 



The gorilla tape costs $3 for a roll and adds about 20 g, so it really isn't worth trying to futz with individual pieces or plugs for the holes.  Somewhere in the mtbr carbon rim thread there are some posts about plugs and problems getting them to seal, so I'd stick with the tape [rimshot]. 

Interesting- I also got mine from Merlin, and I got the typical US set up (front brake on left).  The site doesn't ask which side you want as far as I can tell.

And congrats on the job!  I'd love to take a bike tour of that area.

You may want to also look at a Chiner Fatbike for when the trail is under 3 feet of snow

That one is just a paper print out to see what size I need and get an idea of how it will look- I haven't ordered one yet, having a tough time finding a site that will let me order just one custom sticker.

Been riding my Chiner for 6 weeks now and it is great.  I've had a couple of wrecks, but nothing serious (for the bike anyway).  I mis-judged a log and planted my front wheel right in front of it rather than on top.  The bike stopped, and I wound up flat on my face.  The other was on some tight singletrack where I got careless and clipped a small tree with the end of the handlebars.  I wound up with a sprained thumb when I hit the ground, but the bike was fine.

I think I solved the shudder/judder issue with the front brake- it seems to have been caused by the headset not being tight enough, even though I thought I torqued it down pretty good.  The Neco expanding plug may have been slipping and thus not tightening as much as I thought- there were marks in the steer tube where I originally had it, but I don't know if that happened during installation or in use.  When I put it back together I torqued the plug and the top cap to 15 - 20 Nm, but the headset never felt like it was binding.  With it tighter, I have not had the 'shudder' on the last few rides.   I'm debating just putting in the star nut- the Neco plug is easier, but I'm still not convinced that the plug didn't slide up the steer tube leading to too much play.

I still need to shorten the front brake line (I have it taped to the rear der cable to keep it from flapping around), but that seems to be more cosmetic than a necessity. 

Iv'e got the beginning of a downtube design-





I think I need to stretch it a bit more and add some contrasting highlights.  I didn't really like the plain outline dragons that a lot of the sticker sites have, but the details on this may not be visible from more than a few feet away.  Since you can't see the detail anyway, a simple design may be better- something like this, but in gold and about 12" long.