[avr-gcc-list] Time-efficient read of high byte in two-byte variable

[Wallace White]

What's a good, quick way to read the high byte of a two-byte variable in C?

I am sending an int out the UART, unformatted. Here's what my tries so 
far have compiled into (my 16-bit variable is encPosDetentsNow):

872:    UDR = (unsigned char) (encPosDetentsNow >> 8);
+00000517:   91600079    LDS     R22,0x0079       Load direct from data 
space
+00000519:   9170007A    LDS     R23,0x007A       Load direct from data 
space
+0000051B:   2F87        MOV     R24,R23          Copy register
+0000051C:   2799        CLR     R25              Exclusive OR
+0000051D:   FD87        SBRC    R24,7            Skip if bit in 
register cleared
+0000051E:   959A        DEC     R25              Decrement
+0000051F:   B98C        OUT     0x0C,R24         Out to I/O location

The following is a little shorter:

871:   UDR = (((unsigned int) encPosDetentsNow) & 0xFF00) >> 8;
+00000517:   91600079    LDS     R22,0x0079       Load direct from data 
space
+00000519:   9170007A    LDS     R23,0x007A       Load direct from data 
space
+0000051B:   2F87        MOV     R24,R23          Copy register
+0000051C:   2799        CLR     R25              Exclusive OR
+0000051D:   B98C        OUT     0x0C,R24         Out to I/O location

What I'd really like to get would be just
        LDS     R23,0x007A      ; load the high byte
        OUT     0x0C,R24        ; and output it to UDR
without going to inline assembly.

This is using the current WinAVR with -O3.

Thanks,
Wallace