Tag Archives: gopro

Heading out again! (day 276)

Leave a reply

I have been photographing and filming the beautiful fall colors in the northeast as I have been climbing principally in the Gunks on fair weather days and ducking indoors to the Inner Wall in New Paltz, one of our first sponsors, who have been kind enough to support this project. Staying with my dad has limited my ability to blog since he does not have Wi-Fi and the blogs that I want and need to write involved larger photos that are not on my phone and require more bandwidth to upload here.

I know that quietness on the blog front may seem like a lack of activity but if anything, the tremendous amount happening is making me prioritize and stealing my efforts away from writing as much as I would like to. Getting the remainder of Project 365 funded through our final campaign has been a big focus and thanks to generous friends, we are 15% of the way to being able to fund the last several months of this mission.

I try to respond to tweets, retweets, facebook comments and the like, but I want to make sure it is stated here again, that I am SO appreciative of all of the help we have gotten and continue to get–in specific contributions and also in spreading the word and sharing this project. You guys are awesome!

I am hitting the road for a time to get down into the Red River Gorge of Kentucky and possibly other areas of the south east and I am looking for folks to climb with.

I would love to meet up with (for climbing or just for coffee) any members of the DOC.  I am looking for partners for weekdays in the Red over the next few weeks and if anyone wants to come out and try climbing and see what this Project is like on the day to day level, I welcome anyone interested. You dont need to be crushing big-number routes or have a ton of experience. There is a lot to do and learn so get in touch if you or someone you  know is available to mix some climbing with diabetes!

Lastly…I would like to tell you all to keep an eye on the blog next week because I am beginning to unpack our British Columbia adventure and it is something that will resonate with you if you have enjoyed any element of what has been shared so far! I anticipate several posts on that adventure, so please be patient!

 

Getting old.

1 Reply

Once you’re past 21 there is no joy in the thought of getting older. Suddenly you’re a few years away from proctological exams and being another statistic cited in a Viagra commercial and before you’re able to mash the imaginary brakes you’re finding gray hairs at the bottom of the shower. Bang. You’re old!

Ok, maybe I’ve just revealed some of my characteristic self loathing and cynicism, but in truth, I have always seen my time on earth as being precious due to the somewhat arbitrary nature of diabetes related complications. I’ve never envisioned living into my golden years but rather succumbing to complications or falling off a mountain or being eaten by a yeti.

I can’t help how my mind works, but I have been able to use this neurotic and ostensibly depressing world view to take each day and seize it-which has resonated with others who take part in this grim caper of living deliberately with an illness that is invisible and almost always misunderstood.

So while I was thinking about entering my fourth decade of life I got a phone call from Stefanie. Usual, routine stuff telling me about her day of flights and describing the traffic now that she was back in NYC. I didn’t really feel like talking because I was in the shower and I felt like this conversation would keep for a few minutes until I was better able to talk.

About a minute after we hung up, Stefanie walked in the room–she had been playing me all along. Apparently I looked surprised. I know it took me a couple hours to accept that she really showed up out of the blue! This made my day beyond what I can put into words.

We sat around and talked with Rob about what we should do for the evening. He suggested that we go up on the mesa outside of town- there was bouldering and spectacular views–so naturally we were sold.

We took Robs Jeep (cj-5 for those of you who know and love old jeeps) up a horrific and steep dirt road called Crybaby Hill, so named by cyclists. The dirt road was a jumble of loose rock and ruts and it’s pitch was unrelenting but eventually we made it to the top and had all of Springdale and Zion spread out below us.

The clouds and light were making otherworldly patterns in the sky–on one hand a magical sunset was taking shape and on the other, violent thunderstorms were pounding the higher peaks in the distance.

 

I set up cameras to capture as much as I could but the storms were out in the distance so my quarry (a good lightning shot) eluded me. As night fell a new round of storms kicked up, with more explosive lighting. I kept shooting and we all relished our perch up on the edge of the mesa, overlooking the valley below.

At one point Stefanie remarked that the lightning seemed to be moving towards us.

Not only was she right, but we had been unable to calculate just how fast it was coming for us–within 2 minutes it was almost upon us and we frantically scrambled for the Jeep, hoping to to make it back down off the mesa before we were either electrocuted or the steep dirt road became an impassible mud pit on the edge of a yawning chasm.

Faced with two certain means of death nipping at our heels I made damn sure my camera was properly put away and all memory cards were accounted for and that all electronics had been weatherproofed. I was too stoked on these shots to lose them through carelessness!

So I guess it’s obvious at this point that no one perished but there were about 10 minutes where it was serious and risk was amplified. During those minutes I felt alive and I wasn’t in the grasp of my neuroses–and if that’s a foreshadowing of what my 30s will bring then I say game on!

The road less traveled

Leave a reply

Being back in Zion with beautiful climbing temps (sub 90 degrees!) has been awesome. I am hitting my stride again and have been doing more 3rd and 4th class climbing rather than hard pulling in order to increase my cardio fitness for the second half of September when I will be shooting in the mountains of British Columbia and will need more endurance than power in order to stack on the vertical footage and the video footage! I have stopped fretting as much about the things I can’t control and accepting where I am and the opportunities that are all around me in Springdale. As of today (day 237) I have accumulated 49,380 ft! Please help us complete the necessary funding for Project 365 by liking this video through your YouTube account and sharing it with all your friends. Each like on the video will generate $1 from our sponsor Roche, the makers of Accu-Chek.

“Hey dude, you wanna explore this flat area I found on the map?” Rob asked me over breakfast. I caught myself as I was about to simply fire back with an affirmative response. Explore a flat area? Something sounded…off about this request considering that it was coming from Rob. I quickly backpedaled and inquired about the terrain leading up to this “flat area”. 

Rob allowed that we would be traversing the backcountry on the east side of the park and that there would be no established routes, paths or set agenda other than  exploring some topography that he had found engaging while poring over one of the many maps that litter the kitchen table and cover the walls of the apartment.  We plotted a general route south from the road and in towards Parunaweap Canyon, a cousin to Zion Canyon, which is essentially cut off from the outside world.

The price of admittance is steep but costs little money–I began to realize that this oft-romanticized narrative of the backcountry is far from what any normal person would think of as “fun”. Immediately after leaving the pavement, we started down a sandy wash, in towards a dry creek bed that we planned to follow overland. I can think of few things as hateful as hiking through sand. I tried to postpone my complaining until we had been on the move for more than two minutes. A short time later we cut up a slickrock slope that was pitched at about 60 degrees. My lungs burned and I stopped to take a picture. I gnawed on a half of  a Builders Bar to counteract the sugar that I knew was being consumed. Better to stay ahead of the game–cardio tanks my sugar if it is sustained and when I looked up, Rob was about 200 feet ahead of me, a distance that he covered in a remarkably short time.

Shit. I have to catch up. Don’t want to gum up the works and I certainly dont want to be downclimbing this mess by headlamp!

I found it harder and harder to keep moving as the climb went on, not because I was out of energy, but because there was so much to photograph! Knowing that almost no one goes back in this area made everything suddenly more interesting and more genuine. This was my experience alone–to enjoy and then share! The higher we climbed the more the rock quality deteriorated. Large slabby layers of the typical whitish sandstone would cut loose while you stood on it like a giant surfboard. Most of the rock seemed to be held together by pressed sand, which made for an entertaining guessing game called “Will this hold fail?”. Each move you were guessing if your next move would be clawing for a rescue hold as the previous one gives way.

 

Some sections were steeper than others and looking up from the bottom the moves seemed straightforward. I looked back down a few times and remember feeling less excited at the grim steepness littered with rock that was more akin to oatmeal or crushed saltines. Nevertheless, with a bit of perseverance, Rob and I tagged the summit of this unnamed peak–which we named Mount Frank Reynolds in honor of one of our favorite sitcom characters. We had just enough light to spend 10 minutes on the summit looking down into Parunaweap. We sat there taking in spectacular views and I took stock of what this adventure had cost me in terms of energy and willingness to accept suffering. I marveled at the fact that millions of people a year are in Zion National Park  but in a given year if more than 3 or 4 people stood at the summit where we were, that would be a lot.

As we began descending in the waning light, I found the downclimbing on rotten rock to be as horrifying as I expected, but I also found myself more adept at negotiating the terrain than I had initially imagined. I realized that the future of my climbing will include more exploratory routes. The pictures I brought back capture some of the beauty but the feeling of empowerment that comes from exploring new ground…that is still sitting up on top of Mount Frank Reynolds, waiting for the next person willing to tempt fate and leave behind all the things that have already been done to death.

Forget diabetes!

2 Replies

Ever have a night where you stay up for hours writing what you are certain is a very poignant blog only to wind up re reading it the next day and deleting the whole thing? I had one of those nights last night. I will summarize:

I read a study that deals with the link between diabetes and brain shrinkage. It basically states that people with diabetes are likely to experience loss of memory and difficulty processing emotions. I have experienced both of those phenomena in spades over the last 5 years especially and I never really put two and two together. This was a huge drag and made me feel hopeless and depressed because I have noticed these symptoms despite having a track record of excellent blood glucose control. I also have been reading about the reality of death in climbing and the ways that it can be a compulsive behavior that is used to quiet personal demons and that also put me in a very melancholy frame of mind. There were some other things that I wrote but I forgot what they were so I just got really fed up and decided to move onto something more relevant…

I cant really afford to fixate on things that I can’t control, so my mission is essentially the same as before. Climb safe, take nothing for granted and manage my diabetes rather than it managing me. It definitely rattled me though, but I dont really have the luxury of entertaining those kinds of fears right now and ideally I’ll be able to stay busy enough for the rest of my days that I never have the time to stew over things beyond my control. Do more, fret less.

So. Here is what I am choosing to focus on: I am in one of the most incredible places in the world and I have an awesome climbing partner (Rob) who is again graciously hosting me. I have been getting out with him and also shooting a lot, which has been really good.

My license plates get here tomorrow-finally. Rob has decided not to let me leave because next week is my birthday and we are going to celebrate in fine style by climbing another big wall here in Zion taking a couple days and really doing it up now that the weather is cool enough. Think Moonlight buttress only a bit taller and better hydration and BGs (hopefully!). Oh and I’ll officially be a year older. Hopefully the Alzheimers will kick in by next week and I’ll forget my age enough to crush it on Prodigal Son!

In other uplifting news, Stefanie will be rejoining me shortly after my birthday and we will be climbing together in Squamish, The Bugaboos and points eastward from there as we try to make up for lost time and cover some ground on the itinerary. I can’t explain how hard it has been being away from her, and it’s probably better that I don’t try because that won’t help me make it day by day, but suffice to say, it totally bites being without her and it will be refreshing to get back on the road with her on board even if its only for a couple of weeks.

I am keeping a running tally of my vertical gains and as of day 232 I am at 47,780 ft. I am hoping to break 100k by the end of the project. Big days and small days, they all are adding up but I am excited to have some bigger days coming together (starting on my birthday) and lots of long cruiser routes in British Columbia and Wyoming that will happen later this month!

Shooting all this on my own has been tricky but it’s keeping me psyched for what is coming next! Momentum in the project and some long routes with two of my favorite people! Until then I’ll be doing all the guess work and head scratching that is part and parcel of documenting my journey!

Day 230

1 Reply

Im not sure if anyone else wondered how long I could keep going making up silly titles for each blog post before I just copped out and started titling posts according to the current day in the project. Well, I know I have been wondering about that, and the answer is NOW. TODAY.

So for those of you who didnt hear, I am still marooned without the use of a vehicle because the license plates are somewhere in the ethers. I have called, harassed, bothered, bullyragged, berated, notified, begged, and cajoled every person at every possible agency responsible for the delay and the answer has universally been the same: “tough sh*t, they’ll get there when they get there!”

To be fair, I havent gotten to the inmates at the federal penitentiaries where the plates are actually made, so maybe it is my fault for being too out of the loop…

But I took the time waiting for my plates to reconnect with Nick in Vegas and to fly back east to see my wife for not nearly enough time. Climbing with so much traveling has been less than stellar, and mentally, being away from Stefanie is grinding me down majorly. So I decided to take action and get out of Vegas and back to Zion where there is decidedly more climbing within walking distance! I was super paranoid driving with an expired tag but I drive like a 90 year old, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get hassled between Vegas and Utah.

20120903-233905.jpg

So now I am back in Springdale and its kind of an odd feeling because its actually cooling down here and larger climbing objectives are becoming more reasonable and I am getting stoked for the fall and winter in the southwest! To whit, today I took a trip up Angels Landing for 1500 feet of gain (2:38 shuttle to shuttle, 2:07 with photo-foolery time subtracted!) to give my “pull” muscles a break.

20120903-233941.jpg

I kept trying to get moving but then I’d see the sun setting and the light going off in the canyon…its a beautiful thing.

20120903-233953.jpg

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the Angels Landing outhouses. I have opined on the good, bad and ugly in the world of non-flushing sanitation. You may recall my praising those found in Idaho (still, hands down the best and cleaner than many peoples bathrooms) and the one in Smith Rock in Oregon. To balance the spectrum these are the most foul and malodorous examples I have ever encountered. My research is not complete so this is not being put forward as a final assessment…but I couldn’t get much closer than this to investigate because of concerns regarding asphyxiation.

20120903-234016.jpg

So this is the main formation of Angels Landing. Obviously the 3rd-4th class route I took today is not technical climbing but there are some spots that can give you pause if you’re not comfortable with exposure and as an adventure it still demands attention the whole way up and down. Rob and I are discussing climbing a technical route up the formation at some point-you’ll know about that as it develops!

20120903-234003.jpg

Approaching the ridge requires negotiating these switchbacks. There are a lot of them. Its like a big stairmaster. Eat your greens before you try this one!

20120903-234034.jpg

Bumped into this little fellow on the way up–despite his relentless pursuit of spreading the Hanta virus, he took some time off to pose for the camera.

So that said, I am making the best of my time and am not feeling stranded. I have been shooting a lot of video and stills here in town at the Globe which is a great bouldering spot and very easy to photograph. Thats one thing that is nice about this project, when the climbing becomes less auspicious, there is always lots to shoot, once I get in the right headspace. I am to still planning to get into the Pacific NW if the plates come in time. I am learning patience in this endeavor, and I am thankful for that, if somewhat irritated by it.

I would love to have this project go according to plan and never have hitches in my itinerary. Being realistic, most of this project has been a hitch in the itinerary and I am left with a choice to focus on what I need to do to keep going or I can have a meltdown because I am not getting to climb in the venues I wanted to spend my time at. I have definitely experimented with both and the best result seems to come from not throwing fits and just climbing in the place that I am in. This helps me stay positive and that always is important when so much of the shooting requires extra legwork ON TOP OF the climbing itself to capture footage and images. It also is exciting because there is SO much I have to do beyond the scope of this particular project. Day 365 will just be the beginning!