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Want to see the Project365 documentary?

By Steve on December 2, 2013 in Diabetes, project 365

If you follow us on Facebook you probably saw the announcement of our first screening of the completed Project365 documentary. We actually have an EVENTS page that you can check regularly to see where we are going and what we are doing…but I digress. It’s going to be really awesome-we will have LivingVertical merch to give away, to raffle off AND we will have a silent auction to benefit our 2014 SweetestSummit Programs. We will be auctioning off TWO round trip tickets from Jetblue, FROM any city they fly TO any city they fly!

I am so proud of the fact that this film was a grassroots effort-produced through hard work and sacrifice rather than a big budget. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to try the big budget approach, but it’s really significant to see what can happen when normal people get behind an idea and push to make it happen-and that’s what we-and by ‘we’ I mean ‘you’- have done with this film. It’s been a community undertaking from day one and that is the message!

In keeping with this community centric approach, I’d like to ask you to look around in your area to help connect us with local venues that would be interested in hosting a screening. Climbing venues, diabetes orgs/groups, schools, hospitals…anywhere that people will be motivated enough to get us a place to show the film, we will bring it there and present it. We are excited to partner with the NYC JDRF chapter for our launch of the film and hope that this type of event and partnership can be replicated in many communities across the world-creating opportunities for climbing, empowerment and community growth through this film.

Please EMAIL US and SHARE this post if you’d like to get involved and can help us bring Project365 to YOUR community!

In case you missed the Athletic Achievement Awards!

By Steve on August 19, 2013 in project 365, Uncategorized

This weekend, I was honored to be a finalist in the Insulindependence Athletic Achievement Award for 2013-I submitted a short video about Project365 along with 24 other amazing athletes with diabetes, many of whom I am proud to call personal friends. To be honest I was pretty surprised to make it that far in the first place-I know that climbing is exciting and novel in its own way, but so many of the folks who also entered are far beyond me in terms of athletics. To be honest I have never considered myself an athlete-just a diabetic with a climbing habit that has steered my life through the challenges of this chronic illness.

I have to remember that last line, that’s going to be the epigram for my book when I write it…

As things turned out, my video was viewed almost 5,000 times thanks to YOU-who watched, shared, “liked”, tweeted, retweeted, blogged, reblogged, harassed, pestered and publicized. That was good enough to get me invited to San Diego to the final award ceremony and I felt very honored. The other two gentlemen that were finalists along with me have been good friends and super supportive of Project365 from the outset. Really wonderful people, sincere, with a heart for helping people with diabetes-the kind of people that I knew I’d be happy for if they won over me, the kind of people that I’d feel a little sheepish and humbled winning over them.

Going into the competition, I was committed to one thing: winning the award. During this weekend, prior to the presentation of the award, something changed in my mind. The appeal of the award paled in comparison to the magic that happens when you get a couple hundred passionate, incredibly talented and committed people together who are all in pursuit of the same goal. This creates competition-where people are vying for publicity and funding-basic needs that sustain our efforts-but competition-and staying “hungry” is important. It’s not a negative thing to say ‘hey, I want to win this’. It causes all of us to elevate our game and our minds. Moreover, it creates waves that reverberate outside of the diabetes community to indicate that there are enough of us out there who are getting after it to really create some competition-and that is a beautiful thing that none of us could do alone!

By this point you must have figured out that I didn’t win the competition. Honesty is an important (if not widely appreciated) quality-and so I’ve got to say, when it hit me that I would not be taking home the $5,000.00 that would help complete the documentary that I have poured my entire life into for 2 years, it felt like a failure. I failed. Why wasn’t I good enough to get more people to vote for me? I have always been my harshest critic and my reaction is always to initially take challenges and internalize them. Challenges like diabetes. Like falling off climbs.

Some people seem to think I’m a “professional diabetic” to borrow a phrase from Bill Carlson, or that diabetes isn’t a struggle for me because I climb “stuff”. Between the summits that I have shared through Project365 there have been valleys darker than a well-diggers colon-depression, despair, inadequacy, you name it-and it periodically crashes in on me. Writing this blog is one of the hardest ones I have ever had to do. I don’t like to admit that I don’t handle challenges well-frequently. I’d like to be seen as a class act that can accept failure with grace-but it’s a struggle for me and like it or not, that’s me and it’s out there.

But that moment passed and I put on my big-boy pants and realized that this award was never mine to begin with and that I had not lost anything. I had fabricated a path in my mind and attached myself to an outcome rather than just being open. That was my only failure! This moment, this award, had belonged to someone else and that was our success together as a community.

Yesterday, I had some time to talk to Scott and as we shared stories and congratulated each other, I felt like a fool for even allowing myself to entertain the feeling of failure. This weekend was an opportunity for me to reset my perspective again, and I am very thankful that Scott is such a gracious guy-and I am truly excited for him to explore the horizons of his athletics-and hopefully to come climbing with me like we have been planning for a year!

So what’s next? Well, this isn’t really a setback for the Project365 documentary. I am more inspired than I have ever been and more motivated to complete what we all started together. We will take a different route to the summit-and it will be superb. I hope that you, my partners won’t sever the ropes that connect us, upon realizing that I have flaws that I have yet to master.

Heading out again! (day 276)

By Steve on October 19, 2012 in LivingVertical

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.

By Steve on September 11, 2012 in project 365

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

By Steve on September 9, 2012 in LivingVertical

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!

By Steve on September 5, 2012 in LivingVertical, project 365

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

By Steve on September 3, 2012 in LivingVertical, project 365

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

Summits and valleys

By Steve on August 7, 2012 in project 365

Following the blogger summit was the AADE (Association of American Diabetes Educators) which is a trade show, where any company or group who has any involvement in things related to diabetes can set up a booth and demonstrate their products or services.

I was pretty nonplussed to see that High Fructose Corn Syrup had its own booth set up espousing the virtues of genetically modified sugary sweeteners that have infiltrated virtually every type of processed food. I had several interviews with Diabetes print publications to get to so I was sadly unable to share my dietary proclivities with those in attendance…

This evening I have no such engagements so I will fill you in. If my 203 consecutive days of climbing count for anything, let me assure you that it’s not “all the same”. Food choices mean the difference between living in fear of your diabetes vs your diabetes fearing the rigors you will put it through on a day to day basis. Your body CAN tell the difference between natural foods and ones that have been processed and modified.

Don’t like that opinion? Don’t kill the messenger. That’s just the data that I have recorded from rigorous blood glucose monitoring over 13 years and in all sorts of extreme environs. I may be an easily biased, whole foods zealot but my meter shares none of those sentiments and so I trust it to be objective when I cannot be.

Just saying.

Later that afternoon I got to meet up with some of the Accu Chek street team who were kind enough to take a photo with me and shared in the excitement of our partnership.

That evening, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion with several other diabetes advocates and CDEs (certified diabetes educators) at a gala which was hosted by Mario Lopez. It was fun getting to spend more time with my new friends and it was an honor to address all the people who attended the event.

I was pretty wired (nerves etc) and excited so I didn’t get too many photos but other advocates at the discussion got a bunch of photos which are floating around Facebook and Twitter!

During the event, they read a letter that a parent from the Atlanta event wrote in regards to her sons experience during our time there last week. This letter is the beginning of something great and is validation for what we all set out to achieve through Project 365. I have known for a while that the empowerment of climbing is tangible but hearing others with diabetes discover it for themselves made all of the logistical hassles of the last few weeks totally worth it.

I didn’t save the video properly so it’s aesthetically imperfect… but the audio is clear and that is what I hope you can focus on: click for the video clip

From Indianapolis I flew to Oregon for a couple days to meet up with Lee and Alan Paton to climb out at Smith Rock!

The Patons have been huge supporters of Project 365 from the outset and I only wish I had more time to spend with them; but we made the most of our day together-which just happened to be blue Friday (we wear blue every Friday to show solidarity for those fighting diabetes).

Following our time together out west, I flew back to Boston to be with Stefanie for her birthday (a day belated) and we spent the next 2 days doing easy bouldering and buildering and hanging out at the petting zoo with our niece and nephew.

Now Stefanie is off to work again and all that remains for me here is tying up some loose ends and paperwork and editing and getting back underway, hopefully heading west by Friday!

AADE 12 accu-chek clifbar climbing diabetes fitness five ten Goal Zero gopro nano PCGI project 365 Roche type 1 diabetes

Announcing an exciting partnership!! PLEASE SHARE!!

By Steve on July 24, 2012 in project 365

Let me preface this by saying that many of you have been supporting us since we had only an idea and very little to show for it-and now we have made a major step forward and we are excited to show you what that idea you nurtured has grown into! Thank you for believing in us all along.

Atlanta wasn’t on the original itinerary for Project 365-and as you may have guessed there was a pretty important reason for us to head down here. There has been a lot that I have been dying to share with you that I have had to hold off on-until now!

Roche, the makers of Accu-Chek products has put their support behind LivingVertical and is highlighting our Project 365 on a site they created to promote awareness of diabetes and help us share our mission to empower people living with diabetes!

A couple of weeks ago when the Dragon Wagon died, you all wanted to help out and now you CAN! By visiting www.stevesmountain.com and “liking” our video you will be securing a $1 donation (one “like” =$1 for LV) from Roche to our project!

A single dollar per like means that maximizing this fundraising drive will hinge on your sharing this video! We need your help and in the end we will have the funding we need to complete this project AND we will reach more people than we could have hoped to reach on our own!

To launch this partnership Roche organized a free climbing event that I will be hosting at Stone Summit in Atlanta today (come on out if you’re in the area it’s an AMAZING facility!) where I will be meeting and climbing with a group of folks who are living with diabetes.

Over the course of the event and the day following I will be doing about 50 media interviews with radio and tv stations all over the US. I am overwhelmed at all of this…it’s so…grown up! But it means that we are getting the word out and that’s what this is all about!

I look forward to sharing more about the event after the fact-in the meantime please share and like the video at www.stevesmountain.com ! We are thankful to you all for your support that has led us to this point-and we are psyched to have Roche on our team as we move forward into the second half of Project 365!

5.10 accu-chek blood glucose meter clifbar climbing diabetes documentar Goal Zero gopro living vertical nano PCGI project 365 Roche T1D

Some cool visuals that I hope you’ll enjoy from P:365

By Steve on June 27, 2012 in LivingVertical

CoR in Timelapse (City of Rocks, ID) from Living Vertical on Vimeo.

I am pretty excited about the timelapse footage I got in Idaho-I am appreciating the fact that the artistic aspect of this project is giving me a bit of solace from only focusing on climbing and risking burnout. This creative footage is something that I can see results with immediately and it helps give me perspective on the fact that I am living in the moments which will be compiled into a larger collective once all is said and done.

It was really random and fortuitous that I got to meet Austin in City of Rocks-he has an amazing collection of work and I only wish I had more time and Sharpies to have him fill up all the space on the Dragon Wagon

I am also really psyched at how the Dragon Wagon is beginning to tell a story on its own. When I pulled into the park at Snoqualmie Falls, I made a new friend named Dennis. I don’t know if he reads this blog. I don’t think he follows us on Facebook. He was working with a crew of maintenance fellows taking care of the park and walked over to me when I got out of the car. He smiled and said, “You sure have a lot of friends!”.

I thought to myself, that really is true-and the Dragon Wagon is beginning to tell a story on its own-a real-life blog that takes a second to read and that everyone seems to want to “comment” on. I don’t know how much Dennis knows about Type 1 Diabetes based on our encounter-but he at least knows that it doesn’t have to keep you grounded. Some people want to know a lot, others just want to write on a car with a Sharpie. I may not be teaching a masters course on endocrinology, but people won’t soon forget the Dragon Wagon and what it stands for: pushing the limits of life with Type 1 Diabetes-simply.

New York ain’t “THE City”

By Steve on June 26, 2012 in LivingVertical

After recharging in Zion for a couple of days and getting some inspiration from great friends (and editing video and photos from Yosemite) it was time to move on and get out of the searing heat of the desert. I LOVE Zion but the heat definitely sucks my will to live. I determined to head north into Idaho and then to Seattle to finally meet up with Stefanie who had her first couple days off.

My goal was to go through City of Rocks National Reserve in Almo, ID and then head to the PNW (Pacific North West) to connect with Stef. This left me with some complicated logistics in terms of climbing and meeting up with Calvin to climb. As it turned out I got some solo climbing in at the City and I got to climb one pitch with Calvin before rushing off to Seattle!

A lot of people don’t know how amazing Idaho is-and I am ok with that because one of its best qualities is how unhurried and uncrowded it is. City of Rocks is one of the most amazing places to climb in North America because the rock is AWESOME, the living is easy, the people are chill and ambience of the area is like few other places. I don’t have a rational explanation of the “energy” of various places, but City of Rocks always makes me feel welcome and like I am supposed to be there. I feel strong mentally and physically there-whereas other places (even on similar types of formations, such as Joshua Tree NP) tend to feel a bit more austere.

at “The Breadloaves” at City of Rocks

I spent one day bouldering-which evolved into some solo climbing. The decision to climb higher without a partner is one that I make infrequently when it feels right-and it did so off I went. I was completely alone and it felt amazing to be totally dialed in and moving unhindered over the rock. It was some of the best climbing, or most enjoyable, that I have done anywhere. I finished the day by wandering down to the camping area where I connected with Calvin and his friends.

The gang

Calvin

Among this lot was a fellow named Austin Steigemeier who instantly was dialed into the artwork on the Dragon Wagon.

Turns out that he is a grad student in art school and his preferred medium is Sharpie on vinyl! We conspired to create a mural on the Dragon Wagon despite the fact that the sun was soon to go down and it was pretty damn cold out there at 5500 feet elevation! I set up the shot to capture the process in timelapse and then also captured some video. The finished work was totally awesome! I hope to add more to this!

That night I shot another timelapse of the milky way-which is my best one yet, I think!

The next morning I climbed with Calvin for the first time outside of our “home crag” of Zion. It was FUN but kind of a tease because I had to hit the road and head up to Seattle. Right now (Friday June 22), I am in Seattle-I found bouldering along the way near Snoqualmie which was a nice “snack between meals”. Sadly the weather is rainy here, and looks like it will continue to be wet till late next week-so I am going to be forced to retreat to central Washington where there is good climbing and it will be more dry. I hope to connect with Calvin again and continue climbing with him also.

This is the first issue I have had avoiding rain since Moonlight Buttress in the spring-it’s kind of nice to see rain, but it is a hassle to deal with on the road. Connecting with partners is the next priority but that is looking hopeful for the rest of June since Calvin is based out of Seattle now and the month of July looks like it may hold a reunion with Rob for a blitz through Wyoming and the Black Hills!

Hang loose and bear with me. It’s all getting stitched together, one day at a time!

Love, Life and T1D in Yosemite (video)

By Steve on June 22, 2012 in LivingVertical

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In light of that, I’m not sure what the value of video is if converted to words, but here is a bit of what was shot over the last couple of weeks in Yosemite.

Love, life and Type 1 Diabetes on El Capitan from Living Vertical on Vimeo.

I know that I could not do this without the support of Stefanie. I know that no matter how good or bad of a day I have, I only have one bottom line when it’s all done: I just miss my best friend.