Pink is not my color. But in the interest of saving lives I’m making an investment in a fashionable pink bicycle jersey created by my friend Kay Lum. Her goal is to raise some cash and awareness in the fight to find a cure for breast cancer. You can help too.
It’s always interesting to see how mainstream media depicts the world of rock climbing and mountaineering. Last night the CBS television show The Good Wife revolved around a fictional ill-fated incident on an expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. In an episode called The Death Zone, lawyers debate the circumstances that suggest one climber stole the bottled oxygen of another leaving him to die below the Hillary Step.
In a libel suite against a book written by the brother of the dead climber the alleged oxygen thief -one of those wealthy mountaineers who can afford a lawyer -justifies his actions, claiming a legal precedent. That’s what happens on an expedition.
“He froze to death and you left him, I left him, everybody left him. Why? Because we would have died carrying him down,” he said. “It is the law of the death zone. We all know we can’t be carried out.”
An interview with climber, writer and public speaker Jim Davidson As an adventure journalist I have the opportunity to meet some amazing people. And it was through the magic of social media that I became friends with climber, writer and public speaker Jim Davidson. We first got acquainted on Facebook. But last year we met in person at a café in the Canadian Rockies, a town called Banff. There he told his incredible story of friendship, adventure and survival that’s the subject of his new book, “The Ledge”. On...
Filmmaker Chuck Fryberger makes climbing movies for climbers. His flicks are an intimate look at state of the art and he suffers no patience for those on the short end of the learning curve. “I’m going to make a film with Chris Sharma and I’m not going to explain who he is, because that just gets in the way of the story.” He said in a recent interview.
So don’t expect a voiceover narration on the intricate details of big wall climbing or even bouldering. “I’m not at all worried about confusing non-climbers with my films,” Fryberger said. “If my mom sees this film and understands everything she sees then I’ve failed."
“Last Child in the Woods”, author Richard Louv offers some investment advice on how to get the most out life through nature. This is also “Take a child outside” week: http://www.takeachildoutside.org/
http://www.childrenandnature.org/blog/2011/09/24/natures-own-stimulus-package-7-ways-to-improve-our-lives-in-tough-economic-times/
[audio mp3="http://joytrip2019.mhwebstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Ron-Kauk.mp3"][/audio] Ron Kauk is one of the best known climbers in Yosemite Valley. He was among that early generation of big wall pioneers that set the standards and established the major routes that are still popular today. Since 1974 he’s been a regular in the Yosemite climbing community. Having made the first free ascent of Washington Column in 1975 with John Long and John Bachar Kauk renamed the route Astroman and it became the most challenging climb in the Valley for more than 10 years. On a joy trip...