Just stumbled upon Ric Stultz and his amazing art. I like it because, to me, he speaks to the complacency that modern technology has embedded into our lexicon. Our emotions are inevitably tied with the intrinsic value of how we communiciate, which ironically is dictated by the medium of hi-tech gadgets. Ahh, art. Please enjoy! And check out the rest of his work here.

Another Lost Voice

The Trouble with Mix Tapes

Trying to Adapt

I have a lot of goals for this season! First off, I want to dawn patrol Mount Superior as many times as possible. Hopefully even twice in one day at some point…

Emile Hirsch stars in the movie “Into the Wild.” If you haven’t see it yet, you definitely should. Better yet, you could read the book by Jon Krakauer first. (OK, I’m guilt of not reading the book as well). The soundtrack though is absolutely incredible…all of it is by Eddie Vedder. This is an amazing song that I heard today while doing accounting for SheJumps and it made me think of my goals for the season, and, well, the general beauty that unfolds when we let our souls flow with the wind.

Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow

Gonna rise up
Burning back holes in dark memories
Gonna rise up
Turning mistakes into gold

Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Low and behold

Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically
Gonna rise up
Throw down my ace in the hole

When it comes to growing up in Santa Fe, there are more than a few crazy stories that come to mind. Most of them have to do with my awesome mom, Amy. If we weren’t marching in a parade doing a Jazzercise routine we were probably on some wild goose chase in our 1985 Saab to “find the gold at the end of the rainbow.” One thing that she made Joey and I do, but we always hated, was waking up early one weekend a year to pick up trash on the side of the highway. She was the director a campaign in New Mexico called “Toss no Más.” Governor Gary Johnson was on a bike trek from the North to the South of New Mexico to pick up as many bags of trash as he could along the way.

Anywho, this website about Guerilla Gardening made me think of how much I learned to hate litterbugs, and how good it feels to pick up trash–even if it’s not yours! One time I even found a blank check…(I wish!)

NEW ZEALAND—(as posted from GuerillaGarderning.org) Litter clearance and collection can become a big part of a guerrilla gardener’s mission. Occasionally I hear from people dedicated to this cause, though seldom of those who have the company and service of an animal in the fight against filth: “When I was young, you didn’t see rubbish such as plastic bottles. Now, even where I live in New Zealand, we have beautiful green countryside and forests spoilt by people carelessly throwing their rubbish out car windows or from bikes. The grassy road verges hide ugly
secrets of broken glass and plastic. Only last week we picked up shards of glass from what must have been a sizable broken mirror someone had thrown out. Children are taught at school to care for their environment so I wonder what sort of people do this. I walked almost daily with a donkey up to 7 kms though due to a health problem I could not walk for about 4 months last winter but am working up again and now it is 5 kms and improving. About three years ago we began regularly picking up rubbish along the way and my old donkey Rosalie carried it on her back, soon becoming accustomed to the tins banging together and rattling stuff. Sadly Rosalie died last February and I miss her very much but a new young donkey has come. Donkeys are very much maligned in the world today and these sensitive and intelligent animals suffer terribly from human ignorance.

Just goes to show, there are a lot of ways you can “jump”

Big-mountain freeskier and ski-film star Lynsey Dyer keeps a cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue tacked to a hallway wall in her house as a reminder of the way things are for women in sports: that is to say, largely ignored. “I want it to be a female athlete on the cover, not just models,” she says. “That doesn’t seem to be too much to ask.”

Dyer, with fellow skiers and friends Vanessa Pierce and Claire Smallwood (pictured, from top), founded SheJumps, a Salt Lake City–based nonprofit with an eye toward building a community of like-minded women: strong, active and sick of the status quo. “I’m tired of seeing Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as role models,” she says. “We want to be a part of changing that.”

The group is pushing adventure-based empowerment for three grades of women: the never-evers, the backcountry pros and the active types in need of a little help from talented friends with extra gear. (Their slogan: “What would you dare to accomplish if you knew the only possible outcome was
success?”) This winter, SheJumps is hosting a campaign to get more women avvy-educated and into the backcountry, with classes, discounts and networks of similarly inclined ladies. Last fall, they offered a free two-day career conference for professional female athletes, with seminars on everything from finding an agent to exploiting the media. (Hey, wait a minute….) Salt Lake City contains a growing immigrant population, including a recent wave of Sudanese; SheJumps is working with local social services to gather women who might never otherwise set foot—or snowshoe—in Salt Lake’s surrounding wilderness. “It’s an incredible opportunity to educate people about these open spaces,” says Smallwood, and hopefully instill a passion for preservation.

As a nonprofit, SheJumps is also creating a grant fund to finance women’s adventures. “We’re here to philosophically, logistically and physically support women’s dreams,” Smallwood says. “We want women to make that jump, to build their confidence, to do something they didn’t think they could.”

shejumps.org

To see this article, please click here.

Gloombuster is what my shirt will say tonight as the 85th burning of Zozobra goes down in Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

My friend Ray Valdez has been the director of the event on behalf of the Kiwanis International organization for the past 16 years. He said at one point he saw a string of straightjackets be submitted for the stuffing of Zozobra, which happens a few days before the event. People from all over New Mexico show up to submit something–within reason–to be burned in the giant puppet. An estimated 30,000 people try to pack into the Fort Marcy ballpark, a normal AABC baseball field complete with a concrete stage and steps for firedancers and the glooms–Zozobra’s only friends–to prance upon while he moans and groans at his sure fate. “Burn him! Burn him!” The crowd shouts, until at long last the brave fire dancer approaches and fights his way to the bottom of his long white robe (made of muslin cloth) to torch the sucker.

Old Man Gloom as he is known represents the only part of Fiestas de Santa Fe that I care to celebrate. The fiestas mark the “bloodless” reconquest of Santa Fe and the territory of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt of 1670. It was “bloodless” because the Indian chiefs were hung in Santa Fe’s plaza. Historical facts aside, the city of Santa Fe takes the tradition very seriously and Don Diego De Vargas’ own descendents fly over from Spain for parades around Santa Fe in traditional garb. But yeah, like I said, it’s all about Old Man Gloom. Gotta love pagan rituals in a historically Catholic area of the world!

This weekend is going to mark the first-ever SheJumps Leadership retreat. We offered the course initially to our top volunteers, and then advertised it on our website as a way to gain important internal structure for the organization as well as build the leaders for our trips!

Zion Canyon as seen from Angel's Landing

Why Zion? We wanted to choose a place that is a) obviously gorgeous b) most of the SJ crew had no previous exposure to c) it’s the mecca for canyoneering–something that is going to get us ALL out of our comfort zones!

Zion was created a national park in 1919 by the United States Congress. Previous our government laying paws upon the place, it was home to several different cultures of Anasazi. One of the park’s most prominent feature (as seen above) is Zion Canyon. It’s 15 miles long and, in some places, up to half a mile deep. The walls are the red and tan colored Navajo Sandstone and cut by the North Fork of the Virgin River.

I’ve never been there before and I’m super excited! Of course I’m going all-out gourmet for the food portion of the trip. Pad Thai on Saturday night will be the highlight!

…as told in film by Jen Grace. Can’t wait to meet these ladies one day! Just goes to show, you can do ANYTHING you set your mind to…(Vimeo is hard to embed for some reason…working on it)

http://vimeo.com/5808633

Life here this summer–as indicated by lack of posts–has been exceptionally busy but also very rewarding. As a river guide, I have been blessed to meet hundreds if not thousands of people from all over the world. Some of them have been a pain in the ass, but most have been really nice and excited to be on the river. As an indicator of the progress of my boating career, I remember that around the third week of June, I flipped my boat over on a rapid called Albert’s Falls. It’s probably the worst place on the Race Course section of the Rio Grande that you could imagine pouring people into whitewater…I remember feeling so unbelievably disappointed in myself for having let that happen. One of the senior river guides, Elisha (a 10th year guide), reminded me that there are two types of river guides: those who will flip, and those who will flip again. Thanks Elisha! 

Well those days of worrying about flipping in the river are far away in the past and it’s not because now I’m on the Olympic paddling team. The river has dropped from 3,500 cfs (cubic feet per second) in May to a steady 228 cfs today. What this really says to me is that it’s probably time to find a new season. Initially, I too found myself complaining about the lack of water but it reminds me of a larger cycle at play and that is something I’m very excited for: WINTER!!!!

It’s TOTALLY that time of year. I can’t keep myself out of the high alpine just to experience the cold…I just got new ski boots, it’s time to write to sponsors, plan programming for SheJumps, and make it double-time to the gym. Here are the three segments to a movie made by some of my friends in Little Cottonwood Canyon that pretty much sums up the life of a Utahn in our area! All footage is property of WaHsatch Powder Productions.

Part II

Part III

Now tell me that doesn’t make you want to ski some powder?!?