A Saab Story: Of Mice and Karma (Part of an on-going series on my blog of posts from my column Whipped, for Climbing Magazine. July, 2006 Installment.) View Online | Download PDF The longest road trip I’ve ever taken was in a two-door 1983 blue Saab 900. It was a fussy, impractical little automobile. The sunroof leaked, and the clutch stuck … Read More
Burley Integration
My senior photo for high school was a shot of me in a Crazy Creek chair on a rock next to a lake in Glacier National Park in Montana. More so than a glammed up version of myself, I wanted to present the rough and ready self to the world. Everyone else’s head took up the whole frame—I was a … Read More
Going for Broke: Whipped Installment
Going for Broke: An (Ir)Rational Pursuit of Every Climber’s Dream (Part of an on-going series on my blog of posts from my column Whipped, for Climbing Magazine. Januray, 2005 Installment) View Online | Download PDF It’s 7:30 a.m. and you’re at the parking lot of your local crag. Today you plan to finally get on the choice route on the cliff. You’ve … Read More
Finding Your Better Half: Whipped Installment
This week I am going to start doing something different and introduce back installments of my column Whipped. I hope to alternate between column installments and other comments. View Online | Download PDF Finding Your Better Half : The search for the perfect (rope) mate (Part of an on-going series on my blog of posts from my column Whipped, for Climbing Magazine. … Read More
Free Time
I’m in Bishop, California. Yesterday, I woke up at 6:30, made breakfast in my van, worked on my computer for two hours, and then went climbing. I came back by 4:00 for more work. My hands were covered in dust from the Owen’s River Gorge and I clanged away at my keyboard regardless. At 6:20 I set my computer to … Read More
Two Weeks In
There’s the retired schoolteacher who spent four years, or two stints, in the Peace Corps in southern Ethiopia. He remembers the people. The food. The peace. The young woman who traveled overland from Kenya and to the Red Sea, across the contested boarder in the back of jeep, just to see if she could. She wants to know how to … Read More
Hometown Crowd
I had a deal with myself when I went to pick up my book at the airport. If something went wrong, if it looked awful, if I could not face it, I was going to Sri Lanka. Mexico would have been more logical—easier, closer, tacos. But Sri Lanka was the deal. That was almost a week ago. Last night, instead … Read More
Arrival
The call comes in the middle of my third cup of coffee. I load into the car and wonder just how much space 500 books will take up in my wagon. It’s industrial where I am going; gray buildings of concrete and steel compete with each other for light. Is this the part of life that makes you an adult? … Read More
An Honest Workweek
Yesterday my book got on a plane in Dubai. It’s headed to the US as I write this and, theoretically, on Thursday, I get to finally see it. In two weeks shy of one year, Vertical Ethiopia went soup to nuts. That is fast for the book world, right? And even faster considering this: my publisher is Ethiopian in a … Read More
New Hamshire Gone South
When I was fifteen I was obsessed with trying to figure out if I liked certain things, or if I liked to like those things. This is not en efficient way of thinking, but I always go back to the conundrum when I’m alone, in the dark, on windy roads. This time it’s in New Hampshire. Or, really, Maine first … Read More