Why climbing?

If climbing is an inherently nonsensical activity why pursue it? why expend effort and focus to get better at this ‘meaningless’ activity?  

I don’t know.

I’ve been trying to find an acceptable answer the this question for the last several years. 

Climbing is meditation. I’ve long since realized this is why I’m drawn to this kind of activity.

By ‘meditation’ I mean, having space to think. Feeling an emptiness in the mind that enables you to consider solutions to tough problems, or not-so-tough problems, or just, god forbid, to relax. I find I need doses of this space in regular intervals.

Annapurna Moonrise by Craig Mod

That essay might be a good start on an answer, and I know I’m looking forward to the wide desert space, learning to quiet the mind on a hard lead and finding inspiration in Indian Creek this week.

Pack half of what you think you need

Works for travel, climbing and probably the stuff in your house too…

Climbing with a good friend

Great to climb with Wes in SLC. Got in a fun tour of the classics in LCC, not a lot of photos, but lots of climbing. 

First good weather day after a week of on-and-off rain. It wasn’t however, warm.

Can’t ignore golden hour.

All these were shot with the S90 again, and I’m really digging that little camera. Unlike a full sized dslr, its pretty easy to mis-place (lost a solid half hour looking for it today). 

Found this again:

Don’t keep calm and carry on.

Photo license:  Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike

“You have to want to go up more than you want to go down.”

—

…the secret to climbing well

The Cleanest Line Blog: Going Up

End the day on a good note

The light was great, and fortunately the sprinklers stayed on for a few minutes after I noticed. 

If “Creativity is hiding your sources,” then I guess this isn’t all that hidden, but I needed to design a pair of pliers, so these rongeurs will get new tips to fit my needs instead of the cutting edges.

Photography, and really just art, is a great outlet for the left-brained professions. I’ll be shooting photos and adding the idea of art and partnership into climbing this weekend. Presuming the weather holds, should be great. I have a fresh roll of TMax 100 for the Pentax and some ideas to try up in Little Cotttonwood. Can’t wait. 

Ridiculous.  How’s this for product testing…

Winter Inspiration part II.  Paraphrasing: Even if I don’t have powder, I can still ski the terrain. 

Its officially fall, but its still hot here

The weather here didn’t get the memo that Summer should officially be over, highs for the next week in SLC are still in the upper 80s.  I was hoping more for high of 70, but oh well, went climbing anyway.  Wes was in town this weekend, and hadn’t climbing here before so we headed up to the Green A gully in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Great climbing was had. 

All of these were shot with a Canon S90. I haven’t used a point&shoot in several years, and we wanted to get a camera that Polly could take along on her trips, but one that I would also be happy shooting.  Pretty excited about this little camera (weighs less than one of my lenses…)  Image quality is good enough for me, especially given the weight. I can shoot it full manual, easy control over f-stop, aperture, focal length, ISO, etc.  Polly can also shoot it full auto if she wants. Seems like a good balance. 

If I could have my way, there’s be another full-frame digital rangefinder on the market besides a Leica M9. Spending $7000 on a camera (lenses are extra) isn’t something I’m willing (or able) to do, but lugging a 5 lb. dSLR up and around the mountains gets old. Hopefully the S90 will work out as a compromise for when weight really matters. 

Carpeted numbers

Shadows from the window text

First, Care.

"Because, in the absence of caring, you’ll never focus on anything more than your lack of focus. Think about it.

…

For as long as you know in your heart that what you’re making or doing matters, and, consequently, for as long as you accept and embrace the immutable laws of scarcity, your options for maintaining focus will, like Frank’s perfect answer, remain stunningly obvious.”

Great read. 

Winter inspiration. 

Ben and Suzanne came for a visit

and went climbing with us.

More, here, on Flickr

Beautiful video and words to ponder.

inspiration

Comes in many forms, and I collect some of it here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dacus/favorites/

see also the inspiration link on the side →

...Start doing the things you love...

A manifesto. 

Not to buy stuff, but potentially to live by. 

“Self-confidence is the most valuable gift a man can possess, but it is a gift not easily granted… To possess true confidence, it is necessary to have learned to know oneself at moments when one was standing on the very frontier of things, time when one could even cast a glance over to “the other side.” And then one had to examine oneself with unsparing clarity to establish what one felt, thought or did at such a moment.”

— Heirick Harrer, The White Spider

What you find, is only what you take with you.

Number 11

The rest on Flickr

Irene's Arete

A classic climb in the Teton’s. The rest of the story and photos in the next post.  

The rest of the set is here, on Flickr.

Something different

I don’t usually shoot dark tones or with a cooler color pallet that offten but these turned out better than I expected. They’re from two weekends ago on the ride down from an afternoon picnic up in Park City with Polly. The sun had just set over ridge and everything went from golden-hour to this light.