May

The Pugilist

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/100375814″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]”Fantasies happen from a safe distance. It’s one thing to say you want something, even convince yourself of it. It’s another thing all together to stand under a 3,500-foot nightmare you’ve feared for 15 years and try to actually climb it,” writes climber and writer Kelly Cordes. At a quick consideration boxing and alpinism have little in common. Ponder if for a second and you might see the similarities. After years in the ring and even longer in the vertical life, Kelly certainly does. Each challenges its practitioner to accept fear. A boxer’s opponent can deal out pain and defeat and when you put it in that light, a mountain isn’t all that different. Today Kelly presents a story about the biggest fight of his life and embracing the mythic choss pile that has haunted him since his early days of climbing.

Music: Skulltaste by Mux Mool • Lying Around by Magic Bullets • Kites by Geographer • Song of the Night by ZLOX

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Apr

The Shorts — Scars

Scars

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99803952″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]”There is a wonderment in scars, the remnant of a body able to heal itself,” writes Becca Cahall. “I love that my skin has chosen to retain memories that I might have otherwise have forgotten.” We’ve all got them. War wounds. Battle scars. We get them from crashing bikes in the woods, surgeon’s scalpels and cheese grating falls on granite. If you look back at each scar, each of them tells an incredible story, tales to share around campfires and over beers. The real incredible thing is that we chose to see what we want in our wounds and in others. We look past them to the emotion and memory behind them. The become the physical diary of our lives.

Music: Fine by yU • White Liars by Typhoon • Vibrationz by Javelin

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Apr

A Successful Life

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99581988″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Success. What is it? How does each of us define it in our lives? It’s a question that has hovered over many of the stories we’ve told in the last three years. Aimee Brown has been many things in her life–a snowboarder, a hydrologist, a pastry chef, a goat farmer and a writer. Always a writer. Being a wordsmith and making a living as one are two different things. Last year, Aimee got the opportunity of a lifetime a job writing for National Geographic. Excited, she packed her Subaru, threw in her cowboy boots and moved east from her beloved Oregon towards an incredible career. After a few weeks of living in D.C. a nagging feeling set in. Were days looking out an office window, lonely treadmill runs and sun salutations without the sun success? Could you ever define it as such? It took six thousand miles of driving for her to answer that question.

Music: Love is a Dirty Word by Jason Collett • These Rivers Between Us by Slow Six • Bowsprit by Balmorhea • Albatross by The Besnard Lakes

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Mar

The Shorts — Upward Mobility

Upward Mobility

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99581621″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Throughout the course of the Diaries, I’d hazard to guess that hundreds of you have written in about the struggle many of us–me included–experience between work and our passions. Even if work is one of your passions, the mountains, rivers, all the tiny places in this great wide world can seem impossibly far away. We are put in positions where we have to decide between pragmatism and passion. Harini Ayer’s story epitomized this struggle. She came to the States from Southern India almost a decade ago and fell in love with this country, her research and climbing. Her ability to stay here has always been tied to her visa. Her work was a form of upward mobility. But there was a catch. If Harini switched jobs, or took a break from her research, she lost her ability to stay here. Climbing took a back seat, until eventually Harini made a stand for herself, her style of life and took an incredible risk.

Music: Two Hearted River by Summer People • M4 (Part II) by Faunts • A42 by Nedry

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Feb

The Adventures of Beansprout

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99581366″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Ryan Nickum was a 20-year-old college athlete with a passion for brutal tackles and body checks. He had yet to grow out of the angst and rebelliousness of his teenage years. Socializing involved cases of Coors, rehashing high school exploits and running from the cops. He wasn’t exactly prime recruitment material for Earth First. Spring break of his sophomore year, Nickum and his best friend Woodchuck were too broke for Cancun’s party scene and opted instead to join a band of radical environmentalist organizing a tree sit in Southern Oregon. There are many ways to stumble into activism. Maybe some people just shouldn’t read the Monkey Wrench Gang.

Music: Stare at Wheel by Dios • Wholehearted Mess by Bear in Heaven • Shy by A Sunny Day in Glasgow • Short Song by Mo Rooney • High Pockets and a Fanny Pack by Charlie Hunter

Music provided by IODA Promonet.