Jun

The Crusade

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177528470″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]True or False? Standard pushing is for the pros. If you want to shape skiing or climbing, you have to ditch the job, move into the car and find a deep-pocketed sponsor. The tiny window afforded to weekend warriors couldn’t possibly be enough time with which to make an impact. Right?

Today, we bring you the Crusade, the story of two stockbrokers, an engineer and a nuclear physicist who, with a little help from the Internet, helped shaped American ski mountaineering without ever leaving their backyard. There will be no helicopters. No corporate expeditions. No photo shoots. Just a decade-long odyssey from the ambitious imagination of youth across the Cascades’ steepest faces all the way to the unsettled wisdom of adulthood. It turns out weekend warriors are just as capable.

Finally, we’ve got a special treat for you–The Crusade Enhanced. Photos by Jason Hummel, Sky Sjue and Ben Manfredi. Video by Phil Fortier. There are some sweet shots from over a decade of Cascade steep skiing. Skiing these peaks is a feat in itself – stopping to take the photos is another epic task in itself.

Music: Friend of Mine is a collection of U.K.-based of musicians, artists and surfers. They provided much of the ambiance for this episode. Check them out.

Also on today’s show: Pack Up Remix (feat KRS-One & Evidence/Dilated Peoples, prod Jumbo/Lifesavas) by Lyrics Born • Jackie Junior by Sally Shapiro, Junior Boys • Blue Driver by Vetiver

Most music provided by IODA Promonet.

May

The Shorts — Year of Big Ideas Reprieve

Year of Big Ideas Reprieve

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177529703″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]In the Year of Big Ideas, my childhood friend Brad laid it out–he was going to climb El Cap in 2008. Never mind that he had minimal climbing experience or had never even been to Yosemite. We schemed and scheduled “vacation.” We planned and tried to convince others to join us, but, in the end, Brad and I were on our own to wrestle with one very big–arguably bad–idea. We had four days to pull it off. We would have to climb faster than we could manifest excuses.

A third of the way through 2008, where are you in your year of big ideas? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and a little inspiration. What have you ticked off the list? What’s left?

Music: If You Want To, You Have To by Dosh • L.E.S. Artistes by Santogold • Friends Like These by Mobius Band

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

May

The Human Mule

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99552967″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Life was good. The approaches were short. The routes straightforward. The work wonderfully mindless. After a long dry-spell of writing, a job as a climbing guide at Smith Rock was like a vacation from life. I was 22 again, not a failing writer struggling to pay the rent. It was too good to last.

Through the years, I’ve tried to escape words and journalism, but the writing life always has a funny way of creeping back into my world. This time it came in the form of a 230-pound cameraman with a fear of heights, a fast talking New York producer and a 30-year-old broadcaster trying to return to her childhood. It turns out you have to earn your 15 seconds of fame.

Music: Martha Ann by David Karsten Daniels • Golden Soldiers by Golden Shoulders • Laughter be Your Slave by Gregg Yeti and The Best Lights • Santa Ana Murders and the Neon Lights of Love by Monk

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Apr

The Earth Throne

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177531039″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]What defines you? Is it your past? How you look? I doubt it. It’s the course we chart from dawn to dusk that makes us who we are. Seventeen years ago, Sean O’Neill–artist, athlete and big brother to pro climber Timmy O’Neill–lost the use of his legs after jumping from a bridge into the Mississippi River. After the accident, Timmy dreamed about helping his older brother climb El Capitan. In 2005, the brothers decided it was time to act.

Reporter and podcaster James Mills brings us a story about two brothers, one very big cliff face and a 17-year-old dream. Sometimes climbs don’t end with summits. They can extend on into our lives.

Music: Ruby Sees All by Cake • All The Way [To Heaven] by Beat Under Control • Air Currents by The New Rochelle Rotary Club • Hybrisma by Daturah • Eye of My Mind by Museum Pieces

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Apr

The Shorts — Indiana Powder Day

Indiana Powder Day

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99552604″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Great outdoor writing lacks ego. When listener Andy Guinigundo’s email appeared in the inbox on a rainy spring day, I read through it, read it again and thought “Damn, I wish I could have been there.? That’s because no matter where you ski, whether it’s the Alaskan steeps or a local hill in Southeast Indiana, a powder day is a magical thing. That’s the great thing about skiing, climbing or mountain biking – you don’t have to be a professional playing beneath stadium lights to understand the crowning achievements of our sports.

Andy has been skiing for decades. During the gray and often rainy Midwest winters he works ski patrol at Perfect North Slopes, a small resort across the Indiana border from his home in Ohio. Until a March blizzard, a powder day was something he had only heard about. I’d been wanting to create some smaller shorts between feature episodes, so Andy joined us in the Dirtbag Diaries Midwest Studios, a.k.a. his walk-in closet, and gave us his own farewell to an unforgettable winter season.

Music: Bradley Carter claims to be a reformed rock climber. He’s found music and changed his ways. Joined a band–Max Gross Weight. He’s traded dirtbag living in Yosemite for the life of a hard working professional musician. He swears it. Personally, I don’t believe him for a second, mostly because he talked me into to playing hooky from work tomorrow to go clip bolts…oops, did I say that out loud?

Other music: Air Currents by The New Rochelle Rotary Club • OKE by Theatre of Disco

Music provided by IODA Promonet