Jan

The Year of Big Ideas

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99549997″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things–to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.”
– Sir Edmund Hillary

There is nothing more fulfilling than grabbing an idea out of the air, giving it shape and realizing it. Our dreams, hopes and goals give shape to the year’s course and ultimately our lives. Today we bring you the “Year of Big Ideas?–a show all about goals, some big, some small. We’ve interviewed friends, professional athletes, random people on chairlifts, anyone we could rope into contributing. Climb harder. Ski faster. Push deeper into the mountains than ever before. Here’s to dreaming big and going bigger in the New Year.

Music: Way of the Light by Gift of Gab • Bar Blues by Modaji • The Universe is Going to Catch You by The Antlers

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Dec

A Lifeline Home

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99549292″ 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 was nothing exceptional about how Ryan Utz and Micah Helser became friends. After nodding at each other in the office hallways for weeks, they happened to discover that they shared an interest in sustainable building. They got to talking and pretty soon found that they both shared a love for climbing and the great outdoors. While the beginnings of their friendship sound average, the circumstances were anything but.

Micah and Ryan were members of Charlie Company, a medevac unit serving the Baghdad area. Together, they were responsible for shepherding the wounded and the dead from the Iraq’s battlefields to the hospital in a Blackhawk helicopter. They cared for fellow soldiers, Iraqi police and the civilians who got caught in the midst of the violence. In the process of saving others, they dodged bullets and mortar rounds. In the long empty hours between shifts and missions, they needed to find a way to escape back to the things the loved the most. So in a flat, arid country plagued by violence, they set out to do the one thing that might seem impossible–to go climbing.

Today, we bring you the tale of two friends–both climbers, both soldiers–and their quest to create a lifeline back from the frontlines to the things that matter the most–friends, family and that freedom found only in open spaces. We are headed to the world’s most improbable climbing wall. This is Camp Taji. Welcome to Iraq.

Music: Joe Metro by Blue Scholars • Everyday by Carly Commando • Fyrtårn by Badun • Cler Achel by Tinariwen

If you’re a hip-hop fan, the Blue Scholars’ Bayani was one of my favorite albums of 2007. Definitely worth a listen–they are one of the hardest working acts in West Coast Hip Hop.

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Nov

The Reckoning

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99538955″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Every aspiring photographer dreams of capturing an iconic image. It’s the same kind of motivation that draws young skiers to intimidating lines in foreboding ranges and pulls ambitious climbers to Yosemite. We imagine these moments a thousand times in advance, but when we finally arrive, we are often surprised and humbled. Epiphanies require stumbling.

In 2005, photographer, writer and avid cyclist Blake Gordon set out to take the trip of a lifetime. With camera in hand, he joined brothers Mike and John Logsdon as part of their Spinning Southward Team. The Logsdon brothers were in the midst of pedaling 15,000 miles and raising money for the National Brain Tumor Foundation. Blake would join them to ride the final leg through Patagonia.

For Blake, it was almost like a math equation. Plug 2,500 miles worth of pedaling through a raw and lonesome landscape, add a couple of close friends and Blake was bound to get an image that flawlessly conveyed the essence of the Logsdon’s journey. Even before his flight touched down in Santiago, Chile, he could already visualized that image. He already knew what this trip would be about.

Today, we present The Reckoning–a story plucked from the pages of a young photographer’s notebook. You can ride your bike to the edge of a continent, but when the road ends it doesn’t always lead to neat resolutions.

For the photo enhanced version, click here.

Music: The Wires from My Broken Record Player by Cars and Trains • Lady Don’t Tek No by Latyrx • Ghost Hardware by Burial • Be Less Rude by Frightened Rabbit

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Sep

Help Wanted

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There’s no such thing as a perfect job. There’s always a catch- nagging bosses, gossiping co-workers, crummy benefits. That’s why we get paid to work. But what if there was a magical place where you could get paid to climb? The job pays well and during your four hours of paid break you have the run of the place because your boss is too busy moonlighting as a talking duck to discipline you. It also comes with some sweet perks. The employee lounge is actually a secret lair atop the peak, and you’re allowed to cut the line to ride the roller coaster. What happens when a bunch of climbers are left unsupervised with the keys to the Magic Kingdom? Some jobs are perfect, even if Tinkerbell is out to get you.

Music: Duke of Hazard by Blockhead • Teenage Kicks by The Drayton Unit • OK! by The Mexican Institute of Sound • Karma Hunters by The Pinker Tones

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Sep

Prayer for a Friend

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99535314″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]How do people remember the dead? Some people stuff wrinkled snapshots into wallets. Others build ornate mausoleums. Others ensure their friends’ memories by creating goals that can never fully be realized. In 2003, my friend John Bombard lost his battle to cancer. On the day of his passing, I stumbled across an unclimbed route on Washington’s famed Prusik Peak. It was so beautiful, challenging and improbable that I would probably never complete it, yet my youthful enthusiasm and commitment were unflagging. This would be my own awkward offering to my friend.

Today on the Dirtbag Diaries, we’re traveling from the halls of a New England boarding school where two boys forged an unlikely friendship to the wind-swept wilderness deep inside the Cascade Mountains, where a trio of climbers have been hard at work solving one of the Northwest’s greatest free climbing projects. Some prayers can never be whole.

For the photo enhanced version, click here.

Music: Rainin in Paradize by Manu Chao • Look Up by Amy Millan • 5 Minutes Out To Sea by Jodi Martin • Swingset Chain by Loquat • Mind Hole by Numbers

Music provided by IODA Promonet.