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 A blog documenting my writing journey |
| I hope this is entertaining... :) |
| After discussing mixed climbing with one of my wdc friends, I was encouraged to blog about climbing stuff that might be of interest to those over here, so here goes... I recently watched a movie called The Alpinist which documents some of the climbing adventures of one of the hottest recent names in climbing: Marc-André Leclerc. He was a Canadian climber that tackles all sorts of alpine climbing in the most difficult style imaginable--soloing. Soloing is insane. No one that I know does it. And nearly everyone who does it regularly dies young. Most (like 99.9%) of climbers use ropes that catch them should they fall. Soloists don't. Why? Because it's the raddest, most unforgiving form of climbing. If you fail, you die. There's a certain appeal to testing yourself with the ultimate stakes. In some ways, I understand it. A rope is a literal tether. It's training wheels. It allows you to take chances, knowing that it will catch you if you make a mistake. Using no rope eliminates those training wheels. It forces you to embrace perfection as a requirement for survival. At least, that's how I can make sense of the appeal. I've never done it myself on anything where I had the slightest chance of actually falling more than a few feet, and I never plan to. While most climbers have a certain level of daring, soloing requires it to an insane degree. Marc-André was best known as a mixed climber. He tackled routes that were absolutely sick, even if he had used a rope. When I watched some of the stuff he was doing--placing an unleashed ice tool on his shoulder to search for hand holds, pulling figure fours from tiny little 5.11 flakes of rock (Figure fours  are where you wrap a leg over one arm to shift your body weight to one side to free the pressure on a hand to move up the rock face), stepping onto a single crampon point while holding ice-cold rock with numbing fingers--it made me squirm in my seat, rubbing sweaty palms together. I mean, I love to do this stuff. I have zero fear of heights. And I'm sitting in my living room watching television with wide eyes, having heart palpitations from the mere thought of doing what they're doing.Anyway, enough about the insanity of soloing and on to mixed climbing. Mixed climbing is basically the use of ice climbing gear to climb both ice and bare rock. Ice is climbed with an ice tool in each hand and crampons on each foot. Ice tools are short shafts with jagged picks on top. You may have seen them in movies. They look like this . Crampons are spikes that you put on your boots that look like this . They help you find purchase on vertical ice, from frozen waterfalls to hanging glaciers, to patches of ice that clings to rock faces. These things may look as if they are precarious, but they actually feel really secure when everything is sunk into the ice.In the '80s and '90s some enterprising climbers got the idea to use these ice tools to climb rock as well. Rock climbing is fun to do with your hands--when it's reasonably warm and forgiving, condition-wise. But sometimes patches of rock are between snow and ice or is at 18,000 feet in a blizzard, and your fingers would freeze to try to climb it, especially with a heavy pack on, etc. So being able to climb rock without using bare hands in those types of situations is appealing and allows for climbs that we're previously possible to become accessible. It's fun! I've done it a few times, and ice tools and crampons feel surprisingly secure on rock as well. Crampons less so, but it's still doable. So that's mixed climbing! :) https://freerangeamerican.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AlpinistLead.jpg |
| This is one of my favorite Halsey songs. The best songs are always buried in the back of an album or EP that you never hear on the radio or in playlists... Is There Somewhere You were dancing in your tube socks in our hotel room Flashing those eyes like highway signs Light one up and hand it over, rest your head upon my shoulder I just wanna feel your lips against my skin White sheets, bright lights, crooked teeth, and the night life You told me this is right where it begins But your lips hang heavy underneath me And I promised myself I wouldn't let you complete me I'm trying not to let it show, that I don't want to let this go Is there somewhere you can meet me? 'Cause I clutched your arms like stairway railings And you clutched my brain and eased my ailing You're writing lines about me; romantic poetry Your girl's got red in her cheeks, 'cause we're something she can't see And I try to refrain but you're stuck in my brain And all I do is cry and complain because second's not the same I'm sorry but I fell in love tonight I didn't mean to fall in love tonight You're looking like you fell in love tonight Could we pretend that we're in love? I'm sorry but I fell in love tonight I didn't mean to fall in love tonight You're looking like you fell in love tonight Could we pretend that we're in love? [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
This is a busy time for me at work... so of course it would be the time when I embark on a new creative venture with Ray Scrivener   to work on a lengthy steampunk story. My co-writer is SO GIFTED at creating characters. I'm pretty amazed at the quality of the cast that he cooked up. I started in with the first bit yesterday and look forward to getting more written soon. I just hope that I can craft prose worthy of the delicious feast of characters we're working with... |
| Watch as spring unfurls its leaves. Blossoms crown new nature’s swells, calling bees, those pollen thieves, drawn to brightly fragrant smells. Cedars sway with knowing smile, gazes sweeping Gaia’s garden. Whistled song of birds they rile rouse me to dawn’s window heartened. |
| Nervously swallowing fear, I patter through darkness so near. Pulling my covers to chin, they call me from somewhere within. Quietly slithering tongues warn me that wickedness comes. Events of the previous day cause tear-laden lashes to splay. I let out a shuddering sigh, then tell myself little white lies They help me to conquer my dread, resolving to forge straight ahead. |
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| He plucks off my hat then lithely springs back with a smirk and the grace of a cat. I leap with a swipe, his fingers flick high, and I land with a grumble and gripe. I kiss him and smile then pluck back my hat with fresh guile. |
| Breathless, I lean into the void, reveling in knee-weakening vistas. Caressing kiss of winter wind tingles my quivering cheeks, invites tumbling tresses to dance. Delightfully chapped lips sting as they curl into broad smiles, devouring daring deliciousness of unfettered freedom. |
I didn't quite intend for this one to turn out so serious. It just... did.
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Can't wait to see where these pirate adventures lead!