Posts Tagged: summer

film making / life — No Comments
11
Oct 11

Mountain Spirit

Ear­lier this year I had the amaz­ing oppor­tu­nity to visit Peru to explore a story about moun­tain guides. How­ever, when I arrived there and started work­ing on it, I real­ized there was an even deeper story.

Being in the Andes reminded me about what I love the moun­tains. The Andes are mag­nif­i­cent, not only in their beauty, but also in the peo­ple that live & work there. I was inspired not only by the com­pany of our group but sim­ply by the energy that exists there. In the moun­tains, daily tasks are ori­ented toward food, shel­ter, sleep, and com­mu­nity. There is more space to reflect & appre­ci­ate. It is in that space, change can happen.

When I asked Julio why he was guid­ing, he talked about a change he saw in peo­ple after vis­it­ing the Andes and I instantly under­stood. Being a guide myself, I’ve seen it as well. It is one of the most amaz­ing expe­ri­ences to be a part of. I was intrigued how this drew him into guid­ing. The story that unfolded was of fam­ily, strug­gle, and inspi­ra­tion. I found it a lit­tle dif­fi­cult to con­vey in a 5 minute spot, but you can watch it here.

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climbing / film making — 1 Comment
10
Sep 11

Courtney Sanders & the Summer Backlog

Sum­mer is wind­ing down and I’m back spend­ing hours behind the desk catch­ing up on all the back log. Man, what a great sum­mer! I’ve been on a project tour of Vir­ginia, Wash­ing­ton DC, Aspen,Co, Boul­der, CO, Peru, and of course some climb­ing in between. I’ve met some incred­i­ble peo­ple, been inspired by their tal­ents, and stories.

One lucky oppor­tu­nity this sum­mer was work­ing with pro climbers Court­ney Sanders and Daniel Woods at Domin­ion River Rock ear­lier this year. I was doing my first film project and did a short on Court­ney. After only climb­ing for about 6 months, Court­ney met Daniel Woods and was imme­di­ately thrust into the pro­fes­sional climb­ing world. Can you imag­ine? Six months in, I don’t think I even knew what half the climb­ing terms were! The sim­plest prob­lem seemed so impos­si­ble, even when some­one showed me the moves.

This story intrigued me.

I recently pub­lished the short on Vimeo and shared it with Court­ney. I was com­pletely ner­vous that she might not like it.… But for­tu­nately she not only loved it, she shared it on her blog. I was so very hon­ored by that!

This being my first short doc­u­men­tary piece, I was a bit shy to post it. There is so much of the story yet to be told, so it feels a bit unfin­ished & rough. But, I’m try­ing to let that go and embrace the learning/adventure that is film mak­ing. :D

Either way, Court­ney & Daniel are amaz­ingly tal­ented climbers and gen­uinely sweet peo­ple. Court­ney has been able to accom­plish in a few short years what many top climbers have spent a good por­tion of their life on. So, please check it out and let me know what you think!

climbing — No Comments
3
Sep 10

Top of the State: Mt Rainier

Mount Rainier stands 14,410ft above sea-level. It’s the tallest moun­tain in Wash­ing­ton, and it’s no won­der why peo­ple are drawn to it. On this climb we reached the sum­mit before sun­rise - still see­ing the lights of Seat­tle, Port­land, and the dark shades of the coast­line. We were first on the sum­mit that day. It was a bit chilly in the pre-dawn, but beau­ti­ful. Yearn­ing for warmth, we waited for the sun to start it’s sleepy jour­ney up into the hori­zon. See­ing the sun­rise from the top of the state was one of the high­lights of my summer. 

Sun­rise on Mount Rainier

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climbing — No Comments
7
Aug 10

Weather Happens

June often brings the start of the moun­taineer­ing sea­son. This sea­son, how­ever, Moun­taineers were met with white­outs, winds, and precip. It was enough to make many climb groups can­cel their climbs. 

Being con­ser­v­a­tive in the moun­tains is smart … Being too con­ser­v­a­tive might mean you will rarely climb in the Pacific North­west. No mat­ter the beta you get, noth­ing beats first hand experience. Forecasts & con­di­tion reports are gen­er­al­ized. Beta is often days old. If con­di­tions do not exceed the group’s experience, it’s worth get­ting on the moun­tain and check­ing con­di­tions your­self. You will notice that most guide com­pa­nies rarely will can­cel their trips. There is always some­thing you can learn. If noth­ing else, play­ing on the lower parts of the moun­tain is one more expe­ri­ence under your belt. Chal­leng­ing weather is often the best learn­ing tool… Get out there, prac­tice skills, and make the most of it!

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