It’s Monday, it’s now FALL (officially) I went hiking today, rad, on Friday I did a new (for me) V10 and V8 back to back, so that must mean that I’m healing up pretty okay. I still can’t wear a harness, the scar tissue from the operation makes it look like I have an alien about to jump out of my stomach and it still hurts to touch it, but technical climbing is good for me, my soul. But I don’t want to bore you with this shit, because it’s boring, especially when there is so much radical stuff happening in the real world of rock climbing, 14c onsights, 14d second tries, World Cup winners, awards, hotflashes, yadda yadda yadda. But like we were talking about in the lower posts, that we were maybe getting just a little bit numb to the media videos and stuff, I have a story to share.
I was playing with the woody last night (as you do) and I stumbled upon a crate of old issues of climbing, from 1985 to 1988. T’was such a refreshing treat. Like stepping back in time to read about what was perhaps the golden era of climbing. Alan Watts making the first ascent of the East Face of Monkey Face, Russ Clune cleverly describing his monumental free solo of Super Crack 5.12c in the Gunks, and of course, an article on SNOW BIRD. North America’s chance at bringing the World Cup overseas and making it a SPECTACLE for the masses. It was a hard working and visionary attempt, but I’m not sure it was as productive as many Americans hoped for. What did come from it, was a tasty little article in Climbing 1988, (at which time I was 7yrs old – dunkin my oreos into my glass of milk and still picking my nose, in public) and a poetic, funny as shit little BLURB, from my man Yvon Chouinard. I knew he could write, I’ve read some of his words, even his uplifting book, Let My People Go Surfing, but this little tid bit about Patick Edlinger was outstanding, and since most of use weren’t around to witness it, I thought I would share the report with you here. Endulge yourselves….click to enlarge….
(if you don’t follow, read the post below, and the comments too)
….here is my latest lame climbing video with some not so lame Canadian Climbers. We went down to Hueco in Dec of 2008, 6 of us rented a mini van and climbed for 9 days as much as we could. Awesome fun trip. Hope you enjoy the clip and if any of you bump into Lauren Hill, please tell her I’m sorry I used her music, and that one day I hope she stops being so angry with everything, life is gooood ya?
I haven’t been this inspired since Hans “no way” Ray. Climbing videos suck so bad. Sorry, but it’s true.
Okay, maybe I was a little hard on climbing, it’s not they suck, they are very well made and ubber inspiring, but I’d much rather watch a good surf film instead. Just my opinion. What, I’m not allowed to have an opinion? Or maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many climbing video’s I’m numb to them a little, I suppose that’s possible too. I think I watched Masters of Stone like 600 times. Ron Kauk FOR LIFE!
Yuji Hirayama climbed the Cobra Crack. Big Congratulations! So sick. Anyway, I thought y’all may want to know!
Yuji is a huge hero of mine, and I’m honored that he came to visit us in Squamish this summer and climb some of our finest lines. I just wish I could have been up there when he did it. He leaves on Friday, so if the weather holds, it’ll be interesting to see what else he’s capable of doing. I’m sure there will be many details to follow. Okay, Bonne nuit.
In times of rest, it’s good to see family. I flew home to Toronto for 5 days to see my mom and dad on the farm, and to visit my two sisters 4 kids. I’m happy to report the little rascals remembered me since Christmas and weren’t afraid to give me full hugs and kisses, if the smiling face of a 3 year old can’t cheer you up, I don’t know what will? I’ve been in heaven here. Mom’s home cooking, bbq’s, and falling asleep to the sound of crickets makes me feel like I’m 10 years old again, now ain’t that a funny feeling? To feel like you’re 10 again.
Anyway, my time is up and I’m boarding a plane today for the other side of the country, my other home. But before I leave, I wanted to leave you with a short video I made. Like many videos I’ve done this summer, I posted it on a VIMEO page. I wrote a short report about the climb and how I stumbled upon the footage again, which I had completely forgoten about. Check out the FIVE TEN blog to read mine, and many other first hand accounts from some of the best climbers in the world. I find it quite inspiring myself. Enjoy and hope everyone kicks ass this week, you know, in a sort of general ass kicking sort of way…
The fact that a 6 year old is dancing to Apple Bottom Jeans doesn’t bother me, it’s the fact that he may in fact be demonically possessed by the devil himself and still they just dance, no Roman Priests, no Shamanic healers, no psychiatrists, just dancing. Somebody get on the phone, either call the Church, or a casting agent. Either way, enjoy this clip. Just make sure you’re not recovering from an appendectomy or it may sting a little. But then again it’s probably worth it. holy shit. I think he just spanked himself. It’s definitely worth it….watch now….
A quick update on my condition, for those of you who don’t know my appendix ruptured about 10 days ago, I was in the hospital for three days after my surgery and now it’s been a full week of “home” recovery. No need to go into details here, but there were definitely some complications during surgery which will take much longer to recover from than normal, doctors are now saying about 4-6 weeks. That’s quite a painful thing to hear. There was some internal bleeding and hemorrhaging after the OR which totally sucks and now I think there may be a minor infection around the staples as well. It’s a bummer to be sidelined like this, I’m not going to lie, when you can’t do the things you love, when it hurts to laugh, it sucks, I want to be climbing, I had to cancel two weeks of filming and now we may not get the footage at all this year. I want to scream. I was hoping to climb with Yuji and gain some insight and inspiration from him, show him some of my new line ideas, I was hoping to finally put some of my projects to rest and turn the page and move forward, but this is life and I need to embrace the changes that come with each passing season. But with that being said, I am far from feeling thrilled about my current situation, in fact, I think I’m being extra hard on myself because I chose not to travel this summer when the weather was so hot here, I chose to stay and wait it out, work and train my ass off for the fall season and now this, so now I’m going nearly three months without climbing anything significant (for me) and I start to get a little hard on myself when I’m not achieving any of my goals, no matter how big or how small, goals are what keep me moving forward, goals are what keep me completely psyched, when I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, I get confused and I get frustrated. I like trying hard, I like raising the bar a wee bit higher each year, I love climbing over rocks, and I’m just not my true self when I’m not doing those things. I’m a different person, a less than truly satisfied person. I don’t know why exactly, climbing is like a curse, it’s the greatest thing in the world when you have it, but when it’s taken away – the wost comes out of me. I want to be climbing, I want to be flying, I want to be free. I think this is the lowest point of the whole messy thing, the actual pain isn’t nearly as bad as the pain of obstruction. And I realize this isn’t really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, what with all the deaths in climbing this year and everything, it’s been painful for many, but still, from my point of view, it ain’t easy, some days are worse than others, and it’s hard not to think about all the things I could be, or should be doing. I can’t wait to go climbing again. I can’t fucking wait. It’s been challenging. Right now I feel like just like the weather forecast for Squamish, a mix of sun and cloud. But tomorrow is a new day. We shall see….
OKAY new topic, the topic at hand, MOVIE REVIEW. Enlighten Up! A documentary about a guy (Nick Rosen) who’s actually a friend of mine and a friend of many of you reading this I’m sure, who now lives in Boulder CO, he’s a fellow lover of the stone. A few years back, Nick was 29 years old and took on a challenge of spending half a year emersed in the yoga culture as a subject for the movie. Kate Churchill the filmmaker wanted to see if yoga could change “anyone’s” life, the same way it’s changed her own. She chose Nick (a journalist from New York) and off they went around the world. It was interesting to see if a transformation would in fact occur, and I think that’s what grabs the audiences attention, they (we) want to know if it’s possible, especially from a guy as factual and challenging as Nick, who claims he doesn’t have any real spirituality in him. He wants proof that yoga will show him the way.
So, on Sat, we drove down to the 5th Avenue Cinema to catch the flick. The film was very engaging, short clips, intense interviews, real, and beautiful. They did a good job at keeping it about Nick, and his experience, that way the movie is nearly impossible to criticize because how you can you comment about someone else’ experience? There is no right or wrong. My only comment was that they failed to have any medical experts comment. They didn’t really cover the fact that yoga has hundreds of health benefits, like reducing blood pressure, relieving respiratory issues and joint pain, increasing range of motion, posture alignment, which reconnects you with the parasympathetic nervous system, or the fact that it can reduce cholesterol and even depression and anxiety. They basically said that yoga will make me feel “healthier” or “sexier” but if Nick wants proof, there’s actual proof that yoga can help the physical body and Kate never really touched on that. Nor, did she touch on meditation that much, which many argue is the primary practice of yoga. Some say the physical practice only came into action to help people become pain free while sitting, so that they could sit with better quality, less pain and for a longer period of time thus allowing them to go deeper into their own space and find inner peace and enlightenment, I don’t think they mentioned that very much, if at all. And it would have been nice to see a more well rounded documentary, but on the whole, Nick was AWESOME, honest and comfortable in front of the camera, funny as hell and even charming. I thought Kate was interesting herself, she admitted that she was filming this movie to find answers for herself, hoping to find them through Nicks experience, which is sort of sad in a way, it makes me wonder if Kate really believes in the yoga practice as much as she says she does, because after all, it’s about what we believe that makes something worth while. Only if we believe can anything transform us, right? So, it must come from within. Which makes us god. Which makes you god. Which makes me god. I am legend. he he he. Like it says in the movie, “YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON UNDER THE SUN”. I hope you enjoy the preview. It’s a brilliant film, with a brilliant idea and a brilliant cast, that leaves people talking, so enough talk, watch the trailer and go to the website to book tickets, it’s worth the 90 minutes. At least.
I know I’m not supposed to drink while taking antibiotics, but if I don’t, I’ll go crazy, and I was trying to think which would be worse, crazy, or infected? Just one shot of tequila won’t hurt I don’t think, I’ll drink it slow doc, I promise.
So, since I’m locked down right now, and getting a little stir crazy, I thought I would post a picture of the scar, (because after all, someone asked for it) also, in celebration of getting the staples out tomorrow, but then I thought, man this is a family joint, what if some peeps ain’t prepared to see scars, (if only it were a climbing scar) maybe then I could get workers comp for the month long hiatus? Maybe not? Oh well, gotta get creative.
YO YO YO! I was gonna post a picture of me in my hospital bed, looking all tired and shit, ( like I did on facebook ha ha) but that’s lame, nobody wants to see tired, they wanna see pumped, and I’m pumped, last year I kicked malaria, this year, I kicked a ruptured appendix. So a to izzo, life is good. Even with a bad haircut and a few shedded pounds.
It’s been less than two full days since I’ve been released from the Squamish General Hospital. A ruptured appendix. No joke. Apparently that shit is serious. I read an article that said, nearly half of all people die from an untreated ruptured appendix. I was in the hospital two days after it happened, oblivious to what was really going on down there. I had discomfort yes, but was still climbing and hiking and the like, but when I lost my appetite, and took a day off work to “rest” my girlfriend said, “Go to the hospital today”.
I did, and was in surgery just 4 hours later. Now, this is a fairly common thing, 1 out of every 10 (roughly) North Americans will deal with this at some point in their lives. It’s caused by some bacteria (often times from traveling to foreign countries, but could also be from a poor diet) getting trapped in the appendix and thus, getting infected, swollen and well, I’m sure you can figure out the rest.
My problem was that they had to dig out the nasty bits, and that meant cutting the abdominal wall open a further two inches around the side of my body and digging under the large intestine. Now the body, NEVER, EVER wants to be cut open, and it doesn’t like too much digging I suspect as well, but hey, may as well do it right the very first time, no sense in half assing this kinda stuff eh?
So, now it’s over and it’s all good, two days of Morphine and T3’s, two days of laying in bed, two days of a liquid diet, that’s nuthin, it’s the 4 week recovery period that nearly broke my heart. The temps in Squamish are of PRIMO QUALITY as of late, the humidity will drop a tad bit, the temps will drop too and the rock is soon to become of the velcro sort. The “I’m gonna send everything today in my flip flops” sort of tackyness I was waiting for.
But now this, the unexpected side swiped me again, (sometimes I feel both blessed and cursed at the same time) and layed me out during the one month I was banking on being “ALL MINE“. No fucking appointments, no flights to catch, the work to do, no responsibilities at all. Like a roadtrip in my own backyard. Oh the heart ache, but I’ll say this,
1. I have faith it’s going to be a long, terrific fall season, so four weeks is nuthin in the grand scheme. respect to Ethan pointdexter Pringle, and Dave Graham.
2. This period will give me much time to work on the writing and photography that’s been neglected. Sorry Justin.
3. My desire to climb again will be raging in four weeks, which means I’ll hit the ground running.
4. To all of those rad peeps out there in hospitals and recovery rooms, “this too shall pass” and we’ll all be out there running around free and wild and kicking up dust before we even know it. So hang on tight, the future is bright.
This photo has nothing to do with this post excpet, I got a thing for GRILLS and thought you’d dig it too. I was hiking in an old forest a week ago and saw these abandoned cars, the lion is the shit. Best wishes to all and thanks for reading.
