February 25'
A pseudo Free-Write
Where to start…
Now, now seems like a very good spot indeed. It’s spring conditions in Bishop, CA despite the time of year and I’m in front of the fireplace, home beaming with coziness.
I live with three others, Lauren, Tavis, and Nick. Each of them beautiful in their own way. We have a house of animals (Arjuna, Suki, Zala, and Xenu) a dog, three cats. It’s been this way all winter, and the winter before that. Splitting my time between summer months in the North cascades and Alaska, and winters in the foothills of the Eastern Sierra.
We’re in Bishop now and the Buttermilk Boulders are only 15 minutes away in Nick’s Toyota.
I frequently enjoy the ride.
It’s my slow season for work (winter) and I’m doing mostly private work in the Sierra (ice/mixed, alpine/rock guiding & instruction) and it will be that way more or less till April, bouncing between work in Bishop and Red Rock (rock climbing) outside of Las Vegas.
In the recent past, ahem, December, I had a life-changing experience during a 10-day silent meditation retreat and I officially became a certified rock guide, separate occasions of course but a pretty good month indeed. There will be a whole podcast dedicated to talking about the Vipassana retreat, and why you should too, and continuous themes of impermanence oozing out of writings to come, that I’m sure of.
And speaking of things to come…
If all goes well I’ll be accepted into an alpine exam in August. The final test of the alpine discipline and a measly $5000 later… Yikes. I thought climbing was for dirtbags. And speaking of dirtbags (and studying)?!? I’m pretty stoked about a two-week trip to Chamonix in April. Those lovely lovely European lifts, the antithesis of the Cascadian schwaking. I can start and end my alpine climbing day with a latte? Hopefully, a trade war with France hasn’t begun by then…
Oh yea it’s Feb…
I started this Substack for a chance to write longform, for an audience who would appreciate it. I deleted my Facebook, for a slight against the oligarchy however feeble that will end up becoming… Say hello Bezos, here’s $16 a month because I live in Bishop, CA, and Meta via Instagram will continue to take many hours of my attention, for work and play.
I don’t think all of it is such a bad thing either, the digital ecosystem, life as a whole, our place in the cosmos, etc. Sure there are a lot of people thinking the “whole world is going to shit” and for good measure but, at a certain point you have to have a notion of how the world “should” be to be upset by the one you’re given. It’s all one big Happening and those expectations, judgments, and grasping aren’t going to do you any favors in the long run. On the other hand, I think now more than ever, our civic responsibility is to stay informed and stand up for the things we believe in.
Contradictions & clarity… (more on this now, and later)
Anyways, FEBRUARY.
I’ve got about 5 days left in Bishop until heading to Vegas where we (the American Alpine Institute) will be working with the Navy SEALS for 10 days teaching them all sorts of climbing-related shenanigans from lead climbing through Aid. Other than that, it’s “hard” climbing, weight lifting, building relationships, and #foreverbulking in between.
Most of it seems to be working at least… Progress is progress?
Wrapping this rambling up, I have a few specific pieces of writing in the works for the next couple of weeks; nutrition, meditation, climbing, life, the usual shit. I’ll also be bringing all of my writings under one hood, here to Substack, so expect a wide variety of subjects that span all sorts of space and time. And one of these pseudo-free writes 6-8 times a year on monthly/recent meanderings. Some essays will be free, others paywalled, thank you no matter which side of the spectrum you fall into.
We’ll see how all this manifests together.
No matter what, I’m excited to be here, to share the things I care about and see what Happens.
“Annica, Annica, Annica.”
And another day begins.
