The Cleanest Line

Launching an Outdoor Career Against the Odds

We’re pleased to share some good news today about a young friend who offers a rare bright spot in what has been a tough year for the outdoor industry. Trevor Clark picked an interesting time to start his outdoor adventure photography business – May of 2008. A lot has changed, for Trevor and for the economy, in the year since he first launched his venture.

The stats from this past year’s economic fallout need not be revisited, though they make Trevor’s story all the more worth telling. He’s a young man with an uncanny knack for sparking inspiration through storytelling. While photos are his medium of choice, he’s more than capable when it comes to wielding his words. Take this introductory snippet from his new website: www.trevorclarkphoto.com

My adventure began in Curitiba, Brazil where I was born to an American mother and a father who called Australia and New Zealand his "homes." The two sides of my family were on two different continents, and my beginning was on a third. Going to see family meant big trips, with expedition-quality logistics for my mother, three siblings and I to make (and miss) Indiana-Jones-style plane connections. . . . I loved it. I loved running through airports clinging to

Yoga in the Park + Fitness World = Sushi

If you are visiting Squamish this summer and you enjoy a refreshing session of conscious-breathing and tension-releasing exercises, then go to The Yoga Studio on 2nd Ave any day of the week. But if you are here only for a Sunday, then you gotta check out “yoga in the park.” My girlfriend Lydia taught yesterday's class and there will be a different teacher there each week, as there have been different teachers in weeks prior. The fee is by donation only, so whatever you can afford. But imagine this...

…unfolding your mat onto a perfectly cut lawn of green grass and three-leaf clovers at 9am in the morning. The sun filters through the tall trees, warming your skin and illuminating the park. 25 people in a circle wrapped around the teacher, with a gentle breeze behind your ears and the occasional cyclist riding by. The ground beneath you is not a hardwood floor, but the earth itself; you can feel the subtle bumps under your toes, but it makes you smile. The class is rhythm and flow, a constant state of moving, bending and twisting, lunging and holding -- all the stuff we know we should be doing but just can’t seem to make the time for. Then, after about an hour and fifteen minutes, the heart rate comes back down slowly. You invert into a shoulder stand, headstand, whatever you like, and feel the rush of newly oxygenated blood surging through the stream. The abdomen releases, the tension disappears, you are weightless and calm and the sound of each chirping bird in the distance falls quiet. The sound of your breath is the only thing you hear. You take a deep inhale of the freshest mountain air and unwind into corpse pose, eyes closed, hovering above the ground until the electricity in your body is reduced to nothing more than light waves of energy scanning over you. Ten minutes pass -- it may as well be a lifetime. Your lids open tenderly and look up to see the bubbling white clouds taking shape. You are now ready to begin your day. Your perfect day.

[That is the best way I can describe yoga in the park to you -- that’s what it was for me. Here’s what it looks like when you look up into the leaves. Photo © Sonnie Trotter]

Backyard Adventures: Toiyabe Trails - Part 3

Today, we've got the final installment in Old School's Toiyabe Trails series (previous posts: Part 1, Part 2).

We personally believe any trail story is best served up with a cuppa steamy brew (or a frosty barley pop, your discretion) and the right music. Find your trail traveling theme music right here, courtesy of the Risky Biscuit Hayseed Hoot's weekly podcast.
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The morning after our unplanned layover day dawned clear and sunny, and while there was still a stiff breeze, it was nothing like the howling winds of the day before so we packed up and headed north. The TCT is split neatly in half by the Ophir Creek Road and the three of us have been backpacking long enough to never pass up the chance to lighten our load – we took advantage of the road to drop a food cache at the top of the pass before starting our hike. By lunch we were at the cache and by dinner we were enjoying cold beer and hamburgers.

[Flat spots are a rare treat along the northern stretch of the trail. Photo: OldSchool]

Dirtbag Diaries: The Dreamers

It's Friday, and the Dirtbag Diaries are here to help you celebrate solstice with some sonic storytelling. Show host Fitz Cahall has the beta on today's episode:

“I had convinced myself at that point that my goal was so important it was worth dying for,” says alpine master Steve House about his 15-year-old dream of climbing the Rupal Face. Big Dreams require big commitment. We may not all dream on the same scale and commitment levels, but we all share dreams. They pull us through our lives on solid ground. Today writer and climber Sarah Garlick presents: The Dreamers – reflections from four generations of the world’s best climbers: Steve House, Henry Barber, Steve Schneider, and Colin Haley. In the process Sarah found out a little bit about herself. Do you have a life long dream? What if you completed it? What if you never realized it?

Listen to "The Dreamers"
(mp3 - 31:15 - right-click to download)

You can subscribe to the Dirtbag Diaries via iTunes and RSS, or connect with Fitz via Facebook and Twitter. For more from today's guest host, Sarah Garlick, check out her book Flakes, Jugs, and Splitters: A Rock Climber's Guide to Geology or her Patagonia field report "Open Bivy."

Visit the myspace page of The Secret Life of Sofia to purchase their album Seven Summits -- the featured music on today's episode. Says Fitz, "I really dig this album. It's very difficult to write songs that speak to the power of high places without falling into ridiculous cliché. I've listened to this album dozens of times and at each listen I find some new historical reference or emotion I recognize from my own connection to the mountains. It is in some ways as much a novel as it is a record and [lead singer Kyle] Wilson avoids the cliché by sticking to inventive images that we all know and recognize but would never think to include in a song. Seriously, check it out."

Backyard Adventures: Toiyabe Trails - Part 2

Welcome! We're pleased to bring you part two in this series. If you missed Part 1, no worries, you can find it right here.
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Nevada is smack-dab in the middle of the Basin and Range topography of the Great Basin so every mountain range is an island poking up out of a sagebrush sea. These ranges are generally quite narrow, so driving from west to east is like driving across a giant washboard. Coming from Reno, our first view of the Toiyabes left us awestruck, not so much from the beauty of the range but the amount of snow that still covered it. I knew it had just snowed a foot and a half the week before but we still weren’t quite expecting the amount of snow still left up high, and we weren’t too psyched (or prepared) to hike in snow for any length of time. Luckily we had planned our route from south to north, giving the higher and snowier northern section 3 additional days to melt out.

[A view of the Toiyabe Range's high point, Arc Dome. Photo: OldSchool]

Makalu 2009: Final Post with Photos

I’ve been home from Makalu almost two weeks now and it’s been almost three weeks since I last posted -- time flies. I was able to leave base camp very quickly because Cory Richards injured his knee in the deep snow just a few hours from base camp, the day after my last call. He necessitated a helicopter evacuation from base camp and I was able to hitch a ride out. Two and a half hours of flying at 120 knots sure beats walking eight days when you’re just ready to go home!

Editor's note: Steve House puts the finishing touches on his Makalu 2009 series today with a bunch of photos from the trip. You'll find links to the rest of the series -- most of which include sat-phone calls from Makalu -- at the bottom of this post.

[Me on the phone with you at www.thecleanestline.com from 7400 meters (24,270 ft). Lhotse is behind me. What a perfect day! (I needed four of these in a row to climb the west face.) All photos © Steve House.]

Once in Kathmandu I was able to change my ticket for the very next day. Unfortunately, almost as soon as I landed, I was hit with news of the loss of Patagonia Ambassador Jonny Copp, Mountain Hardware athlete Micah Dash, and young filmmaker Wade Johnson on China’s Mount Edgar. While tragic, it certainly made it difficult for me to feel any self-pity for my own problems. Deadlines, work, trying to get some climbing in; I am happy to be alive and healthy and home.

What follows is a slide show with a few of the highlights (and low-lights) from my recent adventure: trying to solo the world’s fifth highest mountain, Makalu. At many of these junctures, including at the Makalu La at 24,000 feet, I took you, the Cleanest Line listener, right along with me. I said then that I wished I could send pictures. Well, here they are:

Mt. Hunter!

I have just returned to Seattle from a three-week trip to the Central Alaska Range with Norwegian climber Bjørn-Eivind Årtun. The weather this May was significantly better than average -- apart from a few days of snow showers and a wind storm that lasted for a few days, the weather was consistently mild. The weather forecast on the other hand was consistently pessimistic, and was dead wrong about 85% of the entire month (we slowly learned to ignore it).

[Editor's note: Today's post comes from Patagonia ambassador Colin Haley. It first appeared on Colin's blog, Skagit Alpinism, on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. All photos © Colin Haley or Bjørn-Eivind]

We first warmed up with a climb of the "Mini Moonflower," (a sub-peak off of Mt. Hunter's Northeast Ridge) via its North Couloir. Bjørn-Eivind leading in the couloir:

Backyard Adventures: Toiyabe Trails - Part 1

Mention Nevada to most folks and what comes to mind is Las Vegas glam and desert heat. Truth be told, many Nevadans are more than willing to let you think that but for the record, with 313 named mountain ranges, Nevada has more mountains than any state except Alaska. Since moving here five years ago, I have been trying to wean myself away from the Sierra Nevada by exploring some of Nevada’s more remote ranges. The Toiyabe Range, which is nearly in the middle of the state, more than fits that definition. So when my friend Chris called me up asking for ideas for a good late spring backpacking trip I not only suggested the Toiyabe Crest Trail, I invited myself along as well.

[At 10,000' for a stretch of nearly 50 miles, the crest of Central Nevada's Toiyabe Range is well-situated to catch snows that would otherwise miss the arid valleys of the Basin and Range territory. Photo: OldSchool]

"Signatures" from Sweetgrass Productions Coming this Fall

 

It was a snowy February night as I sat up in my bed staring at pictures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, dreaming of sunnier days. Ben stormed into the room, one hand gripping a microwave pizza, the other running through his golden locks. "Ok man, I've got it. We call the movie Signatures. The seasons, the individual, the snowsurf style, the turn – they're all connected." He handed me a napkin with a treasure map to the hidden temple of McDonald's and a couple notes he'd scratched on our film-to-be.

[Editor's note: Today's post comes from Nick Waggoner of Sweetgrass Productions, director of the beautiful ski film Hand Cut and the soon-to-be-released Signatures. Visit the Sweetgrass blog for more tales from Nick and the crew.]

Hit with divine inspiration, Ben penned the plan at the helm of our late automobile on a six-hour drive back from Tokachidake – central Hokkaido. After buffing out the idea for some four more months, here you have it folks, the title of the new Sweetgrass Productions film: Signatures. At the heart of this lovely tale of deep powder mystery: the seasons.

[Above: Kenichi Miyashita and his cutback art. Photo: Sweetgrass Productions]

Remembering Our Friends Jonny Copp, Micah Dash and Wade Johnson

It's with great heartache that I deliver to you the tragic news that the Chinese search team has discovered the body of our friend, ambassador and hero, Jonny Copp. A second body has been found on Mount Edgar and is believed to be Wade Johnson. The search continues for Micah Dash, but the setting and circumstances make the prospect of finding him alive doubtful. It's been very difficult to digest this reality. Jonny and Micah were two of my best friends, and it brings tears to my eyes to imagine this world and our lives without them. It's hard to imagine how men of such solid character and stature, who possessed an overflowing energy for life, friends and the mountains, could be struck down by anything.

[Jonny Copp and Micah Dash, Kashmir, India. Photo: Jonny Copp]

Like so many others, I knew of Jonny Copp before I ever knew Jonny Copp. With a name that sounds like an alpine action figure and his characteristic goatee, smile-lined eyes and brawny physique, Jonny more than lived up to his reputation. Jonny’s optimistic approach to everything and everyone in his life was undefeatable. He always greeted me with a bear hug and an ear to ear smile. He dedicated his life to his friends and family, his pursuits in the mountains, and sharing his contagious passion for adventure and the outdoors with as many people as he could inspire. From Dirt Days, to Adventure Film, to the images, words and videos that Jonny built from the ground up and touched all our lives with, he was an unrelenting force of positive energy and good times. He could cut a rug like nobody’s business and was the motivator behind many a raucous evening. Jonny was a one-of-a-kind guy and the first addition I made to the Patagonia ambassador program when I arrived here. I often referred to him as the "renaissance man of the alpine world" – a man of many hats who possessed a diversity of talents. He lead a lifestyle that we eagerly lived vicariously through, in the images and stories he dispatched from all corners of the globe. Jonny was an exemplary human being, a hero to myself and so many others, as much in his character as his talent. His generosity, honesty, compassion and optimistic attitude made him everything we seek in friendship. He was the center of an amazing community who will miss him dearly. Jonny’s compassion, laughter, and larger than life smile will be with me forever.