Climbing days are running out. Winter is coming. Eventually I’ll have to learn to live with myself in the quiet. But not yet. Today is perfect and hard and I’ll go home sore and tired and happy. The days will get shorter and shorter. But then they’ll get longer, so that’s ok. The seasons change […]
When my boss at my day job asked what I was doing this weekend, I said: “throwing some college kids out of windows” By that I mean rappelling off the football stadium. It does involve climbing out a window though, so I wasn’t lying. What’s most rewarding about teaching outdoor education is the exhilaration in […]
First it was caving, then it was intro to outdoor rock climbing, then it was camping, then it was climbing, then it was hiking, and now we’re at week 6. Let’s go. I have no adventures planned for this weekend and it’s making my skin crawl. That’s not to say I have nothing to do, […]
We drove up to the Adirondacks on a Saturday and we climbed at Poke O’ Moonshine. After the second pitch, I thought I had nothing left. But there were four more to go. Turns out, I had a little. When we reached the top and it was time to rappel down, we had to find […]
This is my third time teaching Intro to Outdoor Rock Climbing. Every time comes with its unique joys and challenges. The joys are usually to do with the climbing and the challenges are usually the students. Kidding, just kidding. What I love about teaching outdoor education is the single minded focus on tasks. There is […]
I’m about to work 7 days a week for 20 days straight. What lays ahead are work days that are 15-16 hours long. I will have a regular day job, an evening job, a weekend-long job, and be responsible for the lives of 8 other people on a camping/climbing trip. So this weekend I went […]
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Poem says: You, sent out beyond your recall,go to the limits of your longing.Embody me. Flare up like a flameand make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.Just keep going. No feeling is final. I was thinking about this poem a lot this weekend. I […]
We’ve been married 6 years. So I made him spend two days doing some things I love. In them I hope he understands all of this: “I want movement, not a calm course of existence. I want excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I feel in myself a superabundance […]
I have been adventuring hard, but not this weekend. This weekend I ran some errands, I had some quiet nights. I went to the drive-in. I watched Hallmark Movies with my mom. I went out for breakfast and watched a friend ride his bike by on a 60 mile “Tour de Keuka” fundraiser ride and […]
Sometimes you just know a thing will be perfect. Like driving to Indian Lake on a Thursday night after running a 5k in Dorchester Park and the sky is beautiful, and the roads are quiet. Like having climbing crags all to yourself, beautiful hikes, swimming holes, golden hour on an abandoned golf course, and enough […]
