Indifferent Apathy... or is it??

...in my late 40's I don't consider myself old at all!  I grew up in an average family, sometimes very poor, mostly getting by, but certainly not wealthy. We did not have a dishwasher or fancy laundry facilities. Those things are technology, and are not what my intrigue is focused on.

So much has changed from the generation I grew up in to the teens of today! I don't mean the technology, hairstyles or fashion (although  that has changed tremendously as well). I am addressing different things like courtesy, humility, acknowledging ones elders, assisting with general chores, having basic responsibilities in a family that help one learn useful things for a life on ones own. Ok, many call it respect, or even integrity! This is not a rant by any means, nor is it a diss toward teens! It's an exploration of what is, of what I observe every day, a comparison to what "was" considered etiquette or perhaps even respect! Not sure if it's just me or this is a more widespread phenomenon! You want me to be more specific...

When we (I use the term we loosely to address the generation I belong to) entered a home (regardless of who's home) we removed our footwear at or as near the door as we could... not only that, but we picked it up and carefully placed it out of the way so the next person in the door would not have to trip over it. Not enough you say...

If my folks, or others labored in the kitchen cooking a meal, we would have been so very ashamed if we sat aside after the excellent meal and watched as they washed the dirty dishes as well. We would have found great humility and even joy in being able to help out and do that as a token of gratitude for the excellent meal. It would have been the least we could do.

I am pretty sure that if we used the last few sheets of toilet paper on the roll, that we would have gone out of our way to ensure that we replaced it with a new roll, or if it was unavailable at least thought to leave a note, or a box of tissues in its place! Still looking for more...

Ok, this one just completely defies reason... if I were to go and do my laundry and find clothes left in the dryer (that were dry & from my parents laundry) that I would most assuredly not throw them back in with the dirty laundry or on the dirty floor of the laundry room. My thought would be to either neatly fold those clothes and leave then on top of the dryer, or find a clean laundry basket to put them in & take them to my parents room.

Sigh. If I gave you any more it would indeed become a rant! Not what I intend.

Why has this changed? Am I the only one of my generation to note such things? Talk to me.

I have theories, thoughts, postulations, but none of that matters when I am in the midst of it going on... I just have to bite my lip and keep my mouth shut! I am not confrontational, do not wish to incite an argument and find it easier on everyone in the long run if I just keep on keeping on... I just want to understand it, is all! It does not compute in my mind at all. I would love to hear some rational, calm, discussional feedback to this observation. : )

Spread the love! I love all all five of the teens in my family very much. I just don't understand some things... maybe I'm just old school & leave it at that. Peace out.

Living IT

"Living The Dream"... something we say to people that we perceive to be living the life of choice, whose choice, what kind of life qualifies? the life we think is ideal? ...so what is that then? Being a person who is actually doing this seems to be as elusive as the Holy Grail! Have you ever been on the receiving end of that comment?? If you have, then you must know what "Living The Dream" truly is?

I have been on the receiving end of that comment. At the time, it made me feel awesome, on top of the world and gave me an incredible rush! I'm not so sure that I understood what the actual statement meant to me at that instant, but it sure sounded amazing being the recipient of that descriptor! As recreational climbers, we hear that statement every once in a while about great climbers who commit themselves to road-trip for years and pursue their passion of climbing with an attitude of, "whatever it takes"! These individuals do great things for the sport, and may eventually become icons that the rest of us look up to and dream of becoming... dream of "Living The Dream".

In a large way, maybe that's what it's all about! In others perception, maybe those seen as Living The Dream give hope and inspiration to the rest of the world with what it is that they are doing. I sure know that I was incredibly inspired by climbers like the late Alex Lowe and Dan Osmond... were they "Living The Dream"? To me, as a recreational climber who craved to become better, craved to spend more time on the rock and ice faces of the world they sure were! I have been inspired by many great climbers who to me, are sure Living The Dream!

Why would I have been on the receiving end of that comment??? is something that I have asked myself many times in the past few months. I sure don't see myself that way now... but then I am not where I was, am not doing what I was doing... so then, one can fall from this state for sure!?! Or is it simply the perception others have of us?? Is it possible that each and every one of us can Live The Dream??? ...maybe it's simpler than doing something radical that becomes obvious to most others? Maybe more of us Live The Dream than we know... maybe we live our own dream, whatever that is, the dream that puts us in our happy place in life! Maybe that constitutes the weekend warrior who goes out and climbs when they can for the sheer passion of climbing! Profound... possibly, they are Living The Dream too!

I would love your insight to this interesting concept! Are you "Living The Dream"? Is it your dream? is it someone else's perception of what you are doing with your life? WHAT is it that constitutes "LIVING THE DREAM"? Is it just a label... or is there much more to it than that???? Thank you for reading and Please share your thoughts!

Ciao for now and keep spreading the love!

Feelin' Blue

SO, life finds us, climbers, blue... why do I say climbers???? because that's my passion, that's what I love to do without a shadow of a doubt, it's what I live for... ya, you might have something else that does that for you, cool, just substitute your thing and read on... This is not a sermon, or a confession, it's just how I feel and my spit on the page...

I get like this when life catches up to me and  I let it corner me into thinking that I'm trapped... why, because I am choosing for some reason to do everything but what it is that I truly want and love to do... climb! Sure, I can make up some excuse like I have to pay my bills, or someone has to run the business... excuses. But, I argue with myself, they are not excuses, they are hard facts... somewhere along the line in the vast and deadly beautiful wilderness of Patagonia I admitted to myself that EVERYTHING is a choice... so if I now turn around and side with the "hard facts" illusion, I am only lying to myself. Here I am now, in a space between what I know is the truth, and what I would like to believe. I believe that is what my 'blues' are all about. This is something that I have to get down in writing so that I can look at it and work it out.

Waiting... 

This picture inspired me the instant before I took it. Make of it what you will, to me it embodies everything I am feeling right now. Oh, ya... you're right, it's not climbing... what's your point?

What is it that sometimes some of us 'wait' for in life? Is it an answer? Is it divine intervention... a sign of some sort? Or, is it just that we have made a choice for whatever reason to just sit back, let it go by and complain about the fact that it's going by... harsh... I'm talking about myself here, so read into it what you feel is appropriate for you! Here I am, wishing that I were climbing, feeling down and out about all of the things I am choosing to do that are not what I truly want to do... am I waiting for something, something to grab me, to shake me, to pull me and tell me to go do what it is that I love to do? Then this nagging thought filters through my conscience, a thought that goes something like this: "You know the answers to the questions you seek, but they are not the answers you want to hear, not the 'shabang - here's an super quick, super easy solution for you bro'!, so you keep pretending to look even harder for the elusive answers to those questions... and now along with that, complaining about not 'finding' those answers makes you feel better about it! ...or does it really? Be honest with yourself now, shake all the rest off, look into the mirror and tell yourself that there has been no divine intervention, that you still seek the answers to your questions because they have not appeared to you! My reflection looks back at me blankly and without a smirk or any expression at all fires back simply, BULLSHIT!        I am feeling blue...

What do we fear...

So this has spilled eh! I know what the answer is... so why am I still sitting here feeling blue? Has anything changed with this knowledge? It should.

Now the question becomes, "why, when we know the answer, do we ignore its simplicity and continue to search for something that is far more complicated?". OUCH, did I just say that... guess i did, cuz it's written right back there! Is there an answer to that question that is universal you ask... no, I don't think so. I believe that answer will be quite person specific. Why am I still blue then?... because I am afraid to make the choices that I know I have to make in order not to feel this way. Afraid... me... ya. Afraid of what? Fear is usually of the unknown. I don't know or understand some of the possible consequences to some of the choices I know I have to make to move out of this blue... so I fear them. It has me sort of paralyzed. BULSHIT my brain screams at me, this was not an issue in Patagonia! You were just doing what you love to do there and did not have a problem with it did you?... what do I say to that? where does that leave me in my thinking...    blue.

Grateful to stand...

The beautiful part of being human is that we can choose where we wish to spend our time, in the past, in the future, or in the present moment... moment by moment! Here I am. My moment includes being loved, having shelter, having food, being ok in fact! Does my 'moment' include blue? The answer that I know, but often choose to ignore for want of a more complex, more epic answer is simply: ONLY if I allow it to! BULLSHIT screams something deep inside my head... I know better now...

A moment ago I was blue, in search for an answer to my feelings. In this moment, now, I feel free, feel thankful for what I experience right now. I know that if I choose to go climb, I will... and I also know that I will face the consequences to that choice, all in a line, all as they filter home in those precious moments to come. Now, I feel free.

High...: Friendship Amongst Climbers

High...: Friendship Amongst Climbers

Friendship Amongst Climbers

Friendship is one of those things that you either have or don't have! What does that mean??? I totally believe that most "friendships" are simply a matter of convenience, or at one or more of the 'friend's' personal expense. OUCH, how can I say that... because it is what it is! No, don't try to convince me that there are different 'levels' of friendships, or types...  as the Brits would say, "Rubbish!". What am I talking about then??? Read on...


Here goes, and feel free to agree or not! The friendship that I'm talking about is unconditional, that's right, no conditions... (don't get political on me here now... read the romantic side of this). I have been a part of many 'friendships' throughout my years, and I can admit that in the past I have been both the benefactor and the bastard! Of those friendships, the only ones that persevere are those that exist without interference of ego, hormones or other pointless emotions like jealousy, envy and greed (ya, greed can be an emotion, leave me with that!). So what then is this persevering 'friendship' made of, based on, surviving on??


Love. Oooooooh, there it is, that infamous four letter word that requires a blog all on it's own. I am going to employ that word in the truest sense of it's meaning. Leave it at that. BUT, it is not the only ingredient to a healthy, awesome, and timeless friendship! Being at peace with yourself is another firm requirement. If you are at odds with yourself in any way, you will project that into the friendship in some way, and that will create some form of imbalance and eventually cause a condition that evolves into an 'ego fest' of stupidity! The sort of friendship I am spitting about seems to be as elusive as the "Holy Grail" these days!

In my thirty-odd years of involvement in the world of climbing and mountaineering (not full-time) I have shared rope and many EPIC moments with a few people who today, simply put, would give their lives for me in an instant. That thought is reciprocal without conditions. Being 'right' is never an issue. That is ego driven and destroys many friendships before they have a chance to flourish. Do you do things, give things for your friends expecting something in return, even secretly deep inside? That's not how it works... How to explain this? With some of these beautiful people, contact is maybe once every two or three years, but when it happens, it's like we spoke last only yesterday and have not skipped a beat! Others, I see and interact with on a regular basis and it's just as intense. With some I have given volumes and truly, honestly never expected a thing in return. With others I have received volumes knowing that truly, honestly nothing was expected in return! The giving and taking never affects such friendship because it is not ego driven. I would even be so bold as to suggest that this kind of friendship comes before love... but is so intricately woven into the coarse fibers of love that it's difficult to distinguish as an entity of it's own. Pheeeew!


Enough... that was getting deep. Here it is, what I truly want to say: Thank you to all those who share in such a friendship! You light the way for others to follow and keep the true meaning of this concept alive. Climbers are not the only ones to experience this intense friendship... I'm not that vain! If you do not have such friendship, first I deeply empathize with you, second, start by sorting out your issues with yourself and then make new friends! It's never too late! Get on a rope and share the deepest sense of responsibility for anothers life... who knows, you might like it too! : P


Spread the love... life is short my friends!

Edification... WHAT??

E d i f i c a t i o n... you should not need Websters or Google for this! If you do... without being negative, please take note!


I wish to use a recent experience in my life to illustrate edification in it's proper sense. I spent a great amount of time and sincere effort into the application process for an amazing career opportunity in Chile. The owners of this first rate company were professional, diligent and sincere through  the entire process. I believe that, although I may not have been the first choice, I was offered the position I applied for in all sincerity. I accepted, humbled and overjoyed.


I was presented with the opportunity to be a part of a 42 day mountain school on the Northern Patagonian Ice Cap. I accepted with great enthusiasm! I was given the opportunity to learn, to record and to interact on this amazing adventure. I participated in an amazing arena where eight people had nowhere to go, nothing to hide behind and were not able to just up and walk away without serious consequence to their lives. For me, this was one experience. For my employers, who were also the guides, the teachers, the mentors, the counselors, this was but one of three such journeys, back-to-back, that season!

I have the utmost respect, admiration and love for these two people. They give everything they have in the most extreme of situations, in one of the most hostile/beautiful and unforgiving environs on this planet. They have an intense understanding of risk management and the discipline to pull it off over and over again in the most threatening situations! What they offer their students is an experience that changes lives, alters destinies, and lives on for all time. These two amazing people have devoted their lives to enriching the lives of those who dare to seek out that elusive opportunity to truly become who you are!


I would do anything for these two beautiful souls. Unfortunately events in my own life offered up the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make... I am no longer there, no longer a part of their adventure! I would like to believe that I am still a part of their experience, like countless others they have mentored and given the opportunity to truly find themselves. For that experience I am eternally grateful. It changed my life in so many ways. Thank you Jaya and Ben, for everything, even for those things that none of us understand... may we one day share a bowl of Mate and embrace it all! You are truly the best of people, and the most worthy friends in any arena of life. I edify you both in the truest sense of the word... I love you both and thank you for a gift that has more worth than price could be set. Keep doing what you do best!

Love of the MOMENT...

Climbing, relationships, pets, family, friends... it occurred to me just recently that all of these can be enjoyed moment by moment! Each moment to be relished for exactly what it is!

What does this mean?? To me it simplifies everything. A past moment has already been enjoyed. It will never, ever happen again exactly the same... it is unique! The emotions that evolved from this moment are a memory, anything we learned from this moment has been posted somewhere to the brain in memory... leave it in the past as you have gained everything from this moment that was offered. A moment in the present is giving you all of this right now. SOAK IT UP! Moments in the future are yours for the experience and will happen with or without you.

What is important?? Live each moment as it occurs, while it occurs and for it's duration! then, look forward only to the next moment in time and what it has to offer. Many of us spend so much time trying to recover past moments or attempting to manifest future moments that present moments are just ignored. How often have you walked past a flower and absently thought, "I wonder what that flower smells like?"and kept walking with that thought lingering on... instead of stopping and living that moment to commit to memory! How many times have we left a friend, a family member or a spouse and not said, "I love you?" instead of taking that moment to create a sweet memory??

What to do??? Choosing to live in the moment, moment by moment, allows you to live, experience and love your life. It also aligns your spirit, your soul with the present world and sharpens your senses, your intuition, your ability to be! Make a choice and live. Too many of us are simply put, "Walking Dead!".
Moment by moment, may your life be your choice!

Love ya.

Route Finding!

In the climbers world, "route finding" is an important skill to master. Getting "off-route" could be dangerous, and may lead one into the relative unknown. That is not entirely a 'bad' thing, as some of us gather a 'high' from entering the realm of the 'unknown'. Epics are derived of such deviations, and who knows how those will end... have to play them out and be as smart as you can! Great fuel for writing captivating bits and pieces though... after the fact! Route finding implies both the approach, the climb, and the exit! Always have to remember that once you have reached the goal you are only half way... still have to make an exit that leaves you walking & talking so that you can do it again!

Climbing has so many metaphors for the realities in life. 'Route finding' may just as well be ones day to day experience of life itself. There is always a dead wrong route, then it's a crap shoot, and something different works for different people. Who's to say what's right and what's wrong at this point? As long as your route is not obviously injurious to self or others by principal intent (holy grey area) and it is ethical and morally sound (yet another debatable can of worms)... sigh.


Have you ever been hopelessly LOST? ...either out in nature, or in life in general?? What do we do in situations like that? What is the deciding factor for those who survive and pull out of it to go on and 'live' another day, another adventure, another epic? IS there a definitive factor at all, or is it just 'chance' that enables such results... I, for one, don't count on 'chance'. 

Do you believe in yourself? ...in your abilities to survive the unexpected, to be strong and able to make good decisions under the most extreme forms of duress? Can you do something so simple as to honestly look at yourself in a mirror and say out loud, "I love you". Lets explore this a bit... take it a bit further then. How about still gazing lovingly at your reflection and adding to that, "I believe in you, I know you have what it takes to overcome, to persevere and to go the distance to survive!" The most incredible aspect of this is that you have to be brutally honest with yourself in the first place. Do it when nobody is around... this is between you and you!! Let me know what the outcome is. I know what mine is, and I also know that I am a solid survivor against all odds. I believe that I have a handle on what differentiates these people from others. I'm not saying I am invincible, for I know that one day I too will bite the big one. Until then, I also know that I am pretty damn good at route finding... in more than the Websters definition of the term... and we have not even touched on the concept of half empty vs half full! 


That's for another rant in another blog! Stay alive, stay 'high' and keep loving you!

Moments from a blue hole...

Choosing between sustained winds that can tear the skin off your face and the relative sanctity of a snow cave... many hours of slicing icy snow with shovels powered by aching muscles and steel wills! On the flank of Cerro San Valentin, as the ferocity of the storm reveals itself, the icy blue hollow of the snow cave proves to be a rhetorical choice. In the blue-white belly of this hundred meter high snow drift, life for eight adventurous mountaineers takes on a fresh perspective. The adventure of a lifetime, an arena of learning through the "Mountain Guide Training School - Extremely Patagonia Ltd", an experience that will linger on with you for the rest of your life! Its day thirty-something of a forty-two day "mountaineering school" adventure on the southern Patagonian Ice Cap and patience amongst other things has become a thin, tipsy act of  balance.

Breathing is one of the things that many of us take for granted, without intent! The air that we must breathe in order to sustain our lives is usually all around us and in ample supply. Those of us who choose to enter a realm where that very same air may become excruciatingly short in supply begin to understand it's vital role in our very existence!  Wind driven snow drifts into the tiniest openings and packs into a solid mass which does not allow the exchange of gases in or out! In the snow cave, we breathe the life giving air, and exhale poisonous carbon dioxide... over time, if there is no exchange with fresh air, the end result is suffocation. That usually happens while one is asleep, dreaming blissfully of loved ones and more hospitable places on this planet. Death in this scenario, were one to leave the situation unchecked, becomes an eminent reality! Our goal was to live, and so breathing becomes yet another choice!

The choice becomes waking on an hourly, or as necessary rotation, to dig out the entrance to the snow cave and the advancing drift outside. From a semi-warm, semi-dry sleeping bag into wet socks, wet boot liners, wet base layers, wet shell layer and out into the raging world of yet another infamous Patagonian ice cap storm! Time to reflect on ones most inner self, ones most primal senses of survival and then later to stumble upon the fact that only a very few people ever manifest the opportunity to get to know themselves that well! Back in your wet sleeping bag, covered in spindrift which endlessly blows into the opening that you have just cleared with an urgency to transform it yet again into a smooth, perfect impervious wall of snow.
And so, you shiver yourself to sleep, knowing that your watch is not for another period of time, time in which you can salvage every tiny essence of warmth and sense of shelter from the raging wind and snow beyond these eerie blue/white walls... your castle, your prison, your shelter, your virtual oasis in a desert of ice, snow and howling wind! Yesterday is past, today has been yet another test, and tomorrow will come whether you choose to prepare for it or not!

Ready for Life...

It's never a dress rehearsal, always sense for sense, delicious second for second r e a l!  You don't have to understand it, only realize that in everything you always have a choice. It may not be the choice you desire, or the most optimal one, but in the end you always have a choice, regardless of how small and insignificant or large and overwhelming it may appear!

So... choices eh! Ya. That simple, right... could be, if you step aside from your ego and take an optimistic, humble look at things! Ouch! Uh huh, that's right, you read it right! "But I don't have an ago challenge"...great, then keep that open, humble mind and keep reading!

To every choice there is a set of consequences. It's super important to be able to understand the impact of those consequences, as they impact those around you as well as you! Rule number one... your choices and their inevitable consequences must be ethical, moral, non-injurious to self and others and legal in the simplest sense of the word! This is the basic foundation for getting ready for life. There is more...

Now that we understand the concept of choice, I can introduce the next most important ingredient in a happy, successful life. Think and choose to be positive. That one is not rocket science, although if you let your 'ego' get in the way, it can be a monumental task to be sure! So many books have been written on that topic alone, it's staggering. Learn to channel every thought into something positive, especially before you open your mouth! You may indeed create your own sense of serenity and well being by choosing to see and be the positive in all things. The next one will bake your noodle, because it is the simplest, most often overlooked and taken for granted ingredient in life.

It is a simple four letter word that can fill your very existence with substance and worth... l o v e. I'm not talking about sex, or tween infatuation, but the most humble origins of the word, the opposite to it's darker brother... hate! Love yourself first and foremost... having a challenge with that, oh - CHECK the ego, because that would be your challenge! Cool with it, right on, then let's just slide right into the most important ingredient in life and lay it all right out in the open, on the line, whether you like it or not! If you have a challenge with this one, then Freud would spit it like it is... your ego controls your life! Get help!

Understand that we are all spiritual beings. Simple. That's it, just that we are all connected with everything at a much higher level than most of us choose to function. I'm not talking about Reverend Jimmy spitting at you over the tube to give him all your worldly possessions, just the fact that all things are interconnected with a flux of spiritual energy. Ancients drew the symbol of the spiral in caves and on clothing and pottery, it's symbolism being the spiral of abundant and never-ending, interconnected energy. We are all a part of it, all things are! This energy is there whether you choose to acknowledge it or not... makes no difference to it! If you do, and you realize that we are all a part of it, then you acknowledge that "God", or the "creator", or whatever label you choose to put on it, is within each and every one of us. We can channel that spiritual energy into our daily lives, and combined with everything else it makes us whole, allows us to have an innate sense of calm in who and what we truly are all about! So there you have it. Be happy. Choose this for yourself and the loved ones around you! Dare you...

Jack & a Sultry Heat

It's May here, sprigtime, with delicate scents of Lilac and Carnations drifting enticingly through my senses on a lazy breeze! With the mercury pushing thirty-one lovely degrees celcius, and a cloudless, azul sky there is little to complain about! All that's absent is a horizon that is unmistakably imprinted with the jagged, snow capped peaks of a million beautiful mountains! This is after all, Ontario... an unmistakably beautiful province with warm lakes to dip toes adorned with brightly coloured nails, to launch canoes and whitewater boats, to cruise and ride to your hearts content... all the while making selfless donations of quarts of your blood to the hungry but discreet blackflies and mosquitoes! A feast for your senses, truly, as well as the local insect populus!

An experiment probably tried by countless outdoor minded Ontarians... drink ample amounts of Jack and lets see if the critters actually get stoned from sipping on our blood! Ya, maybe a bit tainted, a hint of remorse and intense longing... for what you ask? Have you been to the mountains? If you're an outdoorsy type, and the answer is yes, then I'm preaching to the quire, aren't I!?! Never been you say... make it a point, a goal, one of those things on your bucket list! If you've been and it has not had any effect on you at all, then find another blog... 
Sipping the Jack, feeling the sultry sting of humidity prevalent here in this wonderful province, looking at clouds on the horizon and imagining with brief sparks of intense rapture that they are indeed mountains and you have managed to teleport to where you truly want to be... more Jack please, it's working... until tomorrow!

Airport Savvy...

Travel... the act of getting from one location to another (this can be whatever you want it to be, and can be undertaken by whatever means of transportation). Road Trips are whole different species of locomotion which adventure travelers seem to gravitate more to... must be part of the experiential thrill of the process being a means to the action! More on 'road trips' in an upcoming blog! Airport to airport however, is undeniably, "travel"... a mechanical means to the action... BUT pointedly has its very own menu of savory delights!
Waiting... (one of the most, in-your-face items on the menu)... waiting in lines, to get from one step to the next in a defined process, for scheduled times where one may proceed from one to the next step in that defined process, for confirmation of your own intelligible sanity, and sometimes even just to get into the banyo! Travelling in pairs, working as a fluid team is one thing, but going it alone, solo, that's an entirely different menu! Something as elementally simple and urgent as visiting the restroom becomes a stressful journey into the unknown! Add being in a foreign country where you have not the luxury of communicating in a language that is intelligible to you, and the fun begins! Stay tuned for an account of one climbers 'fun' travelling solo!

Anticipation...

What is this word, the emotion that it describes? The feeling, the experience becomes extremely intense as one gets closer to the moment anticipated... and if there is no definitive space in time where this will occur, the intensity lingers on...

Let's increase the high, and slide in, that even the experience of that 'moment' is not defined... not sure what to even expect... like prayer flags fluttering in the breeze, then being slammed by a 140 km/hr blast of infamous Patagonian spirit wind... you really have no clue until the exact moment in time, the millisecond where it goes down, where your senses go crazy with the euphoric realization of the moment!

So we linger in time and stretch out the intensity of this concept... we want it more urgently, need it to last longer, implore it to take us past the ragged fringe of our limits... I have been called a 'junky', an 'adrenaline whore' and other things... are we? Or is that a crass label thrown by those whose ego's create a longing sense of envy, of perverted jealousy... and I have not even yet contemplated to endure the sweet smoke of a different high... that my friends is yet a different exploration of the term...
 'a n t i c i p a t i o n'!

Getting there...

Everything is a part of the end result. Many call it the 'journey', the 'process'... So you want to climb in Patagonia... Getting there is part of the high! From where I live, the flight is 21 hours direct, and if you have the pleasure to be on standby, or dirtbag by hopping on cheap non connecting flights it's more like days...
You become the watcher, the participant, the watched...
Then it happens, you get there! Now what... still part of the everything leading to an eventual end result... hope it never comes to that, you want it to just keep happening!
Culture shock... slow down, fresh air, winding roads... the ghosts of Patagonia seep through every turn, every bump, slam you with every gust of infamous Patagonian wind...
Stay tuned, I'll be back with fresh perspective and lacy details of "high" in Patagonia... Cerro San Valentin... the Northern Ice Cap... c o l d and high... ciao for now mes amigos!