Gear Review

I bought my first pair of climbing shoes in high school. When I complained about the pain in my toes my climbing friend laughed and said, “Get used to it, that’s how they are supposed to fit.” Since then I have always equated climbing shoes with pain. In fact, it seems to be an industry standard and a literal take on the phrase, “No pain, no gain.” The Scarpa Vapor V’s are here to turn that concept on its head. 

When I saw the Vapors a the REI garage sale in October and slipped them on I was surprised for two reasons, they fit, and they were instantly comfortable. It felt like they were meant for me, green and tucked in a pile of miscellaneous shoes. I did a double take before I realized I was looking at a pair of sleek climbing shoes. At first, I thought they were too big but there was no dead space, they are just instantly comfortable. This is one of the Vapors best qualities, there is no trial time to break in the shoes.

On rock or at the gym the Vapors excel. With a slightly aggressive shape but a soft flex they hold a fine balance. They are designed with the reverse slingshot rand pushing your heel back rather than your toes forward increasing comfort. They are coated with

4 mm of Vibram Edge rubber making them grippy on even the most worn granite. The toe box is properly tight but not uncomfortable, and the sensitivity of the shoe makes finding the flakes for foot placement easier than I’ve ever experienced.

Climbing at the gym I’ve gotten comments from people about my sweet shoes. They aren’t overly colorful but the green pops just enough to catch the eye when you are making that sweet heel hook. My favorite part about them is the little Italian flag. Scarpa is proud and they show it. You should be too, sporting these great climbing kicks is like taking your climbing level up a notch just by putting them on. 

Since this has to be five-hundred words I need some space filler, but really what more can I say about a pair of shoes. So I’ll tell you a little about my first climbing experience in years. Picture this- Alaska, a craggy glacial valley and perfectly worn granite all over the place. My friend Daisy takes me mountain biking to one of the local crags. I have no shoes and haven’t climbed in years but she is encouraging. Up I go, leading some easy climbs in my bare feet. It was a blast and was the invigorating body movement and experience I needed after over a month out at sea and to get me excited about climbing again. I now have gotten myself a new pair of shoes and am back at it again. It is amazing what a friends enthusiasm can do to get the stoke flowing again. 

Salmon Fishing

A joyous moment!

Alaska, the last frontier, they say. The promised land some say. I have heard about this place of mythical proportions my whole life and I’ve been infatuated with the idea of going. Last summer I got my chance. I bought a plane ticket with the determined intention of salmon fishing in Bristol Bay. I had heard that this was the real deal, “off-the-road system”, removed from the rest of the country by ridges of glacier capped mountains, only accessible by plane or boat. On my flight in we passed almost directly over a smoking volcano and on my descent I saw a herd of caribou.

I was on an adventure. The journey pushed me beyond anything I have ever experienced. Sleepless days, nights never dark, but picturesque with rainbow skies. Fish, fish and more fish. Endless fish, I swore at them, prayed for them, and ate more of them than I ever had in my life. My world became a 29-foot-long and 11-foot-wide boat named Sea Breeze. However, there was nothing breezy about the experience. We launched into 30 knot winds and 8 foot seas. The first 48 hours were hell incarnate, I was soaked, shivering, puking and pulling fish in. The puking stopped, we fixed our leaky windows, and the fish kept coming.

Five weeks out in the ocean. Five weeks without feeling the land underfoot but learning to relax and rock with the boat. Whether sitting, cooking, hauling in fish or sleeping. The rock and sway became comforting. I had nightmares for two weeks, imagining all the terrible things that could befall us. But one by one we checked them off the list and I became more confident that we could survive anything. Engine fire, check. Grounding on a sandbar with the net out, check. Wrapping another boat in our net, check. The never ending near catastrophes became commonplace.

A hose clamp fractured on our coolant hose. Emptying our antifreeze, seizing up our engine, and breaking down our hydraulic reel. The net out and our boat adrift cruising towards the 1000-foot-long “trampers,” hitting one would mean obliteration. 900 feet of net loaded with fish, and they were still coming in. “Round-hauling,” pulling the net in by hand, is like running a marathon with your fingertips. Grab the mesh, lean back, pull as hard as you can, repeat. The conclusion of this act is a deck filled with net and fish, hip deep in it. The next step is to remove the fish one by one. Yanking, pulling and picking through the mess of net and fish.

There was beauty and joy amidst the overwhelming hardship. Watching the mountain ranges change to indigo under rainbow skies. The sublime calm of night, ripples dancing, reflecting the moon above. Fish, rooted to the cycles, 4-6 years swimming all over the Pacific Ocean only to return to their natal stream. Multicolored and powerful, unyielding in their determination to return home. Salmon Fishing, a rite of passage that taught me that I’m capable of anything.

Lake Anna Adventure

Lake Anna

This quote sums up so much of my need for adventure. There is a belonging in the adventure to a wild place. The finding of the home that exists within myself. Labor day weekend this year a buddy of mine from Ashland and I headed down to the Trinity Alps to meet two of my cousins coming up from San Francisco. We arrived late Friday after work and hit the trail in the dark. On our drive down we drove through exceptionally thick smoke from forest fires. I was worried that we might be smoked out at the trailhead. But when we arrived we were heralded by the stars. We busted through a few miles and ended up in a beautiful valley with the stars twinkling overhead. The light in the morning was sublime, the smoke made an orange glow that was filtered through the old growth firs and cedars. Waking up to birdsong and the wetness of the dew on my sleeping bag was so comforting. After breakfast we continued up the valley on our way  to Lake Anna. We went off trail in our quest and worked our way up the valley and onto the ridge until we found the gorgeous deep blue of the cirque lake. Without delay we swam and basked on the rocks letting the tingling sensation of the cold fade away. We made camp overlooking the lake and headed up the knife like peaks to get a panoramic view. The smoke shrouding the land below was so surreal, we were in an island in the sky; Just above the smoke that was enveloping the land below. Our home for the next two nights was nestled under a beautiful old growth tree, that night we heard the call of the Great Horned Owl. The following day I had a yearning for an adventure, there are a vast number of peaks and lakes in a very small area. My cousin Chad and I decided to see how many we could visit in a day. We set out crossing the saddles between the mountains and hiking off trail carving straight-ish lines between our destinations. We summited mountains and swam in multiple beautiful lakes. It was a day of ultimate questing, with only a small day pack between us we covered many miles of up, down and back again. Returning to camp we figured that we made a 5 lake loop and covered about 8 miles. I missed this feeling of raw adventure: sleeping under the stars and moving lightly over the land. This trip brought me back home and helped me settle back into what it means to be at home in nature. I belong to the wild places, I thrive and find my power when I am deep in the wilderness of the world. Without this I wouldn’t be me and I would be utterly lost in the churning of our modern world. 

Deer Lake and Siligo Peak

Why I Adventure

 Adventure is deeply rooted in the psyche. When we could have stayed in central Africa we chose to wander. We explored and pushed the boundaries of the known world until we spanned every continent and ocean on this planet. Now we have taken this innate sense of expansion and taken it beyond the limits of our home planet. Every human has a different sense of adventure, yet it lives within us all.

I choose to adventure because it fulfills a deep need to push my own boundaries, to seek the wild places, the moments in which I could never have fathomed, to stretch myself into the unknown and come back changed. Adventure can take on many forms, from epics that involve airplane flights to far away places, to backyard rambles. It is the focus, the purpose behind the action that makes it an adventure. When we let the preconceived fall away and step into the unknown we are on an adventure. 

This past year my eyes have been set on the ocean. I have been cultivating a deep appreciation for one of the most foreign environments for our bi-pedal species: water. Deep water scared me when I was young. I wouldn’t go into water that I couldn’t see into, murky deep water gave me the heebie-jeebies. I was a teenager before I was really comfortable swimming in lakes, rivers and eventually the ocean. Surfing has always held an allure for me, when I started to surf I saw the ocean in a new light. A force to be reckoned with, but also one that can be harnessed and danced with. Surfing has taken hold of my heart, it is so raw, there are so few ingredients needed to make an amazing moment happen. 

Driving from Ashland to the coast is an adventure, we traverse multiple bioregions and travel along the last un-dammed river in California, the Smith River. Once we arrive it is time to assess conditions, almost never do we surf where we envision. There are so many nooks and crannies that catch the swell directions; or keep the wind at bay, so many factors that can really only be weighed once we arrive.

Plunging into the water with only a board underneath, and in the northern latitudes a wetsuit, is a leap of faith. Fighting the breaking power of the waves to get beyond them is the first test. One that has sent me sprawling back on the beach many times. Once that is complete you have to be patient. Bobbing in the ocean like a seabird, waiting for the right moment and wave to begin the next test. Can you paddle strong enough to catch the surging beast? There is something so raw about a wave, a pulse from some distant place in the ocean that when it gets close to land rises up and roars. Surfing has captured my soul and embodies so much of what I call adventure. 

My first Ecuadora!

Diana teaching me to weave!

Two days ago I completed my first Ecuadora, it only took me about 20 hours from start to finish. Much slower than the eight hour average of the weavers. It's a time consuming process to weave a hat from start to finish, there are many tricks that I never would have been able to figure out on my own. Thankfully I had the inventors of the Ecuadora to teach me.

Day Two, learning to make my first pattern

In the beginning as the base grows new wefts (The fibers running vertically in the photo, sticking out of the bottom) need to be added periodically, meaning that apart from focusing on the weaving itself I had to be constantly aware of when to add more wefts. The wefts are always Toquilla Palm because it is more rigid than the plantain bark. 

Trying out a top hat while I work

Once enough wefts have been added it's smooth sailing for a little while, nothing to to but continue going round and round. Until I got to the level of the closure. Then it gets tricky again, I had to learn to weave in reverse, weave in one direction towards the gap, and then turn around and head back the way I came. This played quite a trick with my mind and it took a while before I got it down without messing up, almost every time I would turn around I would get stuck and have to think about the process all over again. The last bit is to make the clasp itself which requieres adding new wefts sideways to pull off. This was where Diana had to take over for a minute to get me started.

Finished the cap, now onto the visor, with a fedora and Ecuatopper in progress.

The visor was pretty easy compared to what I had to complete to get to this point, every day of weaving I was getting better and faster.

Almost finished!

Stoked about my new hat! It feels great to have finally completed an Ecuadora from start to finish!

Montanita Fashion Week

Finale of Fireworks, they burn!

 This last week was the first annual Montanita Fashion Week, and the agency that I modeled with before was here and had two events, one on thursday and another on Saturday. Fausto arrived on Thursday to enjoy the chill vibes of Montanita with me. We were in one of the three main Bar/ Discoteques when we bumped into Martha, the owner of Schmitt Models. She wanted me to model later that evening. I had to turn her down, Fausto and I were having too much fun. On Friday I got to talk to Martha about what the deal was. The main event was Saturday evening, and she wanted me to model. I asked her if my hats could get shown as well. She agreed, her nephew Daniel designs beachwear and he was happy to have my hats accompany his shirts. He is a photographer and videographer, he made the video that I was in in September and would be filming the event on Saturday.

I arrived at Martha's house at 12 PM and then I did what models do best, wait. I spent most of the day on the beach waiting to be called to try on clothes. It turns out that I'm not a very good model down here because my waist and shoulders are too broad. The way the last two events that I've been in work is that Shmitt Models supplies the models and the designers bring their clothes for the models to try on. I was rejected by almost everyone because I couldn't fit into their shirts, jackets and pants. I was also tried out for a speedo, but my tan line is at my knees... In the end I was chosen by two different designers, one modeling underwear and the other some hideous cut up shirt and jean shorts.

Once the event gets going it is extremely stressful, there is a two minute gap between each turn. In those two minuted the model has to change and be ready to walk with a whole new outfit on. It wasn't much of a problem for me since I only appeared in three out of the 10 different turns but many models walked every time.

We weren't allowed to watch either, all of us sequestered in the building behind the runway. The designers yelling at us to get the clothes just right and the event producers trying to keep everything orderly.

The highlight was getting to see the hats shown, I snuck into the balcony and watched the models strut their stuff rocking our fedoras and top hats. Because Daniel was filming I walked out in his name as the designer of the clothes. It was a good experience, Daniel says that he's going to get me all the footage for free. I can say that our hats have been shown in a fashion show!
On monday I went to Felix and Diana's to weave and they opened the Super, the regional newspaper, and there was a picture of me and my hats!

Otavalo Adventures

                                             Double Rainbow over the Bus Terminal

I went to Otavalo in search of woolen liners for the hats and some other product ideas. I arrived in Otavalo and walked in the completely opposite direction from the center of town until I asked someone,. When I got off the bus there was a sign for a market, and I followed it. Turns out it wasn't the famous crafts market that is well known all around South America. Sometimes you've just gotta ask...

I figured it out and made it back to the market, I began asking different shops and stalls if they knew of where I could get specific work done and raw materials. I was pointed towards the bus station where I was told I would find what I was looking for. Little did I know, I would find much more.

I wandered my way up a stair case that was garland with multicolored wool. I had found the right spot. On the second floor was bags and bags of wool. The owner of the store sat through my questions about wool in Ecuador. Turns out Ecuador doesn't hardly produce any alpaca wool and all the alpaca wool items in the market come from Peru. I was asking him about how I could find people to work for me when a woman, Luz, who was buying wool told me that her and her family weaves and that I could come with her. I said sure and waited until she had made her purchase. I helped bring the three bags of wool that she bought down to an awaiting taxi truck and as I was putting it in I saw the most amazing double rainbow. I commented to her that it was a good luck sign. She said that it was for both of us. The rest of the evening we kept on repeating it to one another.

Luz and her ponchos

We arrived at her home and she took me to a room in the house where two people were working on wooden looms. She told me that her household was one of three in Otavalo proper that still weave traditional ponchos on looms. What luck! I spent the evening explaining what I was in Ecuador doing and what I am hoping that they can do for me. They were more than willing to weave what we're looking for. At some point while I was talking with the family I asked Luz's daughter Lina who is studying tourism where a good hotel might be. Luz interjected and asked if I was alone. When I told her that I was she invited me to stay the night at her house.

As were were talking two young Mormon missionaries arrived. They have been coming to this family for two weeks and that night was the night that they were going to show the Luz and her family the church. One of the Missionaries was from Utah, so we chatted about the USA. I learned that when your on a mission you can't use the internet, so was totally without contact with the happenings back in the States. It was very interesting talking to the missionaries, they firmly believed that they have the one way to god and did their best to convince me and the family to join the church. Since I didn't have much to do I decided to join the family and check the church with them. We spent an hour touring the church, my first time in a Mormon church, reading passages from the Book of Mormon and being asked questions about our beliefs. It was definitely not how I imagined spending my evening but very interesting.

We returned to the house and I got to meet the rest of the family who were back from work at that time. I ate dinner with them and turned in for the night, content and happy to have met such an open and welcoming family.

Miguel rocking the loom

Figuring it out...

The next day I learned how to work the loom with one of Luz's sons Miguel. We worked on the loom for about an hour, figured out the prices for the products and then Miguel took me to a waterfall outside of Otavalo. We had a great time wandering around the beautiful community park. There were two waterfalls, we ciimbed up above the first and we were able to swim in the pool below the second.

We hitched a ride back to town in the back of a truck and ate lunch again at the house. Luz sent me away saying, next time you come back tell us a week in advance so we can make cuy (guinea pig)!