Erik & Eric

"On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world's highest peak - Mount Everest."

So begins the "About Erik" section at a website my friend Kara recently referred me to (http://www.touchthetop.com/). This guy is a real inspiration. He lost his sight at age 13, before he even started getting into climbing. In an interview with National Geographic, he talks about how he makes every effort to be a contributing member of the team rather than simply being led all the way and planted on the summitt http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0730_030730_everest.html .

Another tidbit I couldn't leave out: "In 1999, Erik joined Mark Wellman - the first paraplegic to climb the 3000-foot face of El Capitan, and Hugh Herr - a double-leg-amputee and scientist at Harvard's prestigious prosthetics Laboratory, to climb an 800-foot rock tower in Moab, Utah." Amazing, huh?

If you only have time to check out one of the links above, go to the intervew. Maybe climbing isn't your thing, but I'm guessing you'll still be inspired to dream big and treat obstacles as opportunities for greatness. It makes me think of the Adidas tagline, "Impossible is nothing." I love that! Not sure if Erik is a Christian or not. It's awesome when people like this recognize the source of their abilities. One of my personal heroes is Eric Liddell, missionary and Olympic gold medalist (good bio info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell). One of his quotes has stuck with me ever since I first heard it as a kid. I think it's from Chariots of Fire, and in it Eric says something like this: "God made me fast, and when I run, I can feel His pleasure."
God made each of us for a purpose, and His heart is thrilled when we pursue that purpose with passion- when we each run our race.

excursion to Tokepah Falls

Shortly after I wrote my last post, my friend Ronnie from SMR called me and invited me to go ice climbing the next morning. Since the following day was the Superbowl, we agreed on a 5 am departure time, which meant I had to get up at 4. I didn't care, I was excited at the opportunity to do try a new outdoor sport.

We met up, drove an hour and a half or so into the park, divvied up the ropes, crampons, and other gear, and set off on the 1.7 mile approach trail. We opted to leave the snowshoes in the truck since it was a fairly well established trail and it hadn't snowed in a while. This proved to be a wise decision all except for the last 150 or so yards from the trail to the base of the cliff, where we were continually "post-holing," which is the technical name for sinking way deep in the snow. That final section probably took a good 20 minutes, since we'd take a step or two, fall in up to our hips, and have to dig ourselves back out.

It turned out that the condition of the ice was somewhat less than ideal, not because it hasn't been cold enough, but because there hasn't been enough snow this season. There were still sections of good ice though, so we proceeded to the top, set up an anchor, and rappelled down. When we reached the bottom we discovered that all the good ice was off to one side or the other, and our anchor would have to be moved. No problem, except we didn't have all that much time. I belayed Ronnie as he finessed a rather tricky climb. Several times the rope got hung up on the ice, and he had to downclimb to free it. What made it risky was the fact that because he wasn't climbing directly below the anchor, any slip would have resulted in what's called a "pendulum fall" (yep, pretty much what it sounds like =).

I think part of the reason why climbers are such a close-knit community is that they regularly trust each other with their lives. I belayed Ronnie, he belayed me. If either of us had fallen, we would have been depending entirely on the other to arrest the fall. I'm not trying to overly dramatize this, it's just a neat thing, in my opinion. And don't worry, Mom- we prayed for protection, and wore helmets.

By the time Ronnie set up a new anchor and rappelled back down we were sorta running out of time, but he still let me climb a decent section of ice a few times. It was a great introduction to the sport.

It's hard to tell the scale from this picture, but the face you're looking at here is well over a hundred feet. I didn't get any better pictures of us or the ice, because we were tied up most of the time. When conditions are ideal, that part with the icicles will be a solid wall of ice the whole way down to the bottom.

This is Ronnie on our approach, almost at the top.

This was the view directly across from where we were.

The scenery was just awesome.

long live Swiffer

I've had one of the most productive Saturdays in months. Christian and Holly got me a gift card and coupon for a Scrubbing Bubbles brand shower cleaner, which I finally got around to purchasing today. Pretty neat device- it "cleans your shower at the touch of a button!" I also picked up a Swiffer duster and a Swiffer mop. (Wal-Mart may not be the place to go for high-end backpacking or climbing gear, but they're great for everything else!) Cleaning products have come a long way since the bucket-and-rag days of old. In about twenty minutes I had cleaned my shower, dusted my apartment, and mopped all the floors. Now that may not sound like news to you, but for a bachelor that's downright groundbreaking.

CA really is a huge state. I recently discovered that my county alone is more than twice the size of Delaware. At almost 5,000 square miles, it's roughly the same size as the state of Connecticut. Most of that area is national forest or national parks land. This map shows how much of the county is in The Valley and how much is mountainous.

Lots of folks from back east ask me where Visalia is. I tell them that it’s in the central valley, approximately in the middle of the state. The nearest big cities are Fresno 40 minutes to the north and Bakersfield 1:15 to the south. LA is 2.5 to 3 hours south, depending on traffic and where you’re going, while Sacramento and the Bay area are 3-4 hours north. The central coast is 2-2.5 hours West, and the Sierra Nevada’s are just East of me. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so….

I think I'm going to go back to Neighborhood Church tomorrow. Boy I'll tell ya, finding a church can be a daunting task! I'm really not a hugely outgoing person, so it's not natural for me to just plunge into unfamiliar environments requiring interaction with strangers. One of the SMR folks invited me to Neighborhood a few weeks ago though, and I've been twice so far. They seem to have a vibrant young adults group (NOT a singles group- those things are scary!). I was at the 20-30's class last week, and enjoyed it, so I'll probably go back tomorrow.