Having lived now in Wyoming for nearly 2 years, I’ve come to really appreciate and love the climbing history that surrounds me. I recently finished a wonderful book called “Teton Tales and Other Petzoldt Anecdotes“, which is a brief memoir of sorts from Paul Petzoldt. It was a quick read, but only because the stories were so close to home, and so comfortably shared by the man who lived them. Petzoldt started climbing pretty early and had a good common sense approach to safety and order which manifested itself in the climbing commands still in use by climbers today around the world. He pretty much set the standards known today as minimum-impact camping, and taught those principles to thousands over the years through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and the Wilderness Education Association (WEA). In the introduction to Petzoldt’s book, his friend Kevin Cassidy summed up the simple lessons Paul shared: know where you are going, watch your step, look around the bend, and pay attention to what you have left behind. I think we need more people like Mr. Petzoldt, now so more than ever. Anyway – having just finished the book and done a little reading up on the guy, it made my day when I came across this footage of Paul along with a wonderful overview of his work with NOLS. The video below was recently found at the NOLS headquarters and cleaned up and posted on YouTube. It’s a bit rough, but the message comes through clear enough.

See also: An article on Paul Petzoldt from Life Magazine in 1969.

Jimmy Chin, Ingrid Backstrom, Kasha Rigby and Giulia Monega climb and make the first ski descent of Redommaine , a 20,000ft peak in the Minya Konka range in Tibet. Some great photos and back story on Jimmy’s blog.

Via http://www.tetonvillagesports.com/blog/…

Reinhold Messner has always scared me a little bit. The big Bavarian castle, the wild hair, missing toes – it just all adds up to a Force Not to be Messed With.

Good thing Ben Folds is such a good musician.

Always a place that held both good memories and no small amount of mystery to me, Washington’s North Cascade region is a pretty unique. Many of my first climbing mis-adventures took place in this part of the state, and I have a lot of respect for those hills. This video gives a tidy little overview of the area and features a quick couple of minutes on the indomitable Fred Beckey… Someone I’ve had the pleasure to meet a couple of times and hope to see out there someday!

Rare footage by Yvon Chouinard, initially created for National Geographic featuring John Cunningham climbing an unspecified climb on Ben Nevis in 1976.

John Cunningham and Creagh Dhu climbing The Cobbler in 1978.

Last Friday night I found myself at the Pink Garter Theater in Jackson, eating prosciutto and cheese and waiting for the start of that evening’s program – the Reel Rock Film Festival. With the shutting down of Alpinist earlier that week, it had actually been canceled – but awesomeness prevailed and things came together without the corporate sponsors. When the Alpinist expatriates realized a fellow ex-staffer was pregnant and soon to be without health coverage, they rallied to pull together both the films and a silent auction, with all the proceeds from the night (including beer sales) going to help out with her insurance needs.

I had been looking forward to this for quite a while, and the fact that I couldn’t get anyone to come with me didn’t stop me from being the Solo Guy at the Movies for the night. Originally I was going to drive back home that evening, but with the ski swap in town the next morning, I decided to just stick around town and drive back to Star Valley the next morning. A quick supply trip to K-mart for a cheapo sleeping bag and a power converter for the laptop and I was set. I already had my day hiking stuff in the car from that morning’s failed attempt to get some mileage, so I wasn’t going to suffer too badly, and any excuse to sleep outside and catch an early morning sunrise on the Grand is a good one.

I got to the theater around six and bought my ticket before wandering around the square for a bit. I poked my head into different shops and then picked up a drink and headed back into the theater to check out the auction. There was a good variety of things up for grabs, and I put my name down on a tent and some clothing package for Amy, but wasn’t too hopeful. The food downstairs was pretty good – meats and cheeses and PBRs, but it was a good snack before I settled down into a back-middle seat inside.

The place filled in pretty quickly and by the time things were ready to go it was pretty much full. It was a bit surreal to be sitting in the middle of these Jackson-type conversations:

“Hey man, long time. Where you been?”

“Aw dude, just got back from three months of skiing in Argentina. Nothing new. Time to settle back and do some guiding and make some cash this year…”

Christian Beckwith introduced things and gave a little insight into the whole Alpinist deal, and introduced both the nights films and the reason we were all able to be there. Then finally, the house lights came down and the good stuff began.

From the film contest winners to the feature presentation, I really enjoyed all of the night’s movies. My hands were sweating for just about the whole evening, especially when people started jumping off of mountains wearing wingsuits and cruising across the face of the cliff, just barely avoiding a full-on strawberry jam situation. The main film of the night, “The Sharp End“, was really well done and definitely one to pick up for the DVD collection when its available. The crowd was into things from the get-go, and were appropriately vocal and responsive throughout the night, and it was just a good vibe. Even if I was by myself, I’m glad I made it. I just hope that someone picks up the Alpinist Film Festival so there can be more of these kind of productions in town.

After things wrapped up, I picked up a few bits of Alpinist schwag and headed to Albertson’s to get some food for dinner. Pastrami, cheese, a sourdough loaf and a Hershey bar with almonds were thrown into the back of the car and I headed up into the park. I’m pretty sure I did a no-no in “camping” where I did, but no one bothered me and I just drove down below the main road and killed the lights. I left the engine running for a bit to warm up the car while I spread out my kit in the back and ate dinner while watching a nice little documentary on Corbet’s Couloir on the laptop before going to sleep. The stars were out in full force and opening the door a crack I could hear the coyotes doing their thing for quite a while. It would have been nice to have had a tent, but I stayed plenty warm in the car and actually slept pretty good.

I awoke to the arrival of another truck coming into the parking lot and I quickly got dressed and cleaned up my stuff. The sun was still below the horizon and hadn’t really done much to the Grand & Co. yet so I grabbed a couple of cameras and a tripod and walked down to the beaver pond below the road to pick up a few photos. A beautiful sunrise came through with some seriously bright alpenglow to work with, but I wrapped up pretty quickly and hustled my way back into town for the ski swap.

The ski swap was held in the rodeo barn on the south side of town, and there were quite a few people inside when I got there. I ended up walking away with nothing, being completely overwhelmed with my choices and not really knowing what I wanted or needed, and also not wanting to wait another two hours in line just to check out. I think I’ll be able to pick up what I need at a better price through Craigslist or eBay in SLC this year, so we’ll see what I can find. On my way back home I stopped at Hoback Sports just to talk skis with somebody there to get a better idea of what would be the best setup for me, so at least I have a good idea of sizes and measurements now to work with.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I wished I’d have been able to bring Amy or Boone or someone, but the chance to sleep up in the Park, even in a car, was pretty good for my head and although not a typical outing for me, it was better than nothing. Actual climbs for me have been pretty few and far between lately, so with the camping and the climbing films, it was a good warmer-upper and inspiring at the very least.

Since it’s Friday, I thought a few distractions in the form of some Monty Python sketches were entirely appropriate:

Return to the Outdoors is a campaign created by Timex Expedition and the Conservation Alliance in an effort to get people inspired about spending time outside (and spending money on time – ha!). They’ve produced a video series of interviews with some fairly recognizable names in the outdoor world, including Yvon Chouinard, Conrad Anker, and Timmy O’Neill. Directed by David Gonzales and Jimmy Chin, the latest video was probably the most fun to watch, simply because of the opening shots of Luke Reynolds running around Portland. Those first few minutes of footage were all part of my daily stomping grounds when I was working in the Mississippi Avenue district, so it did induce a slight twinge of PNW homesickness… That and a good healthy dose of gratitude for where I’ve been fortunate enough to live and spend time outdoors – both in the Northwest and here in Wyoming. Even if the ultimate pitch is to buy a watch, it’s worth taking a look at these videos and getting amped enough to head outside for a bit.