Szu-ting Yi getting some tips on yak wool weaving in Western China

I used to think that high tech and people living close to the land or subsistence cultures were mutually exclusive of each other. But recently I have begun to see, both in my travels around the world and in my own life, how technology allows us to follow our own path and create the kind of world we want to live in.

I recently watched videos about two people who had dropped off the grid. One is a climber I know named Alf Randell. I first met Alf at Wild Iris, a rock climbing area outside of Lander WY. Alf lived in a beat up camper and re-soled shoes to make money. His chosen lifestyle allowed him the flexibility to climb as much as he wanted. The second video is about John Coffer a man who left a monetarily lucrative life in FL and bought 50 acres in NY were he built a log cabin. Earlier in their lives both of these men were educated and successful in the eyes of society, but the fast paced, crowded modern society was not for them and they chose a different way to live.

One of the first Americans to document living deliberately close to the earth was Henry David Thoreau. In 1854 he took up residence in a small cabin on the edge of a pond where he lived for two years, two weeks and two days. He later wrote a book about his experience called Walden Pond. Thoreau stated, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

Thoreau’s experience and message has often been misconstrued. Thoreau never claimed to live in the wilderness with no contact with the outside world. In fact, the cabin was located less than two miles from his parents house outside of Concord, MA, where he would travel to every couple of days to read  the newspaper.

In the second video John Coffer offers a valuable insight into his life and living in general when he states, “You can blend the old timeless things in with the latest technology to get things done in this life. I think there are going to be more people looking back at models from the past and use them to blend in with new ideas and technologies today.”

Despite having written a book on Expedition Planning, I still struggle with all the logistics of organizing for a major expedition. I know the night before we leave will most likely involve little sleep and many tasks of putting my “normal life” on hold and the last minute details of the two month trip to China.

The reality is, as long as I leave for the airport with my passport, everything else will work out. Sleep is overrated and with a fourteen hour flight to China coming up being tired when I board the plane is not necessarily a bad thing

http://gallery.me.com/kondus/100777

http://gallery.me.com/kondus/100744

Really, it is the age old dilemma of having money and no free time or no money and plenty of free time.

On the money side of things, during the past ten years many of my expeditions have been award adventure/climbing grants including: The Mugs Stump Alpine Award, The Polar Tech Challenge, The Shipton Tilman Grant, Mazamas Expedition Grant, NOLS instructor Development Grant.

This year I just learned that I was awarded the Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Alpine grant from the American Alpine Club for the Return to Genyen Expedition!!!

2011 Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award Winners Announced

—AAC Awards $12k in Grants Supporting Bold First Ascent Attemptsin Pakistan and China—

Golden, CO—The American Alpine Club (AAC) is proud to announce this year’s Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award recipients. Through the generous contribution ofLyman Spitzer, Jr.—longtime Club member and lover of the mountains—the AACinitiated the Lyman Spitzer Climbing Grants Program. The program promotes state-of-the-art, cutting-edge climbs through financial support of small, lightweight climbingteams attempting bold first ascents or difficult repeats of the most challenging routes inthe world’s great mountain ranges.

Paul Gagner, the chair of the Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award committee, noted, “Wealways have a strong pool of applicants to choose from, and this year was no different.In the future I would encourage all climbers that have significant projects, with theexperience to back them up, to apply for this prestigious award.”

This year’s grant-recipient teams focus their considerable energies on Asia, with attemptsat new routes on Pakistan’s Great Trango Tower, Nafees Cap, and the Ogre II, andattempted first ascents on two unclimbed peaks in China’s Genyen Massif.

• Great Trango Tower, East Face big-wall route – Skiy Detray and AndyHoeckel will travel to the Baltoro region of Parkistan’s Karakoram to attempt acapsule-style first ascent of a route to the right of the 4,000’ Grand Voyage.

• Nafees Cap, Southwest face – Ben Venter, Jake Tipton and Willy Oppenheimwill attempt a first ascent, all-free, of this impressive 3,000+ foot face in theCharakusa Valley, Pakistan.

• Dkyil‘khor Ri and Bka Ri – David Anderson, Szu-ting Yi and Eric Salazarintend single-push alpine-style first ascents of two unclimbed peaks in the Genyen
Massif, Sichuan, China. In addition they will be shooting video for a full-lengthfilm to raise awareness of this unique region and its vanishing culture.

• Ogre II, North Face – Colin Haley and Bjørn-Eivind Årtun will attempt theunclimbed and un-attempted face across from the SE Buttress of Ogre I in theKarakoram, Pakistan. They will approach the climb via the Choktoi Glacier.This peak has only been climbed once, in 1983, from the Biafo Glacier by Korean climbers.

In addition to the Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award the American Alpine Cluboffers grants for everyday climbers attempting big-walls, new or notable free climbs,and alpine objectives. Of significant prominence is the Club’s ‘Gateway Grant’; the Mountain Fellowship Award offers funding to climbers under the age of 25 to aid them inmaking the transition to the Greater Ranges. The annual application deadline for the Lyman Spitzer Grant is January 1. Acommittee of three active climbers reviews the applications, selects the recipients,and decides on award amounts. For more details and specific application informationfor this and other AAC grants visit the American Alpine Club website.

______________________________________________________
About The American Alpine Club

The American Alpine Club provides knowledge and inspiration, conservation andadvocacy, and logistical support for the climbing community. The Club awards more than$50,000 every year in the form of climbing, conservation, and research grants to buddingadventurers. The AAC also manages a climbers’ campground in Grand Teton NationalPark, publishes the most sought after annual climbing publications, the American AlpineJournal and Accidents in North American Mountaineering, and cares for the world’sleading climbing library. Learn about additional programs and become a memberat americanalpineclub.org. Join the AAC’s online community at facebook.com/americanalpineclub.