Cinema Gully

I'm not sure how many of you have gone ice climbing before, but if you haven't, the best way to describe it, at least the version done in the White Mountains, is cold and difficult. I'm sure those adjectives change as you get better, but it was my first time, so there you go. Cinema Gully (pictured above) is a somewhat easy four pitch climb on Mount Willard in Crawford Notch State Park. I say "somewhat easy" because I didn't lead a single pitch, and my animal of a college friend/guide, Mark - who will spend the months of June and July on Denali doing Search and Rescue - made sure to keep the rope tight.After we finished Cinema Gully, we traversed in knee high snow over to Hitchcock (pictured here), where we climbed for several hours until the sun started to show signs it was going down. The only sensible route back to the car was a rappel off of a vertical cliff, where my backpack got stuck on a tree (go figure), and a long, steep glacade down the mountain, through trees and ice the size of a small car. My self arresting skills are sub-par at best, so I ended up at the bottom face first, out of breath from failing to control my slide.When we finally reached the car, we went straight to the Tuckerman Pale Ales, drove to Wolfeboro to meet my folks for nachos and veggie burgers, then drove back to North Conway and went to bed. I woke up the next morning tired and stiff, ready to do it all again.

Juniper Ridge

If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing a Piñon Pine growing off the side of a desert cliff, then lucky you. If you've ever had the even more pleasurable experience of smelling a piece of the that twisted wood roasting in a fire, then you know one of life's great pleasures. The other night, a friend of mine walked into my cold apartment with Juniper Ridge Piñon Pine incense, and much to my disbelief, the stuff smells just like the real thing. That's because it is the real thing, made only from sustainably wild-harvested leaves, wood and resins from the mountains and deserts of the West, vegetable-based gum and bamboo stick. And if burning incense near your bed before you fall asleep isn't enough, then bathe yourself in Piñon Pine soap in the morning.Piñon Pine not your thing? Juniper Ridge makes incense, rubs, teas and soaps in Coastal Sage, Bay Laurel, Sierra Cedar and Siskiyou Cedar. And to top it off, the company donates 10% of their profits to donate western wilderness.

Arizona State Parks in Trouble

A sad week for Arizona. Fewer than one third of Arizona's state parks and recreation areas will remain open after June 3 under staff recommendations released Monday. The recommendations call for the closure of 13 parks between February and June. If approved by the parks board, the state would close Fort Verde, Homolovi Ruins, Lyman Lake and Riordan Mansion state parks on Feb. 22. Roper Lake, Tombstone Courthouse, Tubac Presidio and Yuma Territorial Prison would follow on March 29. On June 3, Alamo Lake, Lost Dutchman, Picacho Peak, Red Rock and Tonto Natural Bridge state parks. The proposed cuts to State Parks would provide just 4 percent of Arizona's goal, while shutting down the Park's annual contribution to the Arizona economy of more than $266 million.The state parks selected to remain open are the ones that generate revenue: Buckskin Mountain, Catalina, Cattail Cove, Dead Horse Ranch, Fool Hollow Lake, Kartchner Caverns, Lake Havasu, Patagonia Lake, and Slide Rock. But even those will close unless the parks system gets a $3 million infusion of cash before the end of the fiscal year, said Renee Bahl, the parks director. (via)Arizona's state buildings including the Capitol, the governor's office, the state hospital and state prisons go on sale today as the financially pressed state tries to raise money to plug a $4.5 billion deficit. (via)To find out what you can do to help, visit the Arizona State Park Foundation.MP3: Jayhawks: Take Me With You (When You Go)

Black Elk: The Sacred Pipe

15 years after John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks was published in 1932, American scholar, Joseph Epes Brown, went looking for Black Elk, even after Neihardt had advised him not to. Neihardt told Brown that the Oglala Sioux holy man would not speak to him.After much traveling, Brown found Black Elk in an old canvas wall tent in Nebraska, where his extended family was digging for potatoes. The two men smoked a pipe in silence, and when the ritual smoking was over, Heȟáka Sápa asked Brown what had taken so long in getting there, for he had been expecting his coming. He then invited Brown to his house at Wounded Knee Creek, Pine Creek Reservation in South Dakota for the winter, where over the next few years, Black Elk would tell the history and meaning of the seven sacred rites of his people.I found an audio cassette version of The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux while out west, and have posted two tracks below. The first is Black Elk's Foreword and the second is a section of Chapter III, Inipi: The Rite Of Purification where Black Elk speaks of the sweat lodge. Enjoy.MP3: Black Elk's Foreword MP3: Chapter III - Inipi: The Rite Of Purification

Yellowstone Has Record Tourism in 2009

It's no surprise, with the economy in the pits, that a trip to one of our country's national parks would be a great alternative for a family vacation. The National Park Service announced Tuesday that 3.3 million people visited the world's first national park last year, up 7.5 percent from 2008 and almost 5 percent more than the previous record set in 2007. Park officials say Yellowstone's West Entrance is the busiest with more than 1.3 million visitors. (via ABC)MP3: J Tillman - Year In The Kingdom

Organ Pipe Cactus

I suppose I should probably conclude all this desert talk by mentioning the supreme being in Organ Pipe National Monument, the park's namesake, the organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi). The organ pipe is a species of cactus native to Mexico and the southwestern United States and is much rarer in the U.S., with the exception being, of course, Organ Pipes National Monument, where a major bulk of the American organ pipes live. The organ pipe has several narrow stems that grow up to the sky from a short trunk that peaks above ground level. The plant originated in the warm, dry tropics, and when the global climate warmed at the end of the last Ice Age, the cactus slowly began migrating further north. It arrived in the Sonoran Desert only about 3500 years ago.It takes 150 years for the cactus reach maturity, and at around 35 years old, it begins to produce white flowers that are open at night and closed by the morning. The species is predominately found on rocky hillsides up to 3000 feet in elevation, as it is sensitive to frost and is rare in low desert areas. She's quite a lady.

Vasque Sundowners

I've talked about these boots several times before, but after almost two weeks of wearing nothing else on my feet (Nike Lunar Glides for 40 minutes a day don't count, but good lord those shoes. For another day I suppose.), I have to make mention of them one more time.Some people have problems with the Sundowners. They complain that they're too wide and/or pinch the toe. For me, they fit perfectly - a half size down from what I usually wear - and have enough support for a ten mile hike in the desert or a walk through the snow in Brooklyn to Boulder to Birmingham. It makes no difference to me what the hell my boots look like while I'm hiking, because, well, who the fuck cares? As long as they get you from the trailhead to where you have to set up your tent. But there aren't many boots that I would feel completely comfortable with leaving on for the rest of the day after a hike. Again, you're probably thinking, who the fuck cares? Well, stick a pair of red laces on a pair of Vasque Sundowners and you'll know what I'm talking about. No, they're not made in Italy anymore, and no, they're not exactly the same boot that my brother wore in high school, but there aren't not too many out there that work so well and look that fine.What do y'all wear?

Cactus Wren

I suppose this week will be somewhat dedicated to the desert of southern Arizona. For better or worse. That being said, it was pretty darn hard to ignore the cactus wrens in Organ Pipes. They scream a pretty song and nest inside cactus plants, flying from saguaro to cholla and back again - a rather remarkable adaptation that's even more alarming than it's voice. If you've ever had a jumping cholla grab hold of you, you know how bad that can hurt. (For more traveled destinations, beware of the cholla garden in Joshua Tree.) The cactus wren is the largest of North American wrens and is native to the southwestern United States on down to central Mexico.MP3: Joni Mitchell - Cactus Tree

National Geographic Archive

You can buy the whole National Geographic archive, all the way back to 1888, on a 160 GB hard drive for $200. The hard drive is only 60 GB full, leaving 100 GB for your personal files. The archive includes all of the magazines' advertisements, which are sometimes just as interesting as the stories themselves.Sounds like a pretty fabulous thing to have at your fingertips, although something about it seems a little off to me. What about the fold outs? The posters? Goodbye forever, print. (via GJ)MP3: Mos Def - Quiet Dog Bite Hard

Welcome Home

I hope everyone had a great holiday break, full of some exciting adventures that'll make for some long stories. I was all over the place for the last few weeks, and for the stretches of being alone and having nothing to do in the cold of a desert night but read under my Petzl, I found some comfort in Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard. My father had given me the book many years ago, and I quickly became bored within the first 50 pages, too young to take in all that Buddhism. Last week, those same fifty pages included a quote from Jung that I must have read a hundred times, because as I'm sure you know, time alone makes you a little more dramatic. I miss the West.

The fact that many a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing....He must obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new and wonderful paths....There are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices. 'You are no different from anybody else,' they will chorus, or, 'there's no such thing,'and even if there is such a thing, it is immediately branded as morbid.' He is at once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within. 'His own law!' everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the law....The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual realization-absolute and unconditional-of its own particular law...To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being...he has failed to realize his life's meaning.The undiscovered vein within us is a living part of the psyche; classical Chinese philosophy names the interior way 'Tao,' and likens it to a flow of water that moves irresistibly toward its goal. To rest in Tao means fulfillment, wholeness, one's destination reached, one's mission done; the beginning, end, and perfect realization of the meaning of existence innate in all things.