Scheming

Since my visit to Crested Butte, I have come to an understanding about myself and steep skiing. The experience at the Butte was life changing. I want more.

Powder, steep trees, and most of all, 45+ degree skiing. This is an important moment in my introduction to skiing above tree-line at high altitudes. Now I'm fantasizing about what I need to do to make my way back up that high again, so I can hop-turn my way down. In addition to increasing my lung capacity and cardio-vascular threshold, I need to travel with a few friends with avi-gear... beacon, shovel, probe. Some folks who are stoked to go up to the gnarly lines, but are willing to chill out on 26 degree slopes until the snowpack stabilizes.

I am especially stoked to travel with some chicks. With gear. With experience. With transportation.

Maybe a ski movie? A pink glove holding an ice axe? We are in training for a humanitarian mission, American Gypsies studying nomadism in Mongolia? I need a cinematographer who can keep up with our band while lugging his or her own photo equipment. Plus a photo-assistant? to help lug?

I imagine the possibilities for this project and how everyone I meet lately has some great energy to contribute. We could learn about how nomadic cultures might teach Americans how to reduce their footprint, the impact of petrolium products on migrational traditions. America was once land of the horse. Mongolia, with it's horsmanship ways, may help us understand something about our own cultural values about travel, the iron horse and sustainable mobility.

(Potential Title)

Mobility of the Spirit: Horsemanship, Nomadism, and Stories of Sacred Place.

For a photo-shoot, there are several locations around Nederland that would make a great scene depicting American Wild-West Ski Culture. A cabin with a beautiful, old wood burning stove. An automotive garage of corrugated metal. The mining apparatus at the corner of old bridge street and new bridge street. Deep snow. Fit, young skiers and snowboarders in their swankiest gear. I'd like to have members of the American training team present for the shoot.

We are planning a few hut trips, opportunities to test out our winter camping skills, and get some fresh turns. Everyone has powder fever since the current storm gave us a few inches of snow. I'm feeling desperate for a stable snow pack.

This is a multi-disciplineary project: scholarly research, meets buzz marketing ski culture, meets Eastern spirituality, meets humanitarianism, meets hardcore ski mountaineering.

Yes, I am scheming ideas... lassoing up as many ideas as possible and defining the boundaries and expectations for the Mongolia Project. May 2010 to November 2010, seven months traveling across Mongolia by horse, old Russian truck, dirt-bike, kayak, camel, and skis. Learning to set up a yurt and live traditional nomadic ways.

Assisting park rangers and climbing guides as they build a safe, sustainable adventure tourism industry.

Recording glacial data for scientists watching climate change.

Supporting tourism industry growth by providing route information and better access to local service providers for mountaineers and tourists.

Providing ethnographic recordings of prayers to the mountains.