The Dirtbag Diaries

Today writer and climber Sarah Garlick presents: The Dreamers — reflections from four generations of the world’s best climbers: Steve House, Henry Barber, Steve Schneider, and Colin Haley. In the process Sarah found out a little bit about herself. 

A few Christmases back, Brendan Leonard received a rather strange gift from his brother - an old rope. Brendan wasn’t a climber. He had no intention of becoming of climber. Sometimes though gifts can change our lives. It turns out that 60-meters of climbing rope has taken him farther than he could have ever dreamed. 

In 2001, Scott Kennedy and his wife Sophie were living in the States. On weekends, they would meet up to climb in Yosemite’s high country, Tuolumne. On the Great White Book, Scott was offered a chance to look inside. What he saw was too difficult to share even with those closest to him.

In September 2008, Chad Kellogg and climbing partner Dylan Johnson stood atop 6250-meter Siguniang in Western China after completing the 10,000-foot-long SW Ridge. The two friends endured days without water and several sleepless nights. Summits fade, routes disappear into alpinists’ memory, but occasionally mountains extend back into life on level ground. Sometimes we don’t just want to climb a mountain. We need to. 

In the outdoor world, as we age, we can become picky. We are able to discern choss from splitter granite or hard packed moguls from Utah’s finest snow.  Opportunities to return to that beginner’s wonder can be rare. Sometimes it is as simple as trading two planks for one. 

Photographers and activists Brian Mohr and Emily Johnson present stories and photos from wild ski terrain and their struggle to become a piece of the conservation puzzle rather than a cog in the problem. 

Two years ago, I was staring fruitlessly at a computer screen. I was sick of daydreaming.  I dropped the commissioned piece I was working on that day and started writing. I pulled out a mic, hit the big red record button and decided it was time to find my voice. Today, we present The Monoboard Revisited. Here’s to another two years of dreaming, tinkering and coming up with ways to get into trouble.  

Throughout his life, Portland rock climber Bob Grunau has struggled with the lingering clouds of depression. Until he discovered climbing, the only way to weather the darker cycles was to retreat inward into his mind. That approach worked until he became a part of a family. High, lonesome places can provide respite and joy. We can love them deeply, but ice and rock will not love us back. 

Rangi Smart was riding a small spur of his favorite single-track trail when he stumbled upon a perfectly designed mountain bike jump. The 33-year-old math teacher thought to himself, “What kind of nut-job rides off something like that?” Then Rangi imagined that he was that nut-job. We bring you the hopes, dreams and goals of professional athletes, regular joes, parents, soldiers and students.  Here’s to the dirtbags. Here’s to Mr. Smart.

Taco Bell. Pizza Hut. Climber and writer, Kelly Cordes had one hell of resume by the time he applied for a position baking bread. It was an ideal job for a dirtbag who lived and breathed climbing, and once resided in a 77-square-foot shack. Then Cordes ran into Bosszilla. 

With his career stalling and idealism flat lining, Ryan Nickum looked into his past to search for the seed of the travel affliction.  There was only one person to blame -- his father. What makes the traveler's feet restless? Is it nature or nurture? Writer Ryan Nickum presents Bedtime Stories for Wanderers.

For the last five years, I have been stingier than Scrooge when it comes to a Yule Tree. In 2008, I’m a changed man. Armed with a handsaw and empowered by a National Forest permit, I wandered out into the Cascades to search for the perfect Christmas tree. 

“’You should get a bike. It will change your life,’ my friend Nick said. I heard this over and over again like a nagging brake pad rubbing on the one wobbly spot on a dented wheel,” writes Colorado-based writer Brendan Leonard. Leonard wasn’t a believer until his friend showed up his doorstep with a gift – a 1989 red Trek bicycle. As he began riding, Leonard found his life falling into the smooth order of a finely tuned bike. 

To celebrate Halloween, we bring you two tales of terror. Contest winner Chris Peters explains why it pays to listen to the safety talk and a very special guest remembers a family vacation to the Alaskan wilderness gone wrong.   

The Bohrer clan isn’t your average Idaho Falls family. Juggling goals in the mountain with parenting is no simple task. Sometimes balancing competing passions requires combining them into a lifestyle. After all, whether you’re old or young, everyone likes to play hooky if there is snow on the hill. 

Recreating without a car might seem impossible, but this summer I set out to test the preconceived notion. What happens when you find yourself trapped in the Urban Jungle? You blaze your way out.

After loosing his leg in a climbing accident, Craig DeMartino had to retrain his body and learn his craft all over again. DeMartino takes us to Vail and the Teva Mountain Games. Behind the bright lights, big names and massive crowds, climbing’s everyman gets his moment in the sun.

A mythical, semi-secret, surf spot on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – that’s as descriptive as Australian Duncan McNee would get. This secret break, a quick bike ride from McNee’s day job as a high school teacher, requires the perfect synchronicity of swell, tide and windless days. On average, the variables come together once every two years. At long last, we bring you a surfing story. 

Today, we bring you the Crusade, the story of two stockbrokers, an engineer and a nuclear physicist who, with a little help from the Internet, helped shaped American ski mountaineering without ever leaving their backyard. 

In the Year of Big Ideas, my childhood friend Brad laid it out – he was going to climb El Cap in 2008. We planned and tried to convince others to join us, but in the end, Brad and I were on our own to wrestle with one very big – arguably bad – idea. A third of the way through 2008, where are you in your year of big ideas? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and a little inspiration. What have you ticked off the list? What’s left?