patrickjames

I should have sighted that it was ran in "outside" magazine I wanted to see what kind of reaction and feedback it would send back, its a climb I've studied for years. through reading articles, books, documentation and what not...The events that took hold on John Harlin's family fascinated me because of the drive and motive. I want to summon the courage to attempt a climb on the Eiger's north wall some day, but as of right now I'm not ready. It is a beautiful mountain with a beautiful line up the center of it. the Eiger direct route that John Harlin II spent 3 years of his life setting up. and then 2000ft below completing the biggest route the most sought after climb in the alps just about to reach the spider which would then put him 1 day off from the summit the rope broke and he fell 4000ft to the 3rd ice fall. John Harlin II amazes me he changed climbing for his generation, Chris Sharma changed things for his generation and now I'm about to change things for my generation and the one below me.I know this story inside out. there is a book I've read 4 times highlighting and making side notes so someday I will be able to make an ascent up the north wall another year and mountain I know a lot about because of my research and studying is 1996 everest disaster. I have plans to climb Everest before I even think of attempting the North Wall of the Eiger.

John Harlin II, John Harlin III - Rising Son - A remarkable journey through a difficult patch of life! Notice from rvalkass: Quotes added. Anything not written for the forums and/or copied needs to be put in quote tags.

|18AUG17 Hood River, Oregon 13:41| People change, grow, and adapt to their current situations and surroundings. Life is just one giant puzzle, but none of the pieces ever seam to fit; when they finally do you are in control with total happiness and understanding. Over the years I?ve watched myself grow and learn; picking up useful skills such as patience and respect. I?ve learned that life yet only temporary has so much potential and meaning. The value for ones well being and respect for their passion is something we take for granted. Not everyone is perfect and yet we will all hit rough patches but in the end you gain so much more as an individual and the sun will shine again only to be brighter than before. |07MAY07| I was a dreamer with great ambition, energy, and motivation. Prior to this I thought I might not become anything more than a dreamer, however, dreams will become a reality eventually so long as you keep a positive attitude and your head up. Before I knew it I was at 32,000ft on a commercial jet liner bound for Portland, Oregon. I gave up a lot to make the journey, and yet made on impulse little did I know how much I was about to gain for my life. I found a job working on a trail crew that works on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) 2650 Miles from Mexico to Canada. I was to be working in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington in some of the most remarkable pristine locations this region has to offer. Little did I know this was not going to be the case and in the 3.5 months to fallow I experienced what was almost considered to be a joke in my eyes, even though this was not what I was looking for nor had any intentions of doing I still gained some light on my life?s situation, but this was gained through personal endeavors more so than the programs. When I arrived shortly after I realized I had been sold and my respect for Amanda whom does the recruitment for the academy dropped greatly. This was not what I wanted nor was looking for. I had my own stresses in life and they kept piling on more because what they specialized in was leadership and communication skill building. This was not an area in which I needed or wanted to improve in. Our team ended up getting sent down to Crestline in southern California. The town seamed nice at first, just a small mountain town. Only shortly after we would learn it wasn?t what it was cracked up to be. Our forest service house was up the road about 3 miles from a section of town heavily involved with meth. We would see drug deals performed at the end of our driveway on our days off. The thought of the house getting robbed was always in the back of my mind creating an even more stressful environment. We would work our asses off in cold and hot conditions, as well as burned zones. If you ask me California sucks and I would never recommend it for a vacation. There are few locations in California I would ever consider returning to. After surviving 6 weeks in California our team came back up to Trout Lake, Washington finally we would be seeing green again and bodies of crystal water glistening under the sun light. We came back up for a week off, a week of fun, but I only had one thing on my mind locked into my sights; Mt Adams at 12,276FT. High mountains are the silent teachers they infect my mind and have an indescribable lure to them. When I see them my eyes glue like magnets fixed on their majestic beauty the cotton candy wisps of clouds blowing off the summit, and just like a kid at a fair they pull me to them; the want, need, and desire to climb them. Man is not the greatest on earth, mountains will teach you that. My long term goal is to climb the 7 summits, 7 mountains, 7 continents, to climb the tallest mountain on each continent, but it?s more than just a climb and a goal. It?s about going to the place; places you have never been that few are willing to go. A remote and desolate location surrounded by peace and beauty hundreds of miles from the nearest road. It?s not about adrenalin; it?s about Respect, Patience, Endurance, Life, and most of all Love. Knowing and understanding that life is only temporary and that it may be taken from you in an instant. So I live my life to the fullest potential while I can do something I have a strong passion for. It doesn?t matter what car you drive or where you live and what job you have so long as you are happy and do what you love. For conditioning in southern California I would work an 8 hour day with my pack on containing 25-35 pounds. I would do whatever I could to stay in shape and train my self. I would bush whack and scramble up loose rock and sluf to the tops of no less than 20 peaks in the 6 weeks we where in so cal. I hadn?t slept in a bed since 08MAY07 and to take it one step further I hadn?t so much as used a tent in about 8 weeks, just camping out under the stars. Summer Summit week was all fun and games for the returning teams but my focus was on Mt Adams. Organizing gear and preparing so I could drop any weight I could maximizing performance and ability to make a 2 day assault on the mountain. |The Beginning of Addiction for the Mountains Mystifying Lure| To be placed X miles from a big mountain; gravity goes out the window there is some great unknown force that draws, pulling me closer and closer until finally I find myself at the base of the wise professor ready to give my all and find my inner self to educate me. 18JUL07 Just 2 days before I would leave to make an assault on Mt Adams. I went to the Mt Adams Ranger station to obtain information and check the weather status. The mountain was currently engulfed in clouds and storming, although I did not need a weather report to tell me this just by looking at the mountain, I was looking for a potential window on which I would be allowed to set foot on top of her. The forecast showed a potential window to make the summit sometime on SAT 21JUL07. The rangers discouraged me to make an assault on the mountain but essentially left it up to my better judgment. 19JUL07 I stopped into the local climbing shop to check the forecast yet again; the weather called for continued storming, however, still showed a possible window for Saturday Morning. For the rest of the day I organized gear and my thoughts.

It's a lot of fun to get on real rock, it's a little different than the gym but the gym is a great training ground. I have been working on tossing a hard campus move I did it 3 times in a row the other dayCampus Move: Dynamic movement using only your armsThe move I was performing was to start off holding a ledge with my finger tips then pop up and spin a backwards 180 while holding on with just the one hand, twist my other arm around and catch the ledge with my finger tips. It puts a lot of stress on the shoulder of the arm that keeps you up so you can catch the hold and is helping twist your body around. I have also been doing a lot of Dyno moves.Dyno Move: Dynamic movement using legs and hands; leaping for a holdI've done some different variations of this type of movement in some interesting positions and caught some interesting holds.I have been climbing a lot of trees too all summer I hiked 60MI every 10D while working 8HR during the hikes. huge training step towards all of this.The only thing I don't like about the gym is its top rope or sport climbing, its great for training and a workout but the real drug is trad and lead climbing.Trad climbing is where you climb and place gear into the wall but all your gear comes out, it is the purest form of climbing because it uses leave no trace ethics to the max. you can end up taking some intense falls in trad climbing.Lead climbing is similar to trad but there are bolts already in the rock that you clip into using quick draws. So one would climb up and clip into the bolt then clip the rope in. Now you are protected the distance you will fall is the height you are above the last piece of clipped protection x2 once you get to the top of a pitch of lead climbing you can use a preexisting anchor if one was ever established or make a temporary one and clip into the wall then run the rope double back down through your anchor and belay someone from above as they now sport or top rope climb. The most you fall in sport / top rope is usually no more than a foot if your belay partner is good. If the person who's with you is not climbing they are just belaying for you they can just ascend the rope after you've climbed the pitch using aiders and ascenders that clip to the rope.Then you have bouldering and free soloing, bouldering is considered to be around 20ft in height without gear just you and the rock. You use crash pads for protection when you take a fall, however, once you get into free soloing you are in a whole new world. This is climbing any size cliff that most climbers would be using gear on, and climb it without gear and alone. Just you and the rock again but the steaks are higher there is no crash pad that can save you now. there are some climbers famous for being good at free soloing but they are also dead now.The climbs I'm doing will be protected unless bouldering. I wont know what I'm not going to use gear on until I can see it and assess the situation.

I'm in the middle of attempting to revolutionize climbing for the younger generation. I'm going abroad next summer to make a bunch of first ascents and put up some climbing routes in some of the most beautiful locations our earth has to offer.I will be climbing rock thats never been climbed, soaring 80-1000ft straight up out of the ocean, mountain cliffs that are thousands of ft tall, and blowing up the rock climbing scene in locations it is overlooked to climb. In production, a documentary DVD showing these locations, travel and scenic shots, and yes of course the climbing and educational lessons inside the DVD about climbing. I'm in the midst of building the rack of gear I'll need to pull this off as well as providing all funding for the expedition, I have hired 2 people to operate cameras while being suspended in a custom built perch out away from the cliff; using Sony wide angle professional cameras. I am working hard; looking at maps reading them, writing up plans for travel, working to fund the expedition, and training. I'm making sure I abuse my body everyday pushing things to the max so when time comes I will be at the top of my game. The DVD will be out around Fall2008.I love to climb, a lot of people don't understand it. It's about going to the place, places you have never been before so remote and beautifully untouched by mans wrath. It's about life and knowing you are alive, gaining a better perspective and value for life and the world we live in. Climbing is also a form of endurance, seeing what the body is capable of and just how far you can push the limits. Having the discipline to push on through pain and realizing your body is not made of glass, that it is possible to take a 60-100ft fall and not even twist an ankle. We all gotta die someday so I choose to die doing what I love to do the most, and thats being in the mountains just climbing and mountaineering. I love nature and animals and just being away from society and civilization. I'm very motivated, energized, and ambitious. These are my dreams that I turn to reality. I'm being highly innovative about how I'm going to tackle cliffs that rise straight up out of the ocean and get a camera crew on the wall in a safe manor. How to cut costs on travel and living so that our venture can last as long as possible giving our team a great view of the world seeing over 10 different countries, peering down on mountain villages from 500-13,000ft in the air. We will experience other cultures teaching us the way of life for these people.First Ascents, to be the first to ever climb something is an attraction that fades off as climbers find and setup new lines. most of our DVD will consist of first ascents that I'm setting up. Rock thats never been climbed, some of the hardest crags in the world!With our dreams and ambitions we will shed light drawing eyes of climbers to these locations. Our lines and routes will start to crop up in magazines and guide books giving hope to the youth below my generation that it is possible you just have to think outside of the box. I spent a long time thinking how I was going to revolutionize climbing, however, the lifestyle has been revolutionized so much by the generation above me. So I had to think of what I could do to move this lifestyle in a positive direction, something that would stand out and again get the generation below me to see that you just have to be creative on how, where, and what you climb.Lifestyle, I say lifestyle because I don't believe in climbing as a sport. The fact that it has gone sport and is competitive now has ruined it for the handful of us that are in it for the lifestyle. resulting in higher prices on gear, not being able to stay in national parks for months at a time and for free. I don't let this get to me because what I'm about to do will change the way people look at this lifestyle.If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. This is my life, I'm going to live it no mater what anyone says or does it wont bring me down because as long as you just do what you truly love to do your happiness can't be broken. Notice from jlhaslip: Edit title to add climbimg reference per report