Old Resolutions

At the beginning of the year, I set out a bunch of goals to reach by 2009. Some of these I achieved with flying colors, and others were forgotten. Here's a look at what I intended to accomplish vs. what I actually did:

• Design and build a line of power kites

(I designed a couple kites, but I never got around to building any. I need a good sewing machine!)

• Finish the 13 remaining Colorado 14ers on my list

(I finished all of the 14ers the day before my 21st birthday this year)

• Climb 5 14ers in the remainder of the winter

(I managed to climb 3 or so during the winter. I guess I didn't have a lot of time for climbing this last winter)

• Reach 100 skydives, or maybe even 200

(I have a total of 85 parachute jumps a this time. I got close, but the crazy Colorado weather sometimes keeps me grounded)

• Walk the lost arrow spire highline in Yosemite

(I rigged and walked the spire highline in Yosemite this summer. I onsighted the line and walked it 36 times! I was incredibly surprised by this, but it was a good accomplishment)

• Rig 5 new highlines in Colorado

(I walked 5 new highlines in Colorado: (1) Little Bird Rock Highline, (2) Terry's Backyard Highline, (3) Coors Gap Highline, (4) Golden Spire Line, (5) Royal Gorge Line.)

• Begin writing a book

(I've begun writing a book about slacklining that I will try to publish sometime in the next year or two)

• Get a job with an engineering company

(I've been working at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) since May)

• Help Mary train to climb 5.12

(Some things didn't work out the way I wanted, but I'm happy for the experiences that I had)

• Climb Castleton Tower

(Every time I made it out to Moab, I ended up leaving all the climbing gear in the car and just walking slacklines)

• Rig and walk 3 highlines in Moab, UT

(We rigged 2 old highlines, the birthday gap and the doghole, and then established 6 new incredible highlines at the Fruit Bowl in Moab, which we had up simultaneously. That makes 8 new lines in Moab for me)

• Teach myself to kite-ski
  

(Didn't end up doing the skiing part, but I did plenty of sliding around on the snow with my kite)

• Get published

(I'm now publishing content on a regular basis on slackline.com, and am working on a big project that will help me get published even more frequently during the next few years).

In all, I would say that I did pretty well. I had lots of dreams, and many of those dreams came true. Some of those dreams were put on the back burner a little bit, but they will certainly make an appearance during the awesome year of 2009.

A Year of Slacklines

I put part of this post on the slackline.com forum, but figured it would be fun to put it here as well. I was just looking back at all of the slacklines and highlines that I have walked this year, and what a great time it has been, having the ability to walk so many beautiful lines, in awesome places with wonderful people. Here are a few of the more memorable sessions I've had :

A tree highline somewhere over boulder creek:


Walking the Lower Bird Rock highline in Boulder:


Dylan getting down on the Fruit Bowl lines in Moab:


Walking a long line in Norlin Quad:


Walking the Coors Gap line in Golden:


Andy crushing the Birthday Gap in Moab:


Walking the Golden Spire a week before leaving for Yosemite:


Walking the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite:


Walking a line across Boulder Creek:


Another trip to the Golden Spire:


My awesome sister walking her first highline: (Brother also walked this line on this trip)


Slacklining below Capitol Peak (one of my last 14ers):


Walking 988 feet over the Royal Gorge at the Go Fast Games:


Some friends killing the Fruit Bowl lines in Moab:


Doing some slacklining with the family:



It has been an incredible year, with lots of fun slacklining and highlining. The goals I set for myself were matched and exceeded, and I am inspired by the ability that we all have for success. Next year I hope to walk higher, better, cooler highlines, and more of them. But as long as I get to set up a nice peaceful line in a park from time to time, I'll be happy. Though if you see a photo in the news of someone walking a highline suspended by a hot air balloon, don't be suprised to hear that its me.

Nylon Flying Machines

A year and a half ago I never thought I would be able to fly. I never thought that I would be capable of the things that I am doing today. Through the inspiration of my friends and heroes, I have been able to pursue a sport that is unlike any other in the world. The sport of parachuting, with its many facets, is an amazing one. The ability to put on a parachute and go jump out of anything, anywhere, is so freeing, and is one of the best feelings that I have ever experienced. Being thousands of feet above the ground, with the only thing keeping you up being a bunch of nylon and strings, the feeling is undescribable.

I had the opportunity to do another balloon jump recently, and it was really fun. The balloon is an interesting flying machine. You can't steer it, you can't control it, the only thing that you can do is make it go up or down. When it is really cold outside, the ballon will gain altitude really quickly, and in less than 10 minutes, we had already gone from 5,000 feet above sea level to 10,000. Jumping out of a balloon 5,000 feet above the ground is fun as you can take 15-20 seconds of freefall before deploying your parachute. I jumped out with Jake, and we both did several backflips out of the basket before getting stable and then pulling our parachutes. It was a fun jump, and any time that I get to see the beautiful town of Boulder from the sky is a special experience.

(boulder from 10,000 feet)

Another fun flying machine that I have is my power kite. This is a 50 square foot nylon parachute with kite lines on it, and if there's enough wind it will pull really hard. Here's a video of me setting a new personal land speed record with the kite (with speed to rival any olympic runner).

Going Fast with my Kite

Maximum Speed not to Exceed Mach 0.3

I used to dream about flying. When I was little I would pray to god every night that he would give me wings so I could fly to school instead of take the bus. I woke up every morning slightly disappointed, but still quite happy. I wanted to see the world from the air and soar through the sky, and I was only 6. 15 years later, my prayer was answered. Now I just need to hollow out my bones and graft the nylon to my skin. Human flight is finally possible. I've spent so much of my life on a slackline, one inch away from flying, but now my dream has come true.

More Slackline Media

I was interviewed with some friends for a slackline article a few weeks ago. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was published in newspapers across the country, including several local ones. Here's the Denver Post article:

Slackline Craze Catching On

Unfortunately, I don't think it is catching on enough. When faced with the supremely difficult choice of classifying this article on the web page, the denver post web team decided to forgo reading the article and instead interpreted slackline to be a fishing related term. So if you need to find this article on your own, go ahead and look in the hunting and fishing section, should be the one after "Global warming threatens winter ice fishing industry: we cain't go fishin on that there lake if there ain't any ice to fish on"

Another Moab Highlining Adventure

For fall break I had been planning on going out to Moab, probably since the beginning of the summer. Well as things panned out, more and more people showed interest in the trip. It was bound to be killer. Along with the ever growing Colorado crew, Andy, Jenna, Scott, Sean, Maria, Libby, Clay and a few others showed up from California, Tia and Becca came in from Wisconsin, Bernhard from Switzerland showed up, and everyone was ready to crush the highlines. The trip began with an eventful start.We spent the first Saturday night at Terry's house, rocking the lowlines and walking the highlines. Everyone was going nuts on the plethora of nylon and within the first half hour I was already injured. In an attempt to show everyone exactly what a horizontal surf looks like, I managed to separate my shoulder and crater my hip into the cold hard ground outside Terry's place. It still hurts, x-rays are pending.

The following morning we all got up and prepared to head out to the fruit bowl in Moab, where our highlining adventure awaited us. About 10 miles down I-70, my oil filter dislodged, and my oil emptied from my engine in a threatening cloud of smoke that ruined all visibility. With no oil in my engine, I was hesitant to start it up again, so we waited about 2 hours for a tow truck to pick us up and tow my jeep the rest of the way to Moab. By the time we got to the fruit bowl, the sun had set, but I walked a few lines anyway.

The next day I spent in Moab getting my car fixed up and it turns out the oil filter seal was put on incorrectly during my oil change the week prior. It was a quick fix, but it ruined another beautiful day of potential highlining. By the time I got back to the fruit bowl, a world record or two had already been broken, and the 130' line had already been sent several times.

The next two days, tuesday and wednesday, had good weather and we got a lot of walking in. Andy managed to walk over a mile on the highlines in one day, while I onsighted the 63' line, the 92' line and the 102' line. It was a great and successful trip for everyone. Many people got their first sends on the appropriately named Cherry Line (22') and Libby walked the 130' highline, the longest highline ever sent by a female, as far as we know. Pretty damn impressive.

Thursday was an interesting day, as we gave thanks for the rain, it kept pouring down on us. We decided to split and head for Terry's place for the next few days because the forecast had nothing but rain until Saturday. However, the rain was so intense that the roads we were trying to get out on were covered in mud and several people got stuck or almost ran off the road. To add to that there was a small river slowly building up through our camping area as the desert sand was quickly saturated. Needless to say, we all made it to Terry's unharmed.



Turkey dinner was fun, we had leftovers, pizza, pasta, and other various edible items we could round up on Thursday night. The next day we slacklined and highlined in Terry's yard and fooled around in Fruita. Terry has this beastly 3/8" chain that covers a 100' span in his yard. The darn thing is almost unwalkable. It takes incredible strength and stamina to walk that chain because it itself weighs more than I do, meaning any reverberations in the chain are incredibly difficult to subdue. I walked about halfway 3 or 4 times, but couldn't get further than that. Mike walked the whole thing, it was pretty rad.

On Saturday we all had a good session in the morning on Terry's lines, and then headed back to Boulder. Unfortunately, the storm that gave us trouble on Thanksgiving day was back again to haunt us. I-70 was closed through several parts, and we had to wait either at various towns along the way, or just in the middle of the road until traffic started moving again. Vail pass was a blizzard and there was about 8 inches of snow at the tunnel, meaning people were driving either very slowly or not at all. We made it back to Boulder after a 10 hour drive and passed out.

Sunday we rigged some long lines in the snow, which was fun. A 180 foot single line and a 220 foot threaded line went up, and were both quite challenging. As they accumulated more moisture, they became looser and therefore more difficult. It was a fun session, and afterward I took my friends back to the airport. I'd say it was a fun 10 days, and despite all the mishaps, misadventures and misfortunes, I still came out with a smile. I'm looking forward to another highline trip in the future with my most excellent highline friends, and the best thing is, the highline community keeps getting bigger and bigger. I think at this time last year, there were probably only 6 or 7 people in Colorado who had walked a highline. I think that number has increased 6 fold by now, and it shows no signs of stopping.

BASE Jumping

Went and did a few BASE jumps last weekend, actually I just did some S jumps. S is for Span and includes Bridges, Slacklines, etc. B = Buildings, A = Antennas, E = Earth (cliffs and such). It was incredibly terrifying and at the same time it was very fun. The Perinne Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho is open year round for BASE jumpers, one of the only places in the world that is a legal jump location. Hence, there have been thousands upon thousands of jumps off of this object, and many injuries as well.


The bridge itself is about a quarter mile long, so walking out to the middle is a bit intimidating in its own right, especially when you aren't planning on walking back. Standing on the edge, looking down, I was terrified for my first jump. My nerves were going haywire, sending odd sensations throughout my body. It took all I had to force myself to jump off, it was exponentially more difficult than stepping out on a highline is now. Though, I remember the second highline I ever walked, with Dylan and Said out at the Monastery. I was terrified for my life and I simply had to let it all go and focus on the goal that I wanted to achieve. The same occurred out there on the bridge. The quintessential feeling of gut-wrenching excitement brushed over me as I brushed with death, but all was well.


I did two jumps on the first day, both of which were PCA or pilot chute assists. In this method, someone holds your pilot chute as you jump, thus extracting the parachute almost immediately and can be safely done down to heights of 70 feet above the ground. This is the most common first jump as it allows one to become comfortable with the immediate exit and freefall, without having to concentrate on the deployment.


The second day I did 4 handheld jumps. I held the pilot chute in my hand, instead of stowing it underneath the container, and tossed it out into the wind after I jumped to initiate the deployment. You fall a lot further with these types of jumps compared to the PCA, but the parachute is still deployed safely above the ground.


My last jump of the day I did about an hour after sunset, which was fun because I've never jumped in the dark before. It was a little difficult, but not as bad as I thought.

The next day the winds were really high, so I only did one more handheld, and the last day I did my first stowed jump. That was fun, finally a real ground rush and a hard smack of an opening. All the landings were great, and I had a wonderful time.


Being out there, on the edge of mental stability and emotional strength, it becomes really difficult to step back and look at the big picture. In order to live life with purpose and intention you must live in the moment, but you can't always live only for the moment, there are other important parts of life as well. Nothing in this life is worth dying for, but many things enrich life so much that they are worth pursuing. The adventures and experiences that we have make our lives meaningful, but we must do these things for the right reasons. Being alive to be with the people whom we love and who join us in our plight for meaningful living is one of the most important things we can do in this life. Our existence is a chain of enriching ourselves with the presence of others, and returning the favor. Without the close friends in our lives, we would be nowhere. Looking into the edge of human capacity is a powerful way of seeing who we really are and finding out the people in our lives who are the most important. If we fool ourselves with ego-driven pleasures to try to make ourselves happy, we are only cheating ourselves of the pleasures that come with strong friendships and great times. Doing something such as BASE jumping or highlining or skydiving is incredibly selfish if you do it only for yourself, but doing these things to enrich your life and consequently enriching the lives of others, this is what gives life its meaning. The world doesn't need people who are sitting around wondering what they can do, the world needs people doing things that make them happy, because this happiness radiates infinitely. Doing something mediocre doesn't have any impact; doing something incredible, that is what will change the world.

I love November

November is such a wonderful month, probably my favorite. I'm not sure why it is my favorite, there's just a feeling of warmth that I get from all of the amazing things that are happening this time of year.


I love the warm colors of the changing trees and the crunchy leaves that cover the ground in a mysterious moss.

I love the long shadows cast by the southern sun, rising lower and lower on the horizon after each day.

I love the crisp cool air and the feel of the fresh breeze rushing by my face in freefall, making my eyes water from the beauty of it all.

I love the gray skies and tight slacklines waving sinusoidally in the wind of the coming winter.

I love the glimpses of snow that show up, but decide to hold back at the last minute, blessing us with yet another sunny weekend.

I love the hay rides and the pumpkin patches and laying down in the middle of a field, slightly shivering but still warm from the heat of the earth.

I love the smiles of friendly people enjoying being outside.

I love the feel of cold granite in my hands as I run out a climb 30 feet above a .5 but only paying attention to a chirping bird floating by.

I love the sunrise from the basket of a hot air balloon.

I love the sunset from the edge of a bridge.

I love the hope and excitement of the new year that is rapidly approaching, and the thoughts of all the good times to come.

Thats pretty warm for November

The average high this weekend was about 75 degrees F. That's pretty warm for November. I did plenty of jumping to celebrate the hints of global warming. On Sunday I jumped out of our friend Kevin's hot air balloon. That was a really neat experience. I also got to do a high-pull with some good friends on the sunset load on Sunday evening. It was a fantastic and incredibly tiring weekend. Here are a few pictures:

Adam and I in the balloon

Kevin's Beautiful Flying Machine

Me under canopy, Joe in the background, floating back down to earth from 17,000 feet

Joe and Matt flying towards the sunset.

Timeless Existence

If I told you that a typical freefall only lasted for 60 seconds or less, you would probably say, "that's not very long at all". But 60 seconds can feel like a lifetime, or at least half of one. Imagine a lifetime where you are completely alive, where your senses are completely in tune and the consequence of a mistake is often fatal. Imagine a lifetime where everything that you do moves you, a lifetime where any deviation of your position will send you off on a different course, where everything is done with impeccable intention. Imagine a lifetime where you are traveling incredibly fast, suddenly slow down, and then maybe travel fast again. Imagine a lifetime where all your thoughts and actions merge together into a beautiful dynamic ballet, dancing through the clouds, flying towards an unattainable goal but still you try your hardest to get there. Imagine a lifetime where you achieve the highest amount of pleasure possible, and your happiness is unprecedented. Imagine a lifetime that is completely emotionally draining and fulfilling at the same time. Imagine yourself in this situation, and then you will realize that the 60 seconds of freefall isn't really 60 seconds at all. Instead it is years and years of happiness and experience and love. These 60 seconds are a quintessential example of life in the way that it should be lived. These 60 seconds are devoid of all worry and pain and discomfort but instead breed unlimited peace. This is living for the moment, and that moment lasts a lifetime. Now you understand how 60 seconds is a very very long time.

Another Weekend of Adrenaline

This weekend was fairly eventful, as normal, but a few notable things happened that are worth reporting. Saturday I dedicated as a skydiving day, which was great because the weather was incredible and the winds were nil. Unfortunately, the dropzone had donated the biggest plane we jump out of (the twin otter) to Eloy AZ for the skydiving nationals, so we were stuck jumping out of the King Air, which only hauls maybe 15 people up to the sky instead of 25. That being the case, it was super packed with not too many slots available and I only got to do two jumps. It was all good though because those jumps were fun as hell. I've been getting really into tracking, which is a discipline that prepares you for wingsuiting. You make your body as flat as possible, with your arms to your sides, and you shoot forward, diving towards the ground, picking up acceleration and lift. I have these inflatable pants that increase your surfacce area for the purpose of making you fall slower and shoot forward faster. They're a lot of fun to play around with. I did a tracking jump with my buddy James and we probably covered 1.5 miles horizontal distance in the 2 miles vertical that we fell. Needless to say, it is a lot of fun.


Sunday was a change of pace for me. I'm so used to pushing my own limits that I rarely get to focus on the limits and boudaries of others, and helping my friends to redefine their limits and bounaries. I brought everyone up to the Golden Spire where I rigged the 30' line and let everyone have their fill. It was a great day and about 15 of us were up there giving the line a go. Lots of people got out and just hung there on the line, others got a few steps, while others were able to walk the whole thing. It was definitely a learning experience for everyone. I've finally gotten past the point of being nervous of lots of people walking on my rigs, and now its somewhat comfortable. Some of Boulder's best slackliners also got to fell the shaking legs, the wind in their hair, and that feeling of blissful weightlessness before the leash catches the fall. It was certainly a great day. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to introduce more and more people into highlining, and grow in my own comfort of the sport as a whole.

Brocken Spectre

This rare phenomenon occurs when there is a large amount of fog in your close proximity. The water molecules reflect the light that is refracted by your shadow creating a rainbow-like formation around the shadow of your head. It is called a brocken spectre; it is pretty cool to look at and incredible to think about. It brings to mind all of the complexities of this earth, so many things constantly going on at all once, most of them we aren't even aware of. A drop of rain, a vine growing in a crack in the wall, a leaf floating in the wind, a chip of paint, a reflection in the fog, trash in an alley, a person walking home alone in the cold, a wilting flower. There are things both good and bad. What you notice is important, and is very indicative of the kind of day you are having.

Can we create our own happiness? What does this look like? What if we focus our eyes to see only those things that make us smile and give us pleasure instead of looking at the negative things? People claim how bad their lives are, but is it because of the situations they are put in or find themselves in, or is it because they view the world with negative eyes and see the sad things surrounding them.

There is beauty in everything. From the wind in your hair to the first crisp day of fall, to the birth of a child to the smile from a neighbor. Anything can be positive. Whether or not you perceive it as such is up to you.

Junkie

I was first offered a skydive about a year ago. It was real casual. I didn't really think much of it. Yeah I've heard that skydives can kill you, but its never really been on the forefront of my mind. Anything could kill you right? Whats one skydive going to do in the grand scheme of things? So I took that skydive with mild reluctance and it was pretty enjoyable. I figured if I had done one that it wouldn't hurt to have another skydive. I started skydiving a lot. My friends started to worry and told me that I was addicted. They said "Come on Scott, that stuff aint good for you, you're gonna get hooked." I shoved it off like it was no big deal. "Aw come on guys, its no big deal. I can quit whenever I want." Thats how it always starts. By thinking I could quit whenever I wanted, I did it a lot more, and then after a while, I realized I was addicted to skydiving. And not only that, but it was slowly eating me away from the inside out. I started getting really touchy and jumpy. The only thing that could calm me down was a nice long drag (coefficient) under the skydiving canopy. Furthermore, the amount of money I was spending was ridiculous. I've been going through at least a pack(job) a day, and it continues to get worse. Luckly I'm on the up and up though. It turns out that addiction can be fought. Now I dont need to have a skydive every second. If I get my mind occupied in some other fashion, I can focus on the moment and not on something that can kill me. Thats when I took up highlining.

If you or someone you love suffers from addiction to skydiving, don't wait. Dive headfirst into recovery and contact someone now. Visit http://www.addictionrecoveryguide.org/ for more info.

Pilot Chute in Tow

So last weekend I had a fun little malfunction with my parachute. The pilot chute, which deploys the main parachute, locked up on me during a hop and pop. It had been packed in my rig for a while and was all wrinkled. Despite my ardent efforts to de-wrinkle the thing (anyone who's seen me wearing a nice shirt knows I have no skill with an iron) it hung up on me. During said hop and pop, I jumped out of the plane at 5,000 feet and counted to six. After I pulled, the pilot chute just chilled there, as if to say, "haha, I'm too wrinkled to catch enough air to pull the parachute out" Well damn, I thought, this isn't good. The ground was still about 4,000 feet away, so I had time, so I stayed calm. I hung out there for a little while longer, waiting a few more seconds, but nothing happened, so I reached behind me and yanked out the closing pin, and the parachute deployed flawlessly and to my great fortune, lived to skydive another day.

Planning the future

I love living in the present, but sometimes you can't avoid looking to the future. As the seasons change, it is time to start thinking about new possibilities and new adventures. Here are a few things I will be trying to accomplish in the next year:

• Moab highline extravaganza(s)
• BASE jumping at the Perrine
• Reach 100 skydives before Jan 1st
  
• Go on a road trip to Lodi, CA (and jump for $13 a jump!)
  
• Rainier (unsupported speed ascent)
  
• More and more trad climbing (including a bivy on the wall)
  
• Ecuador Volcanoes
• Climbing and Jumping in Switzerland

After this, who knows? Only the future will tell, and I am constantly creating that future in my daily endeavors.

GoFast Games

We absolutely crushed an awesome line this weekend; probably the highest and most beautiful so far in Colorado. It was the GoFast games and through some connections we managed to get permission to rig the awesome lines at the games. I headed down there thursday night and started rigging with Dylan friday morning. We had a 40' line rigged that was 988 feet above the bottom of the gorge. It was right next to the bridge, and had a nice vertical drop that allowed us to show off for the spectators on the bridge.


Dylan and I crushed as usual, and Jack came up from Durango to join in on the fun. It was his first legit highline (other than the one he rigged over the narrow gauge railroad down there) and he walked it in style. Smooth onsight, with some tricks thrown in as well. It was really exciting.

By the end of the weekend, and bunch of the BASE jumpers came by to give the line a go as well. They all had the guts, but it was more of a mental game than jumping off of the bridge, so Dylan, Jack and I were the only ones to cross the line.


I had a great time. Nobody was injured the entire weekend, which made me even more excited about BASE jumping. I was also able to get extremely comfortable on the highline, which is a really incredible feeling. Standing there, the wind blowing hard, focused only on balance, and nothing more. It creates an interesting feeling of enlightenment, one that I really cannot yet explain. It really is a zen experience, a transcendence from the line into another existence. I love it.

It was a fun opportunity, and hopefully we'll be invited to come back again next year. I would love to rig a 100 foot line next to the 160 foot line that are already chilling there.

54 reasons to love Colorado

I just recently finished climbing all 54 of the 14,000 foot high peaks in Colorado. It was an incredible journey and I got to see so much of Colorado, places that people I live with and around will probably never see in their entire lives. So many beautiful valleys and magnificent peaks.

It was a journey that started when I was about 9, I think it was then when I climbed my first 14er, Antero. I have since climbed that one 2 more times, mainly because it is so close to St. Elmo, one of the most beautiful places in the state.


I knew when I was in elementary school and got my first 14er checklist shirt that I wanted to climb all of the 14ers one day. It was a goal that, back then, seemed enormous. I couldn't even name the 54 14ers, nor could I comprehend the difficulty and effort required to climb all of them. But the human body is incredibly powerful and is capable of so much.

At the beginning of this summer I realized that it was entirely possible for me to finish the peaks this year. I had only about 10 left after the end of last summer, but they were located all over the state, and they were some of the more difficult peaks. Regardless, I went to it, and finished strong.


After all was said and done, I looked back, thinking about the incredible journey to climb all the peaks. So many mountains with so many friends or family, so many tanks of gas to fill, and so many stops at the Coyote Cantina, Subway and crappy gas station food. I have to say though that my favorite peak was Capitol, as it was incredibly long and tedious and fun.


Now I'm off to climb different things, but I'll never forget the great times I have had on the Colorado 14ers, and I can't wait to get back there this winter and repeat some of the more incredible mountains in the state, and maybe start to ski down them.

View a few of my trip reports for my most recent peaks here:

Capitol and Pyramid
Little Bear, Blanca, Ellingwood

And my 14er completion list