Ice world
January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Climbing
The key element to extreme sports is that once you’ve really pushed yourself to the limit, maybe even risked everything, it provides a new way of seeing the world.
Like a snowboarder who’s sailing 30’ off a mountain, I’ve seen these guys, you can’t breathe while they’re moving it’s so hairy.
Or the guys who ride big waves. These waves are half the size of a fuckin’ hotel.
If you screw up there, you’re dead.
After those experiences, how are you going to disturb a guy like that?
He wakes up in the morning knowing he’s going to risk grave bodily harm and when he pulls it off and remains serene throughout, it’s because he’s dispensed with so much of the “God my shoes hurt” “my girlfriend’s a bitch” “my phone bill’s too much”.
He’s blown all the clutter away and connected with something way more absolute and powerful.
Then all of a sudden you have a whole new perspective”.
Henry Rollins, author/icon
Rollins words echoed in my head as my axe busted out of the ice for the umpteenth time and the ledge I had precariously kicked into began to crumble away. Nothing else mattered at that moment. I felt I was carved out of the same cold blue ice as the wall I was on.
We’d spent Saturday fooling around on the ice wall at bottom of Aka-dake. Blue sky and blue ice, we raced for the top of the wall to reach the sunlight which warmed its top. In the minus 17 degree air every ray of sun burned like a furnace where it hit my upturned face.
Sunday was a waterfall climb known locally as the God of the Mountains, a 200 foot plume of icicles and blue-white ice in winter. Once you start you either finish or fall. We kicked and chopped, shouting when our arms became too pumped to make the next swing and whooping when the axes bit deeply and carried us to the top.
A lone deer followed the river below the frozen fall, turning its intense gaze to the men waging war on the blue ice. As our eyes met, Rollin’s words came to me again.
He’s blown all the clutter away and connected with something way more absolute and powerful.
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4 Responses to “Ice world”
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Hi, just came across your site last night and love your pictures. I’m not a climber but a long-distance hiker who loves the mountains here in Japan, gearing up for a thru-hike of the country in two months simultaneously with a friend, Chris, who’s doing it from the other end. See our website if this doesn’t make sense!
Your Rollins quote reminded me of a fan letter I wrote to him way back in my uni days. I was a huge fan of Black Flag and was thrilled when he wrote back. I still have the letter and can send you a picture of it if you are interested. Years later I ended up opening for him at a spoken-word show in Sydney, but I was too shy to tell him of the connection.
Anyway, I’ll be going throug your site to enjoy the pictures and stash away any tips. Thanks again.
Mountaingoat
Hi Mountaingoat - looks like a great project you’ve got going there, I look forward to keeping up with it. Who knows, we might bump into each other at some point? If you need any info just let me know cjw *at* i-cjw.com.
I’d love to see the Rollin’s letter if you could send it through..
Hi Chris,
I followed the link here from Kevin Cameron’s blog. I’m impressed with your mountain photography, and your courage in climbing mountains like Tsurugi-dake solo in winter.
But I have to set the record straight on this furry friend that stared you down. It is not a deer, but a “kamoshika”, which despite the “shika” suffix, is known in English as serow, scientifically, as Capricornus Crispus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Serow
As spring makes its way up the Japanese archipelago, I wish you a safe and exciting spring and summer climbing season. Incidentally, what is your Hyakumeizan tally? Mine reached 15 before health reasons slowed me up.
Hi Bob - very interesting! I had wondered why a beast which bears little resemblance to a traditional deer should be so called. I assumed it was just an unusual Japanese genus. You’re right though - the shika suffix threw me. I should have known better - after all, a language which refers to green traffic lights as being blue (because the word is shorter) is clearly one not wedded to absolute accuracy..
I’m somewhere in the high teens so far as Hyakumeizan go. I really should count them up. I’d like to knock off another ten or so this year, but that may be a little ambitious. And the older I get, the more that quality pervades over quantity.
Thanks for dropping by, glad you enjoyed the photos - should be some more going up in the next couple of months..
Chris