On the Rock

In the fashion of Jack Kerouac: When I get to the top of a rock that I have worked up some blood, sweat, and tears for and I see the world below me has shrunken down to a overwhelmingly silent sight of the sky skirting the land, I figure I would come face to face with God or Buddha and have myself a holy or trippy experience -- but no, instead I simply come face to face with myself. The hero Kero inspired the Beats that busted and rumbled up that goddamn mountain, and Nick Rosen was the filmmaker that made sure those words echoed for enthusiasts and fanatics, like myself, to get up there and do it. It’s those same enthusiasts and fanatics: young or old, experienced or naive, afraid or brave, that are the ones I get to sit on top of the world with and have a crazy conversation about God only knows what.

Kerouac was no climber of mountains, but he sure endured similar hardships in living his life alone. Serving 66 days as firewatch near Desolation Peak in North Cascades, Washington, he went stir crazy at the sight of the towering monolith. No conversation, no drugs, no liquor, no vanity or material -- all he had was some books, journals, food, a bed, and a panoramic view nature. He was the kind of man to say that the great outdoors is where adventure awaits, but would stay at the base of a mountain where his head hesitates. He fought demons along his climb, reached to find higher ground in his life from that point on, but lived a life to only fall even when there was a way that showed itself to him.

Yoga is another way to find oneself, and the film Elighten Up! follows the story of  Nick Rosen as he finds his way through the spirituality of yoga. It was a journey that took him to one ambiguous end to another. Surprisingly enough he felt indifferent to the whole pursuit in the end, even after a pilgrimage to India and meeting masters of both the physical and philosophical practices. In the end of the film he admits disassociation with the practice, but confesses that yoga did move him in ways unexplained and unexpected. He took up rock climbing as a hobby, started writing about the experience, and ended up making the no frill documentary, Valley Uprising, about the historical brilliance of Yosemite, and the counterculture of rock climbing.

It is the stories that the heroes tell that motivates me to get up and climb, but it is the people, friends and strangers alike, whom I end up with at the peak that keep me coming back. Earlier this year I did a climb for New Years Eve at Joshua Tree, and when the clock struck midnight I was at the top of a mountain with some random rock climbers. We exchanged a few words about the solitary experience and how climbing is a moving meditation, a humbling insanity, a sublime madness, and a primal bliss to top it all off. As we finally blissed out, they blessed out and descended from the spot. Then I was alone and one with the real hero: the world. I saw a lone firework in the middle of the darkened desert, and looked up to a sea of winking stars. I passed out from that point and have been waiting to wake up ever since.

Onto the next rock until then until then.