Freerider

Friends, Faithful readers of our not-so-faithful Essential Mass Message,

I wish you could have seen what I just saw, the sight that moved me to do a number of things, including but not limited to, calling my parents (who sadly weren't home), contemplating calling everyone who ever knew about Ty's desire to free climb El Cap, and finally sending out an Essential Mass Message. This is really the perfect medium to communicate something that is so inspiring it's too big for the phone. Not to be seen from the ground with the naked eye, only visible through high powered binoculars, Ty Mack is now about 1800 feet off the ground on the face of North America's most majestic (and absolutely fucking huge!) monolith, El Capitan for the first of four days he'll spend on it. He and his partner Tom started at 4 this morning, and if you're familiar with the Freerider route, they're now on the monster off width just below El Cap spire. I felt a little strange peering at those two specks moving (with remarkable speed) up the wall, as I could see them, and they could not see me, but the absolute certainty and skill with which they moved made me resist pulling my eyes out of the binoculars. Ty might turn a becoming shade of red if he reads this, but watching him on that wall, practicing his art, made my heart swell.

Well friends, I hope you are practicing your art too. When I left for college, my dad gave me a short list of things he proposed one should always do; besides cleaning hair out of the shower, living lightly on the earth, and being in the company of folks who love you and whom you love , he advised that people should always be doing something that they love. I hope you are now, (I mean besides reading our blog).

Cheers,

Rose