More and more, I’m getting excited about the possibility of leaving the country indefinitely. As I’ve investigated various options, here’s my current ideal plan:

1. Cruise ship from Florida to Spain. The best rates go for about $700 right before and after spring semester finals. If my students really come along, we could spend part of the 7-9 days studying creative writing (which some want to learn) and we could write and publish a book about our trip so anyone can follow us later.

2. Once in Spain, we might as well take a $40 ferry to Morocco and spend a day or two, just to add another continent to the itinerary.

3. Maybe catch Barcelona for a couple days, just to check out Sagrada Familia cathedral and the bizarrely awesome Parque Guel. Plus hike up to a dilapidated Roman castle above any old town.

4. For sure stop in Paris for a while. And maybe Germany where I have three friends and relatives I could stay with…though probably not if we’re a large group. If students really come along and “hire” me as their tour guide, I’ll spend as long as they want anywhere they want to go!

5. Make our way to Moscow and catch the Transiberian railroad all the way over to Irkutsk. While living in Beijing way back when, Transiberian tickets went for $113 and I really, really wanted to go. But I was quickly running out of money saved up from working in Taiwan and had a return ticket home through Hong Kong. Now is my chance!

6. It’s also my chance to spend a few days riding horses in Mongolia and staying in yurts (gors), another activity I missed in Beijing and promised to return for someday. Continue Reading »

It has been a very slow year for technical rescues in Utah County. I think today’s was only the fourth! We usually have at least 3x that.

In this photo (click to zoom in), I’m the top left bright green dot. A girl fell 30′ and tumbled another 60′, and luckily stopped on a steep scree slope just down and right from me. You might call that a miracle.

She had serious injuries (but is expected to be okay) and no one knew exactly where she was. Her boyfriend, who had earlier hiked down the trail, got worried and borrowed a cell phone to call 911. The people who lent him the phone hiked up and, when the wind was blowing toward them, heard her screams. She had probably been there for an hour or two before they found her and tried to keep her warm while waiting for SAR and North Fork Fire to arrive. She was found high on the mountainside and far from any trails. Another miracle.

We set up 6 lowering stations to bring her down, including one I built with five pitons set in tiny cracks in the cliff just above her with water flowing over them. The operation went smoothly (of course), and a waiting Life Flight helicopter flew her away.

Maybe you’re thinking that none of these events are really miracles. It was just people doing small things. Like lending a cell phone. The bystanders who found the girl were hiking in the area anyway. SAR and NFF have rescued dozens of people along that stretch of mountain, and we consider it simple and easy. But that’s how most miracles come about, with just people, usually doing just small things.

If you were thinking these are no miracles, try looking at it from another angle, like the girl’s, who lay in pain for hours and who now recovers safely in a warm, soft hospital bed rather than dying on cold, hard rocks.

Now look around. Who do you see who needs a miracle? What small thing can you contribute? What are you waiting for?

I’ve taken the neighborhood kids rappelling twice in the last two weeks. Here’s a picture from Battle Creek Canyon this week. Two weeks ago, I sent them over an 80′ cliff in Dry Canyon a mile from my house.

Some of the boys had very little fear and thoroughly enjoyed the whole adventure, which is great; but the ones who impressed me most didn’t start out that way.

Two 12 year olds were visibly shaken as they eased over the first awkward cliff. One – after hanging just over the edge and trying to get started for a few minutes, glancing down repeatedly despite everyone’s admonitions not to – started to cry.

But neither one ever backed out! One moved steadily downward despite his shaking knees, and the other did the same once I tied a piece of webbing around his harness to offer an extra belay (a fireman’s belay on the end of the rope could stop them at any time).

When’s the last time you did something that scared you? Have you ever done anything that TERRIFIED you? I highly recommend it. It changes your life as you discover that you’re more capable and courageous than you ever knew.

I’ve long believed that courage is one of the most underrated values in the world. We sometimes speak of it as if only daredevils and heroes have a right to it. Not so. Courage is for everyone.

By the second outing, the kids were running laps up the trail and down the rope as fast as they could go, loving nearly every minute. They made me proud. With determination and courage like that, what can ever stop them?

This thinking about leaving the country indefinitely is having a good and unexpected effect on me – it’s teaching me to let go of everything and I’m finding it very liberating. If there’s something that’s just not working out the way I wanted, it’s okay. I may be gone by next summer anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Just let it go and move on. I like this. I should have done this years ago. Stop holding onto things that don’t cut it. Move on and find things that do.

The point is no longer to collect things that may be useful, the question is now how to get rid of everything so I don’t have to find a place to store it. I wonder if I could reduce everything I need to a single backpack. I’ll need a small computer and a camera, a few clothes that don’t take up much space, and that’s about it, right? That plus my favorite water bottle and a passport. A Kindle so I can study the languages I’ll need and read the classics I haven’t had time for for too long. Sunglasses and sunscreen, running shoes, credit card. Continue Reading »