Rock Guiding 101

Spent a few eye-opening days re-educating myself with an AMGA course - courtesy of Eli Helmuth, a certified IFMGA guide and owner and head guide of Climbing Life out of Estes Park, Colorado.

I think I can relate the experience a bit to my perceived Spanish fluency. When put to the test, words and definitions I was pretty sure I had command of are tangled in the ethers of time and not quite exact - or dated and colloquial/regional and no longer in the common vernacular...

Good to shake the cobwebs out and to get exposure and up-to-date beta - the new science behind factor two falls, pull tests vs drop tests, the necessity to wash ropes and harness to keep them supple and happy, finding out just how sketchy old button head and hardware store bolts are, pitons? shudder. 30% of strength is compromised when clipping a rope direct to a camming unit instead of the sewn sling, trees near the edges of cliffs often have incredibly shallow roots systems and should generally not be trusted as anchor points, a floating gri-gri at chest to eye level and clove hitch in but keeping the belayer out of the system is a good tactic, 3 to 1 z-rigs and counter balance lowers are good tricks to know, saltwater/seacliffs like Thailand will literally eat the metal/pockmark un-anodized carabiners and harness buckles...

Definitely a language all to itself but one that is mutually intelligible, or should be, amongst the dedicated...

Now its time to practice - a good excuse to get strung up on cliffs for the next few weeks before the assessment and spend some eves gaining more fluency with tech tips/vid tutorials at the Climbing Life website... Even if I were to never guide a client this course is well worth it - just for my own comfort/knowledge/safety while transiting the vertical world...

It seems a lot of fixed gear/anchors out there are dangerous... Hmm. Best to view it guilty of being dangerous until proven otherwise...

Eli debating the merits of passive pro... Verdict... cams rule. Eli claims to have guided a full season of 58 trad days in 60 and claims to have not placed a single nut... I guess we can thank Ray Jardine for helping us to escape 1970's climbing standards - slowy but surely...

 SPI guides in training on Dementia

Hard As Nails Obstacle Mud Race

Today was a fun day in the new word of Hard As Nails (HAN). The 15 day countdown has begun for the Mother's Day weekend extravaganza that should draw close to 1,000 people. Several waves throughout the day include local firefighters, families, military, individuals, teams...

The construction phase needed for some of the 17 different elements, for both adults and kids courses, is nearly complete. A ton of planning and prep has gone into this and it will be super top-notch for sure. A ton of mud, river crawls, rope climbs, tire climbs, pond paddles, dumpster dives, over-unders...

This morning I got to walk and photo parts of the 5km adult course with mastermind designer/developer Joshua Baruch, build-master Chris and consultant/media point person and man of many hats Alex as they dialed in some of the final design touches...

In tandem with the event Adventures in Storytelling is launching its pilot workshop with 3 incredibly high-speed photographers/visual storytellers. So as workshop organizer I was out there scouting for some sweet action photo points and trying to visualize just how ridiculously fun this event will be as a photographer and as a participant...

The HAN dream-team... Josh, Chis and Alex

Josh scouting on the course for the best mud wall rope climb exits...

A secret tip for those entering - teamwork!

Josh and Alex testing to ensure the highest quality experience...

 A 14 story stair climb up the Westin Hotel and then down will be the first adult course obstacle before paddling around their lake...

More route testing...

The Unpaved Earth...

So psyched for spring and getting outside again as melting snows give way to open ground and bluer skies- shared spaces again with snakes, wildflowers, falcons, climbing partners and perfectly fractured granite... meditative foot placements over ridge-spines crossing the Divide...

Here are a quick few rambling words from an article I finished today for a California mag...

©Bennett Barthelemy

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“Inaction will cause a man to sink into the slough of despond and vanish without a trace.”

― Farley Mowat

Ultimately there is a flash point – from convergence of stuffed emotion and stagnant physicality. Hopefully we are awake for it lest we combust and burn the house down. Much better to be outside and inspired by the sacred geometry, as conduit between unpaved earth and open sky, when the flash point happens and revel in the divergent expulsion of sweat, pain and built up angst.

Sojourns into wilderness are my chosen prescription and applied medicine – my natural Silvadene, the aloe therapy for the contact burns of urbanization and the collective shared suffering of humanity from being plugged in. Wilderness forces a conscious unplugging, to redirect and reconnect currents of the eclipsed flow that still unconsciously dances to the rhythms of moon and sun...

Vaulting

Today I was given an education in vaulting... A blending of gymnastics and dance - while riding a large horse at speed. Quite impressive!

A beautiful ranch in Golden, Colorado, friendly dogs and horses, a herd of elk wandering through, mule deer on the hillsides - and of course great people... A good way to spend the afternoon!

A Kid Again at Gladius...

I stepped through the magic door again, finding youth. This time at Gladius. Damn, I want to run away and join a circus now. Performers here have generations of circus blood and from countries all over the world.

Erik - aka Gladius - grew up in Golden and was a high school student of my friend Craig Dobkin who invited me. When we sat down, Craig was clearly a VIP and I was introduced to Erik's parents - dedicated horse people teaching vault and dressage with a competitive team. Many of their students sat around us and were also introduced.

The horseman/womanship was stunning with fitness levels off the charts... It was clear that the performers are doing what they truly love - which for me is what really makes this a show not to miss. Gladius and Big Horse Productions are on their way to Austin Texas. I would recommend checking them out if you happen to be local, or when they transit nearby where you live...

I couldn't resist bringing my camera in to get some shots - sans flash and with 70 to 300 4.5 to 5.6 - need a sweet prime lens to really capture... next time.

Social Documentary . Net

I have a gallery of images of Dakar and my multi media piece, New Doorways For Dakar's Youth with Social Documentary.net  - Using the power of photography to promote global awareness -

They have an amazing platform for viewing images as well as multi media video - a lot of amazing and powerful work and important/addressed issues - a very worthwhile visit. I am beyond ecstatic that they selected my work to feature from their homepage. In reality though, it is so much more than just myself that created this piece. From Dakar forward my life has been filled with new friendships and incredibly positive and creative individuals that have helped me to take chances and explore new venues with my camera and words. I am grateful for this.

The company of visual artists represented at SocialDocumentary, both on staff and showcased on the website, is of an incredibly high level, one I never dreamed that I would be sharing space with.


Honored, stoked, hopeful that this effort can reach further through the SDN channel. Check out the gallery and video here.

Elisabeth and Agyat of Play For Peace train local Senegalese at the CAFT School in Thiaroye Gare, Dakar Senegal  ©Bennett Barthelemy

New Doorways For Dakar's Youth

©Bennett Barthelemy

My first multi-media piece is finished! New Doorways for Dakar's Youth has been an enjoyable process of struggling, learning, struggling, learning ad infinitum on so many levels... I know I have a ton to learn still in this exciting new realm of both multi-media and the non profit world - so any and all comments are welcome!

It is told in the first person - my experiences with the process of documenting a collaboration between multiple NGOs... I had just 10 days in Dakar, so my goal is that it may serve as a worthwhile introduction to some of the challenges facing Dakar youth and how they are being met at a local level and beyond.

I have it posted on Vimeo, you can check it out by clicking the link here.

Thank you.

Portraits of Thiaroye, Dakar...

The multi media piece on Dakar is nearly ready to go! It has been fun to vicariously travel back and forth to Senegal for the last few months as I have cobbled the piece together. I hope it can promote some more awareness and keep momentum for positive change...

Here are a few of my favorite images from my 10 days in Thiaroye, a suburb of Dakar...

Boys with stylish newspaper hats constructed at a play session with the international non profit Play For Peace.

Amazingly strong women!

Seeing kids working instead of going to school was pretty common. The non profit CAFT Senegal and others there are working to change that...

Boys begging in the streets of Dakar. Some 50,000 youth every day are forced to beg.

50% of Dakar is not literate... These women are part of new programs to change that...

The Calm Before the Storm

Sometimes guiding is a pretty sweet job... Well, actually most of the time it rocks. Saturday, pre snowstorm was magic in RMNP. Elk and deer herds at sunset, black clouds dropping snow pushed down from the north but skirted us as we snowshoed beneath the nearly full moon that blazed brightly through a thin sheet of cloud. The sky opened intermittently and Jupiter blazed, nearly at the zenith.

Not a breath of wind at ground level.  The only sound was the crunching from our steps. We were the only people on a trail that just hours before would have had dozens. All daylight had receded as we made it to Emerald Lake - but the snow captured the moonlight and glowed making headlamps unnecessary. Gossamer mist floated down the Dragon's Tail couloir. The perfect calm before the storm…

Workshop #1...

Please come join us for three days at the Westin Inn in Westminster Colorado for our first workshop - It will be awesome!

Adventures In Storytelling Workshops

 Officially launched!

 Adventures In Storytelling 

Earth-Centered Visual Journalism Workshops

Unbelievably stoked that this is happening... John, Ethan and Caroline are heroes of mine -  for their gift of visual storytelling at the edge that spans a dizzying array of genres, countries and publications. 

This is going to be truly awesome! If you want to really rev your visual storytelling into high gear please join us. We have scholarships to cover a good chunk of the cost for students/those in need...

Africa and Beyond

A few minutes to share a few images and reflections on Dakar as my photo book is put to bed and will ship Monday...

The 10 day trip to Senegal last November was a game-changer for me in terms of defining where my passions lie and discerning the kind of work I want to continue doing... Now I am headlong into my first multi-media piece with my stills, audio and video clips... Its daunting but exciting - kind of like starting up a long multi-pitch climb close to my limit... I am being pushed into many new spheres of influence and am incredibly honored to have met so many amazing people both in Africa and since as this process of sharing continues to evolve...

This would not have been possible without the support from all of the Kickstarter donors and Play For Peace www.playforpeace.org and all the amazing people in Thiaroye, Dakar Senegal... Thank you.