Ginnylynnpeterson: March 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Russian Lake Ski Traverse

Maybe I should call this trip "Welcome to Alaska" as the views were constantly the classic postcard shot...The classic magazine article recruting folks to come to AK! Perfect weather for two days. We started with a ~12 mile ski to Upper Russian Lake Cabin where we spent the night and then skied out the next day. I hear there are a lot of bears on this trail, so happy to be doing it in the winter!

So many amazing photos...couldn't post them all here so check out this link for more...

http://www.ringo.com/photos/album.html?albumId=41833123

"and if you smile for the camera..." Rick, Tanya, Sue, Jon, Brook, and me skiing along....(please don't ask why my skis are on my pack...!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Ice Pixies Weekend in Valdez

Last weekend marked the Second Annual Ice Pixies Festival in Valdez, Alaska. The Ice Pixies is a time for women climbers across the state to get together, meet one another, climb, be outside and have some fun. The festival reminded me of my appreciation for living in Alaska, the people here, the beauty, and the 1000's of things this place has to offer. Kremer, thank you for making it happen! Sherrie and I have combined our photos at the following link:

http://www.ringo.com/photos/album.html?albumId=41774694

Monday, March 12, 2007

The "Intimate Bond" Created by Climbing Partners

Over the years I have had the opportunity to climb in a variety of magical places and have met amazing, talented people along the way...we sit by the campfire, we make dinner, we sometimes dance until 3 am....many of these people have become my climbing partner for the day or for the week or for the years to come. We have shared a day at the crag, an alpine adventure, a big wall experience...We laugh, we sometimes cry, we tell stories, we motivate, support and encourage one another...our relationship, in

ways, becomes instantly intimate and completely connected. An unique bond formed and an everlasting memory created....

Monday, March 5, 2007

Ski Tracks, Ptarmigan Peak

I actually searched the dictionary looking for a word to describe the feeling…the feeling when you are back in town and look up at the peaks around you and think, wow I was just way up there…Maybe accomplishment, maybe enlightened, fulfilled, exhausted…but it really feels bigger, greater than any one word can capture or describe…

Bill Billmeier hiking to the base of the route after a five mile ski.

Bill leading the super thin, unprotected pitch!

We topped out just as the sun was setting...beautiful view of the Chugach Mountains.

It took us about 14 hours car to car - A ski, A hike, 4 (?) pitches of climbing, 3 (?) pitches of simo-climbing snow gullies, Top Out, Walk-off, and ski out...My biggest day of the season...

For more photos: http://www.ringo.com/photos/album.html?albumId=41777886

Saturday, March 3, 2007

The Beauty of a Rest Day and the Iditarod

Rest Day /rest dei/ a day where you really could be out doing something, an adventure, exploring, pushing yourself to new limits - new places...yet you decide to let the body rest, let the mind center, and have a "life" day, an "in-town" day - A day to pay bills, to do laundry, grocery shop and all those other things you have put off.

I usually do ok till about 2 PM...then the restlessness hits me....I struggle to let my body rest and my mind races thinking about the next day....

Today was the Anchorage "unoffical" start of the Iditarod sled dog race. The offical start begins in Willow and racers travel the 1,150 miles to Nome. I have included a link to the offical website where you can track how the teams are doing. http://www.iditarod.com/

Meet Joe Black Quote

"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived"

To Lucy Barfield (The dedication in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

My Dear Lucy,
I wrote ths story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be

your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis

Ithaka

When setting out upon your way to Ithaca,wish always that your course be long, full of adventure, full of lore.Of the Laestrygones and of the Cyclopes,of an irate Poseidon never be afraid; such things along your way you will not find,if lofty is your thinking, if fine sentimentin spirit and in body touches you. Neither Laestrygones nor Cyclopes,nor wild Poseidon will you ever meet,unless you bear them in your soul,unless your soul has raised them up in front of you.

Wish always that your course be long;that many there be of summer mornswhen with such pleasure, such great joy,you enter ports now for the first time seen;that you may stop at some Phoenician marts,to purchase there the best of wares,mother-of-pearl and coral, amber, ebony,hedonic perfumes of all sorts--as many such hedonic perfumes as you can;that you may go to various Egyptian townsto learn, and learn from those schooled there.

Your mind should ever be on Ithaca.Your reaching there is your prime goal.But do not rush your journey anywise.Better that it should last for many years,and that, now old, you moor at Ithaca at last,a man enriched by all you gained upon the way,and not expecting Ithaca to give you further wealth.
For Ithaca has given you the lovely trip.Without her you would not have set your course.There is no more that she can give.

If Ithaca seems then too lean, you have not been deceived.As wise as you are now become, of such experience,you will have understood what Ithaca stands for.

Constantine P. Cavafy

I am Vertical - Sylvia Plath

But I would rather be horizontal. I am not a tree with my root in the soil Sucking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. Compared with me, a tree is immortal And a flower-head not tall, but more startling, And I want the one's longevity and the other's daring.

Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars, The trees and the flowers have been strewing their cool odors. I walk among them, but none of them are noticing. Sometimes I think that when I am sleeping I must most perfectly resemble them --
Thoughts gone dim. It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation, And I shall be useful when I lie down finally: Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.

Thoughts....

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)

A friend of mine just shared this with me and I thought I would pass it on!

Myself
by Edgar Guest

I have to live with myself, and so, I want to be fit for myself to know;I want to be able as days go by, Always to look myself straight in the eye; I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done. I don't want to keep on a closet shelf A lot of secrets about myself, And fool myself as I come and go Into thinking that nobody else will know The kind of man I really am; I don't want to dress myself up in sham. I want to deserve all men's respect; But here in this struggle for fame and pelf, I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to think as I come and go That I'm for bluster and bluff and empty show. I never can hide myself from me, I see what others may never see, I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself -- and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free.