It occurred to me that I hadn’t written here in quite a while. I think it is mostly because I have been in the job finding hunker down for winter mode. I just realized though that a lot has actually happened this winter.
WInter activities
I got my first ever, all mine, made for me mono ski this season. Big thanks to the Kelly Brush Foundation, which without their help through grant funding, I never would have been able to purchase my ski. Also big thanks to all the help from Chiharu and Joachim at DynAccess LTD. They truly went out of their way to make this a reality for me and I truly appreciate it. So back to the skiing part. One of the biggest benefits to my new ski, I got to ski with my brother and his family. I am looking forward to many more ski seasons with them. I managed to get about 10 days or so on the snow this season. Unfortunately, I seemed to keep getting sick right before I was scheduled to ski so I ended up canceling a lot. On a side note, Mr. Martin my 7th grade English teacher corrected me when I spelled a lot as alot and I have never gotten that one wrong since. Back to skiing again. I made it to a couple of races and did pretty well. I do wish that there were more people to race against in this area. It would just make it more fun and I would get to meet more people who ski like I do. My new ski has taken a lot of getting used to. It is like going from a used car to a sports car. I went to the Maine Adaptive mono ski camp and Geoff Krill really helped me figure out the new ski and got me skiing it really well by the end of the 3 days. He is really good at what he does and is able to pick up on the little things that make a huge difference. He suggested lengthening my outriggers and that changed everything. I, of course, can still improve and I will for sure. I bought a pass for next year so I am hoping to at least get every weekend to ski next season and really ramp things up for my future endeavors.
Presentations
I have been doing presentations for various groups about my adventures and things I have learned from them. I did a few this winter for Paradox Sports, Husson University class, and Telstar High School freshman academy. I am really starting to enjoy that part of what I am doing. In the beginning, I tried just reading the whole thing and that just seemed to make things harder. I would lose my place and get flustered and then things felt like they went downhill from there. I decided to just use the notes as a reference and conduct things as more of a conversation. That really made things so much better and I actually started to enjoy it. I added interactive questions on the suggestion of Gary Dunn. It was really interesting to hear the responses from some of the audience and get to know them on a more personal level. I hope to be able to do this more in the future and really get the message out that anyone can do anything.
The mighty
I have also in the past few months, become a contributor to a website called themighty.com. This is a community of people with varying disabilities that contribute blog posts. We write about anything and everything related to our lives living with disabilities. I have written mostly about my life and observations I have made while living that life. Actually, that is the reason I started writing this post in the first place. I made an observation last night on a grocery shopping trip to Walmart. I had purchased a new book bag at this Walmart a few days ago and when I left I noticed the theft alarm went off but didn’t think anything of it and the person attending to the doors let me leave. It sometimes goes off for no reason apparently. So I was leaving the store again last night and the alarm went off again. Clearly, this was no coincidence and something about that bag was setting it off. So I stopped and told the attendant that I had purchased the bag on my wheelchair there a few days ago and she was welcome to check it over. Her response to the situation is what struck me. First, she appeared very nervous and didn’t want to check things out. Then I said to her its ok if you want to check it out I don’t mind. I obviously wasn’t stealing and knew that fact. What came out of her mouth next didn’t bother me at first until I had time to think about what unfolded. She looked at my girlfriend and not at me and said it seems kinda rude to check. She was saying this because I use a wheelchair. So on my way home, I started thinking about this response. Why do we treat people with disabilities with kid gloves? We are still responsible adults and should be treated as such. It was her job to make sure I wasn’t stealing when that alarm went off and just like anyone else that set the alarm off I should have been checked out. Come to find out when I got home I found the anti-theft device still on the bag. I checked the receipt and I did pay for it so I know I didn’t steal it for sure. The difference is the woman at Walmart had no way of knowing that and just because I am in a wheelchair I shouldn’t get a pass.
The movie about El Capitan
If you are a friend of mine on social media then you have likely seen this already, but if not, The North Face released a trailer for the movie about my El Capitan ascent. I am really pleased with how well it has been received and for all the attention it is bringing to adaptive climbing and the great work that Paradox Sports does. Craig Muderlak has done an unbelievable job putting it all together and I can’t wait to see the full result in a few weeks. The merchandise for the Kickstarter Campaign is also finished so he should be getting that out to everyone that contributed not long after the movie is released. The North Face and Paradox Sports have also teamed up to start an adaptive climbing initiative to bring the sport of climbing to people of all abilities across the entire country. Make sure to check out their website by clicking on the logo on my site. You will find information about this new collaboration as well as information about upcoming climbing trips and other information. Speaking of the Paradox website, you can also find my ambassador page there. That’s right they asked me to be an ambassador this year and I couldn’t be more excited to help get the word out about this amazing organization so please check out the site and help make things happen.
Joshua tree national park
One of the trips that Paradox Sports is doing, is to Joshua Tree National Park. I will be flying out this coming Monday to embark on a week of learning. I want to elevate my climbing skills to be able to lead, build anchors, be there to help rescue a teammate and many other skills. I would also love to be able to push my skills to the level of being able to teach someday and this trip will set me on that path. I have never been to Joshua Tree so I am also really excited to see all the beauty it has to offer. I can’t wait to be able to post pictures and blog about it so be waiting for that in a couple of weeks. As part of this trip, I will be staying in the Palo Alto area to work with FXPAL for a few days. I interned with this company last summer and had a blast using all the new technology. We are going to be working with drones and some other technology so I am excited to able to report on that too. For the finale to the trip I am visiting my friend Jonathan Parker in the Tahoe area and we are going to do some skiing at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. With the epic snowfall, they have gotten this year it should be pretty amazing. So stay tuned for all those updates when I get back.
Mt. Rainier
I am in the early stages of planning some training trips for Mt. Rainier and then planning to actually ascend Mt. Rainier. This will be much different from my ascent of El Capitan as I will be skiing in some fashion up and down the mountain. At least that is the proposed plan as of right now. We were planning to do a training route this season but things didn’t quite come to fruition with the amount of time we had to pull it off. That is probably better anyway since this will give us months to get things planned out really well and make it as safe an adventure as we can. I definitely can’t wait to make this all happen, though. This is the reason I got started down this path in the first place. I won’t stop there, though. There is a world of adventure out there and I aim to take in as much of it as I can with the life I am given.
Well, that should about catch things up for now. I hope you all enjoy reading this and if you have suggestions about what you might like me to write about leave some comments and I will do my best to make it happen. Also feel free to share my posts around and get as many eyes on it as possible. You never know who might benefit.
Links of Interest:
The North Face Trailer:
Posted by Enock Glidden on Wednesday, March 1, 2017
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