Ten Past Days

Breath out, breath in, observe, be happy. Ten days I spent in a vipassana meditation course silently learning to observe reality AS IT IS moment to moment. The foundation is so simple, the practice is straightforward and yet the depths and complexity of this experience is difficult to describe. There are three basic elements that lead you into a deep exploration of mind and matter: morality, concentration, and wisdom. The first is self-explanatory in that any action you make should have strong moral integrity. Maintaining this gives you a pure foundation that will allow you to experience concentration, and wisdom without the pollution and misconceptions that arise from immoral acts. Concentration is another key component to this journey, and on the surface level everyone can concentrate, however in order to truly study your mind and body a very deep and practiced concentration must be learned and eventually develop into natural habit. Wisdom is a word that encompasses such a large array of understandings it is important to understand its varying possibilities. The most basic wisdom is gained by listening to others. Wisdom of intellect is the analytical understanding of a topic. Both of these are important in life however vipassana demands and creates wisdom of far greater value… Wisdom of experience is wisdom gained from direct personal experience and is essential to further understanding of the mind. By gaining and practicing wisdom of experience you begin to understand and change the reactions of your body and mind at the root level thus opening life to happiness, peace, and love on a consistent and personal basis.

The beauty of sitting and studying your mind is that there is always more to discover. While observing the sensations on my body, I learned from many directions and slowly thoughts got very pointed. You have no choice but to examine your reality: tensions, stresses, pleasures and pain arrive and pass away. It becomes apparent that as balanced as you may feel on the surface, many impurities and imbalances exist. Even more astounding lies the capacity to understand the universe in its essence by examining the trillions of molecules that create our physical perceptions through an immense rapidity of arising and passing. While I meditate there is no doubt that my mind is in constant state of anicca (impermanence), thoughts come and go with the rapidity of a fire flickering. There is no turning away from the fact that all things come and go. Honestly observing the reality of all your sensations, and thoughts in the moment gives you a great capacity to react to these things. Habitually reactions to sensory objects create an action or attitude of craving or aversion. By these principles we lead our lives leaving the door open to a variety of miseries entering our life and creating imbalance. Meditation teaches you the capacity to change the habit of your mind and react to things from a balanced prospective that does not create craving or aversion. In stopping this fundamental reactionary process you stop creating habits formed by the inner self that obstruct pure happiness, love, and compassion. Further the old habits from the depths of your unconscious begin to arise and by observing this process with equanimity (evenness of mind or temper) these habits have no option but to pass away. Again so simple: be aware, remain equanimis and naturally your mind will purify, thoughts will sharpen, and life will be easier lived happy.

Where to go from now is a question very much rolling around in my head. I have gained wisdom of all three types during these ten days and will no doubt apply this through every day living. Will I practice vipassana meditation on a regular basis? My immediate response was probably not. I can quickly justify this by applying the reality that I am happy, I show love, and have compassion for the world. My life is full of experience that has created a healthy joyful environment that I have been able to share with others. If you ever have skied with me you would agree that its hard to be anywhere than the moment. The focus and meditation I achieve during skiing or yoga are healthy for me and don’t require long periods of sitting. However I have a strong sense that vipassana meditation has the capacity to sharpen my mind and allow me to understand things on a deeper level with more quickness. The fact that immediately after my return was the memorial of a close friend of mine Ethan Townsend has pulled me away from the position of applying the knowledge and continuing life without regular meditation. Ethan was perhaps the most intelligent, and joyful, loving man I know which inspires me to exercise my brain to fuller extents. It feels irresponsible to not take steps that improve the functions of my mind and increase the capacity to help others while I well know the world has lost one of its sharpest most pointed individuals. So yes I will discipline myself to meditate with a more than sporadic frequency. And I will recommend that anybody set aside ten days of their life to go to a vipassana course without expectations and an open mind to learning. May all beings be happy. Peace Brook

Nicaragua

Riva, Riva, Rivas, The ring of bus boys and taxi drivers sounds the same every time.  Working to convince passerby’s with the shear enthusiasm of their voice to join their journey to a different place. My quickest trip to Nicaragua was indeed well appreciated. With the passing of more than two years since I had last seen any of my friends in Nicaragua it was refreshing to see their smiles, hear their laughs and exchange comical stories of our lives moving along. Four of them have new children, Mariel has a 2 year old girl, Gonzalo a 1 year old boy, Ramon with a 5 month old boy, and Alfredo with a 2 month old boy. I am a little surprised as my life has been far from having children and now many close friends of mine are happy fathers and mothers.

 No denying I noticed the standard development and spread of western progress none the less I still feel the heart of the country beating strong and shining with joy. The friends I have seen and the strangers that I passed by still have the same stress free relaxed attitude that keeps people smiling when money is scarce and responsibilities real. This constant positivism in life is a strong force as my dear friend Fermin explained to me while we sat under the shade of a tree on an, empty white sand, sea shell littered beach. We shared stories of life… losses and gains, sadness and joys, each accepting that our words have meaning and impact but life has more faces than either of us can label. Get to the root of the matter and you conclude… why label what you cant control when you have the option to stay positive about the things you can?

 What is it about Yaoska that swayed me into a spontaneous trip to visit while I know very well the difficulties involved in being together. I think more than anything it was her voice fluidly expressing emotions and ideas thoroughly and without hesitation. The relaxed feeling I’m lulled into by the distant whispers of unconditional happiness spoken from a woman who is genuine and caring. Perhaps also her strong features that emphasize the power of a delicate body. Maybe I am drawn to the idea that she has yet to be distracted by a capitalistic world that deforms priories and confuses relationships. Or maybe that she can still comfortably share a room with 3 sisters and a best friend. Whatever it was that called me down there it only grew as two weeks passed without a hesitation or complication between us.  Cheers to Nicaragua.

The AFTER PARTY

The end of each ski season ends with large parties and roudy skiers getting dressed up and and wasted in the mountains. Needless to say this season was no different and lots of fun. Bellow you see a few photos from Alta's High Boy party. Also the easter bunny getting his but kicked on Solitudes last day, what can you say gotta keep the good times rolling. CHEERS.

Wraping up Utah

Lets see the end of my season in Salt lake was pretty strait forward, Friends, Powder Skiing, Flips, and Yoga. Thats what I call good times enjoy the photos. 

Timpanogos

After a night of dancing at the Les Claypool Oddity Affair, I got the Text that Timpanogos was in the sights so I woke up at 4 after two hours of sleep and met up with Mark and Dan. It was a long day of fine navigation through and up some of the biggest mountains in the Wasatch. The final push along the ridge was intense but I found a rout and if  you look close you can see our tracks down the west face of Timpanogos, they come from the summit shack on the left.

Here I gave the OOO my god this is exposed face as I looked back at the ridge we were walking.

If those other pictures don't give you a good idea of the exposure this is the face you would fall down if a cornice broke out under you. Not the best way to go out if you F up but damn it makes your heart pump as you navigate the knife edge looking down that.

A great week

Last week was an Epic, starting with 2 feet of Blower Monday and Tuesday were true Utah powder days. Wednesday came around and Fantasy Ridge treated me right. This Photo is of the second cliff I jumped off over 60 ft that day. I think it was the smaller of the two but also for sure the faster. I was cooking by the time I made it to the ground.

 

Thursday we checked out powder mountain for the first time, 2 laps of cat skiing found us some good snow. Needless to say we broke the first rule on the board... 

It was great to meet up with our old ski coach Mandy.

We burned, then we turned...  a little bit at least.

Exploration till Sun Down

Zach and I had a great day Exploring White Baldy this week. We started late and ended just before it got dark. The snow conditions where all over the place but we managed to find this fun wave like feature to slash before hiking the ridge to the summit. 



If you cant see the passion in for nature, snowboarding, and photography in Zach's eyes look closer its there for sure.

The Pinnacle, Scary and So Fun

No doubt this line is one of the best of my life. I have been eyeing it for a while however its a tough one to get on because it constantly slides or gets melted off. The day I decided to ski it the snow was deep and blower. None the less some rocks got me on my last turn and what was just a big line turned into a crazy fast improvisation creating my first lincoln loop off a cliff. You can see my track on the left of the Pinnacle it comes out through the trees at the bottom of the cliff.

I was coming in fast riding the tails to try and avoid the shallow rocks on the break over.

None the less cranking on my last turn I couldn't help but get white roomed. That same moment my upper ski clipped the rock.

Here you can imagine I was running out of options. I was pretty much looking at the cliff, thinking, I don't want to roll down those rocks, then the trees, shit, I cant hit those trees.

So I popped off my downhill ski and flowed with it.

Yep I just flipped right out of danger right back to my feet.

Before I knew it I was zooming out of my bomb hole through a narrow gap in the trees into more pow turns.

Its moments like these that make me love skiing. Living life on the edge, creating unforgettable experiences, and being forced to act with mere milliseconds of time to make a decision.